Rotarians buy goats for poor in Haiti
5/12/2008 11:55 PM   1 comment(s) on this story E-mail this story to a friend

By ROB NOVIT
Senior writer
About a dozen members of the Rotary Club of Aiken pooled their money at a club meeting Monday and bought two goats. Really.
Those seated at two of the tables following the meeting collected $300, which will be used by two Haitian families to purchase one goat each.
"You're putting them on their feet with a goat. You're helping them really establish a livelihood," said Gillaine Warne, a guest speaker with her husband Charles.
The Greenville couple, originally from Australia, for the past nine years have been actively involved with Partners in Health - a non-profit organization that focuses on the poor in seven countries. The Warnes do mission work in Haiti, with Gillaine Warne spending about three months a year there.
Her husband, owner of a risk management firm, is a member of the Greenville Rotary Club, a strong supporter of Partners in Haiti. The couple is seeking additional support from Rotary clubs throughout District 7750, which includes Aiken County.
With a PowerPoint presentation, Gillaine Warne depicted the grim reality of desperate poverty and malnutrition in Haiti - as well as a feeling of hope.
In the coastal plateau where she works, Warne initially found an astonishing and devastating lack of food and families living in squatter settlements. She was given a three-acre plot and demonstrated how the residents could become self-sufficient.
Over the years since then, a program with 16 "agents agrikol" has been established. Haitian families are taught farming methods and provided with tools, seeds, fruit, forest trees and the goat. All families have been able to improve the land by 67 percent and produce food. The families pay back grants and provide a goat to another household starting out.
That's really important, Warne said. She showed pictures of families in the most severe circumstances, and they would not look at the camera because of their humiliation of despair. As their situations improve, "they're standing upright and holding their heads up."
Partners in Health is also tackling rampant malnutrition, which affects more than 20 percent of the children.
More than 4,000 children have been enrolled in a program that provides them with food medications. One is a peanut-based product, supplemented with multi-vitamins and powdered milk. The other is a grain and corn product and both have helped their children tremendously, Warne said.
The volunteers and organizations want to increase the number of children served with the two food products, as well as the number of families becoming more self-sufficient.
"We do need your help," Warne said.
Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.

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