Thank you to everyone who so generously gave in response to Beyond Borders’ Hurricane Matthew efforts. We are grateful for all that you are making possible through your generosity, your care, and your concern for families who lost so much when Hurricane Matthew struck Haiti on October 4, 2016. Below you can read detailed updates on the progress that families in Beyond Borders’ Hurricane Matthew Response Program are making, thanks to the generosity of donors like you. And if you have any questions about what you read here, please feel free to contact me anytime.

With deep gratitude,

David Diggs, Director & Co-Founder

Beyond Borders

(202) 686-2088

ddiggs@beyondborders.net

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Progress Update: Oct. 12, 2017 (scroll down for previous updates)

Thank you for supporting Beyond Borders’ Hurricane Matthew Response Program. We are so grateful for your generosity and your commitment to seeing that families on Lagonav Island in Haiti make a full recovery from Hurricane Matthew.

The goal of Beyond Borders’ Hurricane Matthew Response Program is to ensure that families are able to live independently and with dignity, with their children living at home and enrolled in a quality, nearby school.

Here’s an update on the kind of progress that families are making as they work to develop the means to provide for themselves.

At the beginning of the program, each of the 230 families we are working with, received two income-generating assets: either livestock to raise and breed, or funds to launch (or relaunch in some cases) a small business.

To ensure that each family succeeds in becoming economically independent, they are receiving:

regular training on how to manage their new assets,
help establishing a community-based savings account to use for future expenses, including emergencies,
weekly coaching visits from a dedicated caseworker to reinforce skills, build confidence and prepare them to handle any challenges, and,
access to healthcare to help keep the family healthy so they are able to keep working.

Today, the average total value of assets for families is $50!

To continue to grow their new assets, each family will develop a business plan with the help of their caseworker during the remaining months of the program.

Your generous support is making it possible for families to learn small business skills so that they can earn a living, provide for themselves, and keep their children in school and at home, where they belong.

Thank you again for your generosity, your care, and your concern for families on Lagonav Island devastated by Hurricane Matthew. You are giving them a path to a brighter future, filled with dignity, hope, opportunity, and independence.

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Progress Update: May 22, 2017

It’s now been seven months since Matthew struck Haiti. I’m so grateful that you’ve continued to stand with families on Lagonav Island.

Your generosity supports weekly visits with family life coaches for families that focus on training and reinforcement of critical topics ranging from nutrition, to health and sanitation, to small business management, to animal husbandry.

Thanks to your support, we’ve begun the distribution of 332 goats, 86 pigs, and 31 donkeys to families.

Here’s an update on the trainings and the progress that families are making thanks to you and your generous support.

Health

Along with rebuilding homes after the hurricane, Beyond Borders committed to ensuring that every family has proper sanitation. Nearly every destitute family that is being reached by this effort practiced open defecation because they lacked the means to construct even a simple latrine.

Waterborne disease is a leading killer in Haiti, especially among children. So, a portion of your support is allowing us to dig and build a sanitary latrine for each family. These new latrines will greatly reduce the risk of contracting a gastrointestinal illness or a deadly bacterial disease like cholera.

Thanks to your support, families attend weekly meetings conducted by Beyond Borders that cover a variety of health topics, including:

Health care before and after birth
Sanitation and latrines
Parasites
Vitamins
Vaccinations
Signs and treatment of malnutrition

Hunger

Having a more secure income — which we’ll talk about below — allows the families to enjoy a greater variety of food and a more balanced overall diet. This leads to improved health, lower medical expenses and less time lost from school for children.

Hunger, which was a constant reality for families before and immediately after the hurricane, is a thing of the past, thanks to your support. Families continue to receive a weekly stipend to help ensure that they don’t go hungry.

Economic Livelihoods

Having little or nothing after the storm, families are working with their life coach to identify and track specific, achievable economic goals, such as developing savings to purchase and raise goats, or raising and selling piglets from a pregnant sow, for example, so that later they can invest in an animal of greater value, like a mule or a cow.

Building on economic success is a huge boost to a family’s self-confidence and self-esteem within their community. This self confidence is a vital resource that will sustain them as they face future challenges.

Families meets regularly with other sponsored families to allow them to encourage one another and to build bonds of solidarity that will help sustain them after they complete the program. Soon, each family will join a community-based collective savings groups.

These collective savings groups not only promote solidarity among neighbors, but also provide each family with a greater measure of security that they never had before. It provides a resource in case of an emergency and helps families to increase their purchasing power to be able to invest in and grow their young businesses.

Thank you again for your generosity, your care, and your concern. Through your support, you are giving the families a path to a much brighter future, filled with dignity, hope, and opportunity.

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