A Chatham-based church group has helped make daily struggles a little easier for families in Haiti.
Larry Forsyth, the lead pastor at Joshua Ministries, said they just recently returned from completing a major project in Trou-du-Nord. A group of nine people -- including Forsyth -- went to Haiti on January 25, 2019, and returned home February 1, 2019. Forsyth said the group was successful in installing a drip irrigation system powered by a windmill, which helps the agricultural community that is often faced with drought seasons.
"It's an agrarian type of society so everybody has a little patch hut and a little garden space or a little piece of land. They don't grow much of anything because it's so dry," said Forsyth. "This area probably accommodates about 5,000 people but it's the first of many projects."
Plans to build the irrigation system started about two years ago. Forsyth said they had to raise a lot of funds in order to get the parts for the project and then ship them to Haiti. The group sourced out a drip system from Heartnut Grove and a windmill from O'Brock Windmills in Ohio. However, some companies helped in more ways than one. The owner of Heartnut Grove, along with volunteers, joined Forsyth and a couple of people from Joshua Ministries in going to Haiti.
"[It took] two years in total to get all of the equipment there, through customs," said Forsyth. "The thing we did first was to organize a cooperative of people in Haiti through a church there.
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"We had to travel there twice over the last two years just to teach and organize the people, to find the land... we had to drill a well so we had that done last summer," he said. "This time we went as a team to assemble and to build."
Forsyth said it was important to have a good base in Haiti as the success of the project is heavily dependant on the locals once the volunteers returned home. Forsyth said he was told over the phone on Monday that the irrigation system was working great.
He said the irrigation system was originally going to be powered by generator but due to costs, it wasn't a viable option. The decision to power the system by windmill seemed to be the best option, however, it was something new for the volunteers.
"This is the first windmill we had ever built," said Forsyth. "The idea was to pull the water out of the well, up about 20 feet in the air and then syphon it off into the tanks. Then the pressure from the tanks would accommodate the pressure needed in the drip irrigation so there's no gasoline engines and no motors."
Forsyth said when the project was successfully completed, it was a moment that brought them close to tears.
"It just really is a wonderful thing to see people excited about growing food that they have never grown before," he said.
Looking ahead, Forsyth said they have a few more projects lined up where they will help build and teach Haitians how to erect a windmill and construct irrigation systems. Although this would help the agricultural community, it would also have an economic spin-off.
"It employs people to cultivate it," he said. "Then when they sell the produce at the market, they are supposed to give 10 per cent back to the local church to care for the social needs -- the people that are in even worse shape than the main society."
Before Forsyth and a group of volunteers go back to Haiti, some fundraising will need to be done. Forsyth said some companies have already contributed by sending parts to Haiti and more contributions can be made directly to Joshua Ministries.
"We really work hard in our own community to care for people through our organizations," he said. "We're a country that's really well off so I think we should help the poorer countries if we can."
