Since I returned from Haiti on the 6th, I’ve been jamming on a sweet little editorial project and finishing up an annual report. I’m in the midst of a rebranding for my business with a new logo for me and aerial stock, plus new web site, portfolios, cards and approach to images. Yes there will be a new blog also. So changes are afoot at Cameron Davidson and Company.
The first part of my trip to Haiti was spent photographing CCH projects in Jacmel and the surrounding area of the Southeastern catchment. After two days, our Executive Director Karen Carr, Agronomist Rubinste St. Louis, Julia and Katherin Ligget and myself flew to Pignon in the central plateau.
CCH has a long history in Pignon. The core nurses and doctors visited Pignon in 1987 and have continued to support the hospital there for most of the intervening years. My first visit to Pignon was in 1999. This trip to Haiti was my 14th since then.
In Pignon, CCH has an innovative school garden program where children in grades 3 to 6 learn how to grow vegetables as part of their lunch program. Lumeres Altidor is a student of the Meredith School in Pignon and taught his father, Lumeus how to grow vegetables. Mr. Altidor dug this small well next to his house in order to water the vegetables he started growing last year.
Mr. Alitdor lives outside of Pignon on a small plot of land with his wife and children. He has started to sell hot peppers and used part of his earnings to purchase shoes for his children. Our team were bouncing along in the back of a pick-up truck on the way to Bayi to visit a community garden project when Rubinste, the staff agronomist for CCH spotted Mr. Altidor in his back yard. We piled out, an invading force of sorts and spent some time visiting his family and learning how well his garden was growing.
To my eye at least fifty percent of his small plot was covered in vegetables. Rows and rows of carrots, peppers, tomatoes, bok choy and cucumbers were planted between his home and the ever present Haitian Cactus fence that surrounds most homes.
The seeds were given to Mr. Altidor as part of CCH’s programs to teach Haitians how to become self-sufficient. If you are interested in CCH’s Rural Renewal and agricultural programs, please follow this link.
