History of the Goat Program
The Goat Committee was formed to address the purchase, raising, breeding and financial benefits of goat farming in the chapel communities of Noyau, Feja, Boyer and Desvarieux..
Participants meet regularly, and bring in their goats for vaccination. Free medications are provided to new participants or up to one year. After that they must contribute a small amount to continue to receive
medications for their goats from the program. Participants are expected to bring the co-pay during each vaccination session.
It is important to remind the goat team in the U.S. that the HHH goat program remains
one of the most important and successful economic development programs in the
communities of Feja, Noyau, Desvarieux, and Boyer. This program may not be serving
the entire population of these communities directly, but indirectly it does. In fact, this
program represents the bank account of the families directly involved as well as their
close friends. When they sell a goat, the money is used to buy food and vegetables that they don’t have
in their garden and to also take care of all other economic expenses that they can afford
including school expenses.
As Haiti plunges deeper into this unprecedented instability, the rural communities are
becoming more and more isolated from the capital Port-au-Prince and the City of Saint
Marc where most imported goods are coming from. So now, subsistence farming which
includes grazing livestock is what keeps these communities running. That is why families
participating in the HHH goat program from the above-mentioned communities are so
grateful to the HHH group and the clergy of Saint Louis Parish.
Thank you to Brevil Romelus and Jean. J. Maurisset for contributing to this article.
