Wouzé Haiti
facts
Haiti had a population of
11.47
million in January 2021
Overview
Wouzé works with rural women farmers on the outskirts of one of the most degraded regions of Haiti, Department North-Ouest. With approximately 330,000 female farmers unable to provide basic necessities to their families, Wouzé brings much needed hope.
Jean Rabel, an area with tremendous need is located 264 km away from Haiti’s capital, Port-au- Prince, in the high altitude mountain ranges of the North-West. Isolated and frequently inaccessible due to poor road conditions, it is a shocking discovery that farmers go hungry. Unable to transport their produce to neighboring markets, here, we find women and their families struggling to survive. Trapped in a world of antiquated monoculture farming practices, food insecurity , seasonal droughts, lack of education, access to healthcare, water, energy and a politically unstable government unable to address the multitude of pressing issues they face, the people here are forgotten and left to fend for themselves. A poverty cycle ensured by children forced to work with their hands instead of going to school, hoping to secure their family’s future.
Wouzé brings much needed hope and opportunity where there is none to these communities. However, one of the biggest challenges of working in Haiti is how to cope with Haiti’s high vulnerability to natural disasters and how to respond. Agriculture, the base of the Haitian economy and source of wealth for most households, is threatened by climate changes and environmental degradation.
Women tell stories of a time when things were good one day only to be devastated the day after by hurricanes and thrown into a never-ending downward spiral.
Future
Wouzé brings long-awaited hope to these farmers with our mission to Grow Better Lives.
With women making up about 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, we expect that, if these women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 percent, raising total agricultural output in these countries by 2.5 to 4 percent. This would reduce the number of hungry people in the world by around 12 to 17 percent.
Join Wouzé in giving Haitian women farmers seeds that produce more crops, farm equipment to harvest better, and the business skills to empower their lives so they can build secure livelihoods, protect their environment and preserve their culture.