* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“There are times I would give my remaining 10 gourdes to my children, then go to church all day and tell myself I was fasting; it helped me cope with the hunger.”
Those are the heart wrenching words of Belmise Petit. This 50 year old mother of 6 is one of beneficiaries of the Food for Peace - USAID food voucher program. Belmise doesn’t have steady work, and yet she alone is the sole provider for the household. Due to severe arthritis pain, she can no longer make some money by doing laundry work. She struggles to find food for herself and her children.
“One day, she recalls, I was feeling desperate, the children were hungry and I had nothing to give them. I resigned myself to go begging by the mayor’s office. There was a lot of commotion when I got there. I went inside to see what it was about. I met a young lady who asked me if I was there to register for the tikè manje*. I did not know what she meant. She went on to explain to me what it was about. I could not believe my ears. I felt like the sky thought God must have listened to my prayers and guided my feet there today.
The Food for Peace - USAID food voucher program implemented by CARE helps meet food security needs by the poorest of the poor by providing electronic vouchers to beneficiaries. Beneficiaries then exchange these vouchers with project monitored merchants in exchange for nutritionally balanced foods. This serves to not only provide healthy foods for participants but also frees up valuable meager funds for the purchase of additional food supplies and/or more sustainable food sources, such as the purchase of livestock or land. 12,000 beneficiaries were served in nine communities in the 1st phase of the project. 5,708 families in additional 5 communities are being served in phase II
Empowered by Food Voucher Belmise can now go to a participating grocery store once a month. She uses her electronic voucher to buy products like rice, beans and cornmeal, among others, to feed her family, including her two grandchildren from her eldest daughter. Belmise also helps her neighbor, who’s also struggling, but unlike her, wasn’t nominated to participate in the program. “We do what we can to help each other; she lives so close to me, I could never eat while knowing she’s hungry”.
When asked what what she will do at the end of the 6 month projects, she replies in smiling and yet resigned expression: “I pray to god every day for the responsible of this program. I ask him to cover them with blessings so they can continue to help us “
About CARE
Founded in 1945, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty and providing lifesaving assistance in emergencies. CARE places special focus on working alongside poor girls and women because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to help lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty. In 2012, we worked in 84 countries, supporting 997 poverty-fighting projects to reach more than 83 million people.
