Bassin Bleu Community

Goats for Haiti…
This project was a big one and extra special, its costs were beyond the scope of Art Heart sales and instead became a family affair. Jenni Ward and her family pulled fundraising efforts together to help out Colin Augusnor (aka: Baba) a friend of Jenni’s in the remote village of Bassin Bleu Haiti. Our friend Baba and the community of Bassin Bleu wanted help raising funds to start a sustainable goat livestock program for the residents. Baba organized a committee to oversee the project and a group of 60 people who were interested in raising goats to provide milk and meat for their families. Each goat owner was given training and inoculations for the goats and in turn were expected to pay forward the first baby goat to the next recipient in the community.  This process will help create a sustainable income for families and eventually relief from foreign aid. Thanks to all of the support, we were able to provide Baba enough money for all 60 goats and extra money to donate to the school for much needed supplies.  Art heart sales were able to pitch in and provide a fun art class for all the students of the school to create name tags for their new goats!

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2014 UPDATE:  All the residents have received their training and all goats have been purchased. The program has been a success thus far and is being managed entirely by the committee and community of Bassin Bleu. The next step is to coordinate training for the women of the village to make cheese from the goat milk which they can sell at the market and provide more income for their families. A Haitian run organization called Let Agogo, which assists dairy farmers to get their product to market, will provide the training and help coordinate the building of the facility for cheese-making. Additional funds will be needed for building supplies and outfitting the kitchen. We are currently looking for an interested organization or individuals who would like to partner with the Bassin Bleu community and Let Agogo to make this a reality.  Please contact Jenni Ward if you are interested in helping. Thanks for the support!

2016 UPDATE: It is with deep sadness that I share news of the how badly Hurricane Matthew ravaged the Bassin Bleu community. Of the 60 original goats that were purchased, which quickly multiplied to over 200 goats, nearly all were killed in the hurricane. The good news is that no one in the community was killed or seriously injured in the storm and hopefully they can rebuild the goat population with the few that survived. Thank you for your continued support as we help this community rebuild.