MPP’s signature tire garden on stilts. Photo courtesy of MPP.
The Presbyterian Hunger Program’s long-term partner Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) is receiving international attention for their food sovereignty work in Haiti. MPP is a grassroots organization that for decades has mobilized subsistence farmers to advocate for improved agrarian policies in the country while simultaneously training farmers in sustainable agriculture and agroforestry techniques that have improved food production and nutrition, increased incomes, reforested the landscape, and improved soil health and water catchment systems. And MPP has continued to do this important work in the eye of the storm, both literally and figuratively, whether that be the 2010 earthquake, Hurricane Matthew in 2016, or the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.
Presbyterian World Mission supported MPP’s home garden work with Mission Co-worker Mark Hare serving as an agricultural technician for years to build the capacities of farmers to turn small plots of land into efficient food gardens – work that continues to be supported by PHP. The Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) and PHP have partnered with MPP to provide locally produced seeds and tools to farmers in emergency times to ensure that rural populations can increase and improve food production in times of crisis. And both PDA and PHP supported MPP’s project to establish EcoVillages that welcomed home Haitians migrating from urban centers back to rural areas after the 2010 earthquake, where they were able to re-establish their lives as farmers. MPP is a founding member organization of FONDAMA, the Joining Hands network in Haiti.
Read more about the grassroots work that MPP is doing in Haiti and its impact on food sovereignty and the climate crisis in this recent article in The Guardian.
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