Drew's Perspective

After I started working at Global Health Action last year [in 2008, as the Director of Development], I read the reports from the field so I could know the impact stories of how GHA’s trainings and programs are making a difference in Haiti, Africa, China, the U.S., and elsewhere around the world. With the stories and reports from GHA’s long-running Haitian Goat Program, I was initially struck by the similarity of people’s experiences.

They were all stories of improved nutrition and of families selling extra goats to pay for what sounded like basic necessities. It seemed like the names might change - whether Fancique Mertilus or Plaisimon Salomon - but the stories were more or less the same: Fancique or Plaisimon became successful goat farmers, built up their herds, and used the income from selling extra goats to pay for medicines, repair their homes, buy new clothes, send their children to school, etc.

It took me awhile to appreciate what that meant for them and, perhaps more importantly, to recognize what would be missing from their lives if they hadn’t been part of the program.

It might sound basic or repetitive, but for most families in rural Haiti there’s nothing mundane about being able to afford medicine or school supplies or a new roof. Raising and selling extra goats for a few hundred dollars can make an enormous difference in the lives of a Haitian family.

We invite people to donate to GHA to “Give a Goat,” but it’s not really about the goat. It’s about what that goat represents for a Haitian family - Better health. Education. A brighter future.