The St. Boniface Haiti Foundation has begun to construct freshwater tilapia fish farms to provide a self-sustaining source of nutritious food in the mountainous areas in our catchment area. Food for the Poor is providing the funding and expertise for this project and we are working with the local peasant cooperative, RATRAP, to implement the project.

In the extremely dry mountainous areas local farmers must rely at times on poor crop yields to survive. Most of the people are without access to vital protein sources and local agriculture is overly reliant on low annual rainfalls. Incomes for desperately poor families in these villages are dependent on charcoal, adding to the environmental degradation that deforestation and erosion bring.

The freshwater tilapia fish farms will ease the nutritional and economic burden on communities in the catchment area. Local rivers are used as the project’s water source and runoff from the ponds will be used to irrigate a tree nursery attached to the ponds. The fish farms will increase the spending power of local communities, as well as provide vital food to combat the malnutrition that continues to devastate the people.