Cooperation - Haiti Observer Blog

With their belief that the Gospel cannot exist in tandem with misery CPFSI, and its founder Brother Franklin Armand, began a program that has turned life around for the inhabitants of one village in the Haitian city of Hinche.

With the entire country facing economic difficulties, exacerbated by the vicious cycle of agricultural deforestation, residents of Pandiassou, a small settlement in Haiti's Central Plateau, have benefited from the efforts of the missionary and their campaign to turn around the ability of the peasantry to sustain themselves in today's socio-economic climate.

Started over 25 years before, the Congregation of Little Brothers and Sisters of the Incarnate (CPFSI) first began by aiding the peasantry to feed itself. Once the immediate needs were met they set about making this abundance self-sustainable and stamping out the crippling dependency on food aid. What they established was a Konbit-like system of community farming that maximized the efficiency of the community's production. Unlike a traditional Konbit, the peasants are instrumental in the planning stages, which manifests in a more successfully cooperative undertaking.

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Against the wishes of many, Haiti, led by then president René Préval, began dealings with Cuba and Fidel Castro. As part of a trilateral cooperate between the two countries and Venezuela, Castro facilitated an aid package to Haiti that would include oil and energy solutions, medical and disaster support, education, etc.

During Préval's first turn as president, after the September 1998 hurricane Georges had ravaged the country and left a cholera outbreak, 500 Cuban doctors were sent to give aid. Described by Préval as second only to God in their healing abilities, the gift was looked on suspiciously by others claiming the intention was to either steal jobs or spread the 'communist influence'. Following Rene Preval's personal experience of the Cuban health system and a second visit of the doctors in the wake of 2010's cholera outbreak, Préval awarded the Cuban Medical Brigade, and by extension Castro, with the country's highest honor, the National Order of Honor and Merit in the grade of Grand Officer. Hundreds of thousands had been infected; the death toll nearly 5000, but the efforts of the Cuban doctors had saved the lives of over 73,000 Haitians.

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