Egg Laying Hens for Haitian Families

The children continue to reap the benefits of the chicken and egg program and we added more hens to keep up with demand!   90 hens have been added to the flock in order to increase the number of eggs available to secondary students as well as expand the hen program to the primary school. We have 100 secondary students enrolled for the 2014-2015 school year— 45 boys and 55 girls—who receive one egg a day. If there are extra eggs, students often offer them to the 13 secondary school teachers, or other community members such as other children playing around the school that are in elementary school or adults that live nearby.

The 100 students in the secondary school come from 78 families. These families benefit from having their children receive meals at the school, which lessens their burden. One third of the households in Matenwa are run by single women, so an average of 130 adults were helped indirectly. There are also 2 adult women and their families who prepare pate (a fried dough) 2 days a week to accompany the eggs. On other days, the school helps the local economy by buying bread from the local bakery which employs several community members to run the bakery and distribute the bread. This is eaten with the eggs.

This quarter we finished building the exploratory chicken coop. We contracted 16 builders. We also contracted an expert basket weaver to teach several of the secondary school students how to weave baskets for the hens to lay their eggs.  When we have to repair, or make new nests in the future, we now have students who are capable of this skill. Students have now gained a specialized skill that will not only be useful in the school setting, but also personally. This technical skill will provide students opportunities to create inexpensive sellable products that can help generate income. The next step is to have the secondary school students teach the upper primary school students how to weave. All of the hens have nests to lay their eggs in now which also provides more protection for the eggs.There are 16 baskets in each coop.

Student Spotlight: 

Geralson is a promising student in the sixth grade. He is fourteen years old. He lives with his aunt Margaret, who took him and one of his sisters into her home several years ago. Including himself, there are 10 children in his family. Margaret is one of the cooks for the school. She has taken in many children over the years to help them and their parents who had lesser means and could not take care of them.

Geralson is a very curious and competent student, all his teachers sing his praises. Last April, when the first set of hens arrived at MCLC, he was one of the students who met the truck and unloaded the crates of hens. He was eager to help around the coop construction site where the slat doors were being finished as the sun went down and a basket weaver was constructing the first nests in which the chickens would lay their eggs. Geralson made a couple baskets before it was completely dark and set them up in the coop. This past March, the basket weaver returned to MCLC to teach the new tenth grade class how to make the laying baskets, and Geralson was one of the students who volunteered to learn to be a trainer. He helped make several of the baskets and looks forward to sharing his knowledge with others who want to learn from him. He is learning to teach, and teaching to learn.