While gangs control Port-au-Prince and dominate international headlines, life continues in rural Haiti where thousands of farming families are building soil, planting trees, and strengthening their communities. The question is not whether Haiti can survive its current crisis, but what is actually working on the ground for those who grow the food. We asked four members of the Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA) what mattered most on their farms this past year, and their answers reveal a different Haiti than the one in the news.

Thecius Saint Pierre (above), for example, did not hesitate to nominate compost as being most important. “This year I learned how to produce the best compost ever,” Thecius explained as he demonstrated how he aerates his compost pile. “Its how I fertilize my fields and I can already see the soil is better. It looks so healthy!” Thecius is one of more than 900 SFA farmers in three different parts of the country who are part of a special program to learn about and implement agroecological and regenerative agriculture principles and practices. While the SFA has always been organic, this new holistic system goes even further to rebuild the entire ecosystem from the ground up. The results speak for themselves: healthier soils that hold more water during droughts, reduced costs from buying fewer inputs, and crops that are more resilient to Haiti’s increasingly unpredictable weather. It’s farming that heals the land while feeding families.

Before answering the question, Sully Mirlanda insisted on first going to her market stall. Once there she said “This is my new business, and it happened because I got a micro loan from the SFA. That was the most important thing that happened this year because I needed extra money in addition to the farm. Now I am economically independent.” Sully is one of 922 women farmer members of the SFA to receive a low-interest loan this year. Recipients use these loans for agricultural purposes as well as in connection with off-farm small businesses that supplement farm incomes, as Sully did. The loans range from US$93 to $1,260 (in local currency), and every recipient also receives basic business training.

“Konbit” was Wilson Jeanty’s one word answer to what was most important for him this year. Asked what this Haitian term meant, he explained, “it is when your neighbors volunteer to help out. So when I planted my biggest field ever with beets, I couldn’t have done it without these extra hands to help me.” Wilson is both a recipient and participant in konbit, a tradition of volunteering to help out at planting and harvest time that is being brought back by the SFA. Reviving this practice is helping to restore rural community life.

Josette Saint Pierre said better quality seed was most important for her. “By planting trees with the SFA I earned good quality cabbage seeds,” she explained, “and my cabbages were the best I ever grew. And I got a high price for them in the market and sold them all.” Josette is one of 7,000 SFA members in 11 different communities across Haiti who all plant trees—just over 800,000 this year alone—in order to earn seed, tools and training to improve their farming operations. Over the course of 2026 there were 75,000 lbs of seed distributed to members, including the cabbage seed to Josette. Thecius, Sully, Wilson and Josette are not waiting for Haiti’s crisis to end before building better lives for their families. Through compost, micro loans, konbit, and quality seed, they are demonstrating what becomes possible when farmers receive the right support. We invite you to join them in this work with a year-end donation that will expand these programs to reach more farming families across Haiti who are ready to transform their land and their futures. Regards,