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Rotary and Haiti Partnership
Written By: Mary Lou Bilbro - Rotary Club of Highlands | Issue: 2017/01 - Winter
Former Rotary Club of Highlands President Peter Ray reported to the club about the work that he and Highlander Jane Chalker provided to help establish a fish farm in Haiti.
Located in Lake Peligre, near the village of Cange, the project installed seven cages that each held 1,500 tilapia fingerlings. Tilapia are a popular food source with the Haitian people. They were chosen because they grow rapidly and can be quickly and easily sold at maturity, providing not only an important food source for the families in the program, but a sustainable industry. Each cage was supervised and maintained by a local family. At maturity, the fish are sold to provide support for that family as well as others in that impoverished area of Haiti.
Ray said that financial support was not only provided by the local Rotary Club but also by a Rotary District Grant and a grant from the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation as well as other private religious donations. Total cost of the program was $15,000.
This project was the brainchild of Mrs. Chalker, wife of Rotarian Selwyn Chalker, who has been a long-time advocate for and visitor to this area of Haiti. She and Peter Ray were joined by Paul Heckert, a recent graduate of Appalachian State University, who helped design the project and spent five months living in Cange overseeing it.
According to Ray, he has been to Haiti three times with Jane Chalker and others from North Carolina.
“It’s a difficult place to be, with extreme poverty and few structures to support the people,” Ray says. “While many of our visits have been focused on medical and dental care as well as agriculture, this project on fish farming is unique in that it holds the promise to be self-sustaining.”
