Gift-a-Goat is back again!

19389671_10154917880614671_1145034282_n — Gift a Goat to a student in Haiti

Gift-a-goat is back once again! Check out our online fundraiser! And read on for a little more background on why this project is so important!

Since 2014, my sister, Helene, and I have been working in partnership with Faith and Love in Action to provide female goats to Students in Marbial, Haiti.

Marliane, founder of Faith and Love in Action (FLA), was originally from Marbial, Haiti. She received an education because her Grandmother took her to a larger town to go to school. Marlaine understands the importance of education, so she started a school for 30 children in Marbial in 2004. That small kindergarten class has grown and now the school educates up to 10th grade with 501 students, ranging from 4- 20 years old.

Marbial is extremely remote. The children that attend school live in small homes spread out among the mountain ridges and valleys,shown in the photo below. A large number of the older children walk from a community deeper in the mountains on small footpaths that take them about 2 hours one-way. The passion these kids have for education is evidence of how Marlaine has worked tirelessly to provide a future in the same community where she was born.

FLA manages the in-country logistics, getting the goats from local markets and transporting them to Marbial, Haiti. We fund the purchase of the goats with our “Gift a Goat” fundraiser, Helene teaches the students on how to properly care for the goats and we have various livestock volunteers work with us over the years. Our last trip in July, we had Doctor Melinda (our volunteer vet from Georgia), who worked hard to vaccinate, deworm and tag the goats before gifting them to the students. The students can then breed the goats and sell them in the market for money to support their families and education or use the milk as another source of food.

If you would like to help us fund the goats, check out our online fundraiser!

Here is a nice little video to introduce you to Marlaine and our programs (thank you, Melissa, for putting this all together!)

One of the students in our program who now has two goats in her herd!

Another student with his goat that was pregnant when we were there in July!

Ok, this post is about Haiti, but back to Panama really quick. I took this during my final flight to Panama on a single-prop 12-seater last week. I haven’t been on a plane this small since South Sudan…and it was so fun!