Maniche Community Update

This community update is straight from our 410 Bridge Staff in Haiti

Project / Programs Currently Running:

• Water project  
• Sponsorship program  
• Goat project  
• Economic development  
• Cow project launch

Latest update for the community as a whole: 

Water project:

• The water system used in the past by the community were causing a lot of problems. The population would receive water from the kiosk by paying for it. They could buy a 5 gallon bucket of water for 2.5 gourdes. After analysis, the source of the problem was identified as the previous committee. Once the committee was replaced by new staff members, the system was much more profitable (economically) for the community.

Sponsorship program:

• The schools received payment from the 410 Bridge accounting department for the last period. The teachers need to be trained, but they could not be there due to the political crisis that happened in the country. We have built a data base for each student, which will help set up the annual evaluation at the beginning of the academic year.

• This evaluation helps give an idea of the evolution of the sponsorship program, in terms of how it progresses in the community.  Of a total of 547 children from 3 schools, there are only 43 children being sponsored, 504 still don’t have a sponsor. More detail in the table below.

#	School name	Comm-unity	Number o-f children	Sponsor-ed kids	Unsponsor-ed kids
1	College Moderne- des Sciences	Manich-e	203	3	200
2	Methodiste de Da-sma	Manich-e	76	2	74
3	Ecole MEBSH de Maniche	Manich-e	268	38	230
4	Total		547	43	504

Goat Project:

• There are 150 families involved in the goat project. The LC has defined a strategic plan going forward with the sustainability of the project in the community.  In response to the agreement that has been signed among the goat beneficiaries and the LCs, every beneficiary must give in exchange, one goat, after the baby goat is born. For this quarter there were a total of 27 male and female goats given from the beneficiaries to the LC. The 17 female goats were distributed to 17 new beneficiaries, and the LC kept the 10 males. This project has positively impacted Maniche.  

#	Activi-ty	Amount	Beneficiary	Purpose
1	Female goat distribution	17	MOCOM Member	Gift exchang-e to new be-neficiaries
2	Male goat distribution	10	LC	LC can sell s-ome of them to buy femal-es and keep sharing wit-h the benefic-iaries or use the profit to solve other problems in the organization/commu-nity.

• On June 17^th, we organized a gift exchange activity with the Immanuel church. 11 people received a goat, including Pastor Brian who received the goat on behalf of the 410 Bridge US team. This goat was used for the community meal, so the people on the team were very excited to receive and share the goat. After the event, the US team took a picture with all of the beneficiaries.

Economic Development:

• The Leadership Council is starting to work on identifying people who will be part of the BST training that will take place in the community from July 1^st to July 30^th.  

• The 410 Bridge worked on a survey to identify different churches for the savings group extension, especially the community of Maniche. 

Cow project:

• The cow project is set to start at the beginning of July. The total cost is around 19,129 US dollars and the community contribution is $2480. We estimate a total of  37 cows, 35 female and 2 male. 

Biggest challenge community is facing if any? 

• The biggest challenge in the community is finances, parents are struggling to pay school fees. 

Story of a beneficiary with quote: 

• BRISSON Benjamin is a beneficiary of a female goat in the first distribution, so 4 baby goats have now been born. It is a big income source for him, the goat helps to buy schools supplies for the children, and he is ready to share in gift exchange to someone else. So, he is so grateful toward the USA 410 Bridge and 410 Bridge-Haiti. Without them he would not get this opportunity. He hopes the people who receive the goat will share exchange gift to others. 

How can we be praying for the community? 

• Pray for change happen in the community specially the Cow project and goat can be extended so that the socio-economic life of the people can improve and impact more and more people.  
• Pray for more kids to get sponsored