Visit this page often for updates and information about our currently active projects and opportunities including information on how you can get involved.
Mount of Olives Development Project in Northwest Haiti
This project was started in 2014 and consists of a long term effort to help instill the development process into the community lives of the churches of Mont des Oliviers (Mount of Olives). We work primarily with Fenyer Molme who is the pastor of the Sou Roach church, his son Jean Marc Molme who is currently attending seminary in Florida, and the leaders of the churches in Mont des Oliviers. For more on the development process please see our Asset Based Church Community Development page.
The first step in establishing the development process in the Mont des Oliviers community, as with any community, was to select an initial development project to use as the starting point. After consultation with leaders and members of the community it was decided that the first development project would be an effort to improve the methods of chicken husbandry in the community. Existing techniques consisted of very small flocks of free range birds fed small amounts of surplus grains but mostly foraging for their own feed. These birds were generally provided with either very poor shelter or no shelter at all. The end goal of existing chicken husbandry efforts was neither egg production nor meat production but rather the maintenance chickens as a form of family saving. In other words, the birds where kept as an investment against future need with all egg production going to chick production in an effort to replace losses due to disease and predation while adult birds were not used for food but rather for sale in the market to raise cash in times of need. Initial researched indicted that the community faced many challenges with their existing chicken husbandry methods. The challenges include disease, nutrition, shelter, predation, and a lack of basic essential knowledge about rearing chickens.
Having identified the initial project and the challenges faced by the community we then conducted an initial catalog of the assets of the community. We found that most community members had sufficient land for a small flock of chickens. The demand for both eggs and live birds was very high in the region with good access to the markets and good opportunities to export eggs and birds to other markets in the regions should the local market eventually become saturated. The local chickens were found to be robust general purpose birds especially well-suited to egg production and the rearing of their own young. While the meat production of the local birds was not good it was found that the local market placed a premium on these birds for their meat quality and general versatility thus providing for a good market for adult birds despite their lack of good meat potential. It was also found that there was sufficient local grain production to support the dietary needs of the chickens.
Having evaluated the community’s needs and opportunities for development, selected an initial project, and completed an initial inventory of the community’s assets we next turned our attention to identifying the single greatest limiting factor or set of related factors in local chicken husbandry efforts. The solution to this single greatest limiting factor is what is known as a “technology”. In this context, we use the term technology to refer to an approach to solving a problem. As explained on our Asset Based Church Community Development page, it is important with each step forward in development work to select either one simple new “technology” or a small set of complementary new “technologies” to be introduced into the life of the community. This new technology must be as limited as possible and should offer a very high probably of recognizable success in the hopes that this “technology” will successfully improve the life of the community and will do so in a way that starts to build enthusiasm in the community for the idea of development as a desirable possibility. By contrast, were we to have attempted to simultaneous address all of the challenges to improving chicken husbandry in the community we almost certainly would have ended up taking on more than the community could handle with the result that we would have failed to produce recognizable success and this would have led to a deepening of the sense of fatalism in the community which is the exact opposite of the enthusiasm that we are looking for.
Our research indicated that the single biggest limiting factor in local chicken husbandry was the lack of affordable sources for protein in chicken feed. It was also determined that a “technology” that addresses this issue would have a very high probability for timely recognizable success. Importing commercial chicken feed was not an option. The feed costs more to purchase than can be covered by the profits of small holding chick husbandry and the added cost of transportation renders such an option completely hopeless. Research by Two Age Development found that numerous scientific studies have found that the leave and other plant parts of the Moringa Oleifera tree, when added to the existing feed components available in the region, would provide all the missing nutrients required by the chicken. Further research found that the tree grows well in the region already and the leaves can be dried and stored with ease. We also found reports from field trials that indicated that using Moringa tree leaves to replace 100% of the more traditional protein sources in commercial chicken feed had only a slight effect on egg and meat production and was a very desirable option in regions where commercial feeds are unavailable or too expensive.
At this time, we are conducting very successful trials using Moringa tree leaves with readily available grains to produce an affordable and nutritious chicken feed. Egg and chick production have been very successful. We are also in the process of building a set of demonstrator chicken coops and houses to be used to teach classes in later phases of the project to improve chicken husbandry methods in the community. It is our hope to begin providing classes with hands on training and Moringa tree seeds to allow the students to plant their own Moringa trees. The plan is to have them sell their first crop of leaves in order to get the funds to procure their first birds and any other items such as feed grain that they many need to get started with their own flocks. From here, each successful student will be invited to a series of classes designed to take them through the process of addressing the additional “technologies” required to fully optimize their chicken husbandry efforts.
Currently, we need funding for the following elements in this project:
· Construction of various demonstrator chicken shelters.
· Development of a local para-veterinarian to provide vaccinations and basic veterinary services.
· Materials and logistical support for classes.
Hurricane Matthew Recovery Project
Hurricane Matthew came to Haiti in 2016. Its main landfall was in the Southwest of Haiti but its secondary landfall in the Northwest was devastating none-the-less. Unfortunately for the Northwest, the greater damage and presence of larger cities in the Southwest have meant that almost all the recovery efforts after hurricane Matthew have been directed to the Southwest and the Northwest has been almost totally neglected. As a result, felled trees are not being replaced, destroyed houses are not being rebuilt, the ecological devastation in the region is accelerating and many families that have made their homes in the Northwest for generations are leaving the area for good. In most cases, they will find nothing but the hopeless dead end of the slums awaiting them upon their arrival in Port-au-Prince.
Sustainable development in the Church community is our primary goal in the Northwest and in our pursuit of this goal we strive to avoid both giving the communities anything they can procure for themselves and doing anything for them that they can do for themselves. We firmly believe that this approach is absolutely vital in order to avoid dependency and paternalism. However, just because our primary work is in the area of development this does not mean that we never encounter legitimate needs for relief and recovery. (Relief being defined as “stopping the bleeding” after a disaster in order to preserve life and recovery being defined as the process of getting people back to where they were before the disaster struck.) The immediate relief needs resulting from hurricane Matthew have passed and our organization is much too small to have been able to help address these needs. What remains are recovery needs. Many members of the Church communities that we work with in our development work have had their homes destroyed or severely damaged by the hurricane. Thus, we are currently involved in a short term recovery project in Northwest Haiti to attempt to help the neediest members of the Church community who have been rendered homeless by the hurricane.
The churches of Mont des Oliviers have identified the families with the greatest need. They will evaluate each family’s home and provide appropriate assistance with repairs. The plan is to complete repairs starting with those who have the most limited resources and continuing as funding permits. We are accepting designated gifts for this project at this time. We will provide updates on this project here and on our Facebook page at https://web.facebook.com/twoagedevelopment.
Fostering ABCCD through the Sister Church Program
As an integral part of our Asset Based Church Community Development work in Haiti we are seeking churches in the United States that will invest the time and effort to develop a sister church relationship with one of the Haitian Congregations that we are working with. We strive to establish these relationships as permanent, one-to-one, healthy, mutually edifying relationships between co-equal local congregations of the Body of Christ.
For those congregations in the States that choose to become one of our sister churches we will provide extensive onsite and remote training to help them better understand and pursue their relationship with their Haitian sister congregation. Church members who have completed the initial training will be invited to come to Haiti as “ambassadors” to visit the Haitian congregations that do not yet have a sister church and help decide what congregation to partner with.
US based churches participating in the sister church program are asked to commit to the following:
2 - All ambassadors must complete the training before going to Haiti.
3 - All ambassadors are asked to raise or otherwise provide funding for their own trip plus 25% of the cost to help their sister church send an ambassador to the States.
2 - Assist with procurement of temporary visas for the Haitian sister church’s ambassadors.
3 - Provide host families for their Haitian sister church’s ambassadors
4 - Complete preliminary training on hosting of Haitian ambassadors
5 - Complete a follow-up program to maximize their church’s benefits from their ambassador hosting opportunity.
6 - Establish and maintain an ongoing commitment to pray for their Haitian sister church.
There are also a few things that US churches participating in our sister church program should NOT plan to do as part of their sister church relationship:
As you can see from this brief presentation of our sister church program, it is not for everyone and any church desiring to participate needs to do a lot studying and learning before actually committing to the program. If you think your church might be interested please contact us and we will help you begin the process of pursuing a sister church relationship.
Mount of Olives Development Project in Northwest Haiti
This project was started in 2014 and consists of a long term effort to help instill the development process into the community lives of the churches of Mont des Oliviers (Mount of Olives). We work primarily with Fenyer Molme who is the pastor of the Sou Roach church, his son Jean Marc Molme who is currently attending seminary in Florida, and the leaders of the churches in Mont des Oliviers. For more on the development process please see our Asset Based Church Community Development page.
The first step in establishing the development process in the Mont des Oliviers community, as with any community, was to select an initial development project to use as the starting point. After consultation with leaders and members of the community it was decided that the first development project would be an effort to improve the methods of chicken husbandry in the community. Existing techniques consisted of very small flocks of free range birds fed small amounts of surplus grains but mostly foraging for their own feed. These birds were generally provided with either very poor shelter or no shelter at all. The end goal of existing chicken husbandry efforts was neither egg production nor meat production but rather the maintenance chickens as a form of family saving. In other words, the birds where kept as an investment against future need with all egg production going to chick production in an effort to replace losses due to disease and predation while adult birds were not used for food but rather for sale in the market to raise cash in times of need. Initial researched indicted that the community faced many challenges with their existing chicken husbandry methods. The challenges include disease, nutrition, shelter, predation, and a lack of basic essential knowledge about rearing chickens.
Having identified the initial project and the challenges faced by the community we then conducted an initial catalog of the assets of the community. We found that most community members had sufficient land for a small flock of chickens. The demand for both eggs and live birds was very high in the region with good access to the markets and good opportunities to export eggs and birds to other markets in the regions should the local market eventually become saturated. The local chickens were found to be robust general purpose birds especially well-suited to egg production and the rearing of their own young. While the meat production of the local birds was not good it was found that the local market placed a premium on these birds for their meat quality and general versatility thus providing for a good market for adult birds despite their lack of good meat potential. It was also found that there was sufficient local grain production to support the dietary needs of the chickens.
Having evaluated the community’s needs and opportunities for development, selected an initial project, and completed an initial inventory of the community’s assets we next turned our attention to identifying the single greatest limiting factor or set of related factors in local chicken husbandry efforts. The solution to this single greatest limiting factor is what is known as a “technology”. In this context, we use the term technology to refer to an approach to solving a problem. As explained on our Asset Based Church Community Development page, it is important with each step forward in development work to select either one simple new “technology” or a small set of complementary new “technologies” to be introduced into the life of the community. This new technology must be as limited as possible and should offer a very high probably of recognizable success in the hopes that this “technology” will successfully improve the life of the community and will do so in a way that starts to build enthusiasm in the community for the idea of development as a desirable possibility. By contrast, were we to have attempted to simultaneous address all of the challenges to improving chicken husbandry in the community we almost certainly would have ended up taking on more than the community could handle with the result that we would have failed to produce recognizable success and this would have led to a deepening of the sense of fatalism in the community which is the exact opposite of the enthusiasm that we are looking for.
Our research indicated that the single biggest limiting factor in local chicken husbandry was the lack of affordable sources for protein in chicken feed. It was also determined that a “technology” that addresses this issue would have a very high probability for timely recognizable success. Importing commercial chicken feed was not an option. The feed costs more to purchase than can be covered by the profits of small holding chick husbandry and the added cost of transportation renders such an option completely hopeless. Research by Two Age Development found that numerous scientific studies have found that the leave and other plant parts of the Moringa Oleifera tree, when added to the existing feed components available in the region, would provide all the missing nutrients required by the chicken. Further research found that the tree grows well in the region already and the leaves can be dried and stored with ease. We also found reports from field trials that indicated that using Moringa tree leaves to replace 100% of the more traditional protein sources in commercial chicken feed had only a slight effect on egg and meat production and was a very desirable option in regions where commercial feeds are unavailable or too expensive.
At this time, we are conducting very successful trials using Moringa tree leaves with readily available grains to produce an affordable and nutritious chicken feed. Egg and chick production have been very successful. We are also in the process of building a set of demonstrator chicken coops and houses to be used to teach classes in later phases of the project to improve chicken husbandry methods in the community. It is our hope to begin providing classes with hands on training and Moringa tree seeds to allow the students to plant their own Moringa trees. The plan is to have them sell their first crop of leaves in order to get the funds to procure their first birds and any other items such as feed grain that they many need to get started with their own flocks. From here, each successful student will be invited to a series of classes designed to take them through the process of addressing the additional “technologies” required to fully optimize their chicken husbandry efforts.
Currently, we need funding for the following elements in this project:
· Construction of various demonstrator chicken shelters.
· Development of a local para-veterinarian to provide vaccinations and basic veterinary services.
· Materials and logistical support for classes.
Hurricane Matthew Recovery Project
Hurricane Matthew came to Haiti in 2016. Its main landfall was in the Southwest of Haiti but its secondary landfall in the Northwest was devastating none-the-less. Unfortunately for the Northwest, the greater damage and presence of larger cities in the Southwest have meant that almost all the recovery efforts after hurricane Matthew have been directed to the Southwest and the Northwest has been almost totally neglected. As a result, felled trees are not being replaced, destroyed houses are not being rebuilt, the ecological devastation in the region is accelerating and many families that have made their homes in the Northwest for generations are leaving the area for good. In most cases, they will find nothing but the hopeless dead end of the slums awaiting them upon their arrival in Port-au-Prince.
Sustainable development in the Church community is our primary goal in the Northwest and in our pursuit of this goal we strive to avoid both giving the communities anything they can procure for themselves and doing anything for them that they can do for themselves. We firmly believe that this approach is absolutely vital in order to avoid dependency and paternalism. However, just because our primary work is in the area of development this does not mean that we never encounter legitimate needs for relief and recovery. (Relief being defined as “stopping the bleeding” after a disaster in order to preserve life and recovery being defined as the process of getting people back to where they were before the disaster struck.) The immediate relief needs resulting from hurricane Matthew have passed and our organization is much too small to have been able to help address these needs. What remains are recovery needs. Many members of the Church communities that we work with in our development work have had their homes destroyed or severely damaged by the hurricane. Thus, we are currently involved in a short term recovery project in Northwest Haiti to attempt to help the neediest members of the Church community who have been rendered homeless by the hurricane.
The churches of Mont des Oliviers have identified the families with the greatest need. They will evaluate each family’s home and provide appropriate assistance with repairs. The plan is to complete repairs starting with those who have the most limited resources and continuing as funding permits. We are accepting designated gifts for this project at this time. We will provide updates on this project here and on our Facebook page at https://web.facebook.com/twoagedevelopment.
Fostering ABCCD through the Sister Church Program
As an integral part of our Asset Based Church Community Development work in Haiti we are seeking churches in the United States that will invest the time and effort to develop a sister church relationship with one of the Haitian Congregations that we are working with. We strive to establish these relationships as permanent, one-to-one, healthy, mutually edifying relationships between co-equal local congregations of the Body of Christ.
For those congregations in the States that choose to become one of our sister churches we will provide extensive onsite and remote training to help them better understand and pursue their relationship with their Haitian sister congregation. Church members who have completed the initial training will be invited to come to Haiti as “ambassadors” to visit the Haitian congregations that do not yet have a sister church and help decide what congregation to partner with.
US based churches participating in the sister church program are asked to commit to the following:
- Host training for their members in order to equip themselves to participate fully in the sister church program. This training includes book studies, hosted onsite training sessions lead by Two Age Development staff, and remote / online training sessions.
- Regularly send ambassadors to their sister congregation.
2 - All ambassadors must complete the training before going to Haiti.
3 - All ambassadors are asked to raise or otherwise provide funding for their own trip plus 25% of the cost to help their sister church send an ambassador to the States.
- Conduct trip follow-up efforts in order to process the experiences of the tip and share the information with the entire church.
- Formulate and implement a program to instill the development process in their local congregation in much that same way as their sister church is doing in Haiti. Naturally, the nature of the development work will be very different for a US based church but it is absolutely vital that our US based sister churches be engaged in the same development process as their Haitian sister churches. Otherwise, a healthy mutually edifying relationship between two co-equal congregations will not be possible. For more information on what the development process might look like for your congregation please see our Asset Based Church Community Development page but consider how this process could be applied to your church.
- Host ambassadors from their Haitian sister church. As part of this item the church should plan to do the following:
2 - Assist with procurement of temporary visas for the Haitian sister church’s ambassadors.
3 - Provide host families for their Haitian sister church’s ambassadors
4 - Complete preliminary training on hosting of Haitian ambassadors
5 - Complete a follow-up program to maximize their church’s benefits from their ambassador hosting opportunity.
6 - Establish and maintain an ongoing commitment to pray for their Haitian sister church.
There are also a few things that US churches participating in our sister church program should NOT plan to do as part of their sister church relationship:
- The US church should never give anything to their Haitian sister church or the ambassadors that they host.
- The US church should never do anything for their Haitian sister church that they can do for themselves.
- The US church should not expect to send teams down to do project work.
- The US church should not send “troubled” members to Haiti in order to permit them to have a “Come to Jesus” experience.
- The US church should not regard themselves as the “giver” in the relationship nor should the regard their Haitian sister church as the “receiver” in the relationship.
- The US church should not regard the sister church relationship as an opportunity to proselytize their Haitian sister church in order to bring them into accord with the doctrines and practices of the US sister church.
As you can see from this brief presentation of our sister church program, it is not for everyone and any church desiring to participate needs to do a lot studying and learning before actually committing to the program. If you think your church might be interested please contact us and we will help you begin the process of pursuing a sister church relationship.