We were delighted to have Ed Raine, President & CEO of Food for the Poor, as our guest speaker. One of the most important things they do as a large, multi-national organization is just as their brand declares: to feed the poor. He provided us with a horrific example of the conditions that are present in places such as Port au Prince, Haiti that exist today and shown in the following images.
Food for the Poor is a $155 million a year operation that focuses their services in three main areas: 1) Relief (including food, medicine and water), 2) Rehabilitation (including housing and water wells and 3) Social Transformation (including programmatic solutions and income generating activities. Here is a diagram that shows these three focus areas.
These services are provided in the following 17 Caribbean countries:
The great thing about Food for the Poor is that their goal is to create sustainable livelihoods for people in these Caribbean countries. They begin with providing food to prevent starvation but then move to provide clean water and housing and, finally, work to build sustainable livelihoods as shown in the following images:
Past President Vanessa Havener is working with Ed to link their organization with to the HANWASH program that is a Rotary supported program to construct facilities to provide clean water to all of Haiti.