Dear Friends,

Poverty is one thing, hunger is another.   Poverty and hunger in a Third or Fourth World country is devastating.

It is through the hearts of man that this human suffering can be relieved. At the country markets in our area of Haiti you cannot even find rice; it is too expensive to buy. The corn crop occurs only in October. The supply of petit mill is almost finished. There are multitudes of people who can only afford one meal per week. In our region, there are more homeless people than ever. They cannot pay their rent. More and more abandoned children. Their parents just push them out of the family circle. Where do they go? There is nowhere to go but the street to beg for pennies.

We are very concerned for the people in our area. Monique, our mission director, meets some of these destitute people everyday and she cannot help but feel badly for them. The obvious solution is to feed them. We have decided to do so one day per week—we'll see what happens and go from there. The basic dish will be rice plus whatever else is available. The cost is $65 for a 50 Kg bag.

Our goat breeding program which started last year is progressing. We started with 40 females and two boars, we now have 18 kids. When the small goats no longer need their mother, she is given to another family so the program builds on itself.

Our most exciting program is our mini-loan venture. We provide a repayable loan of $100 to families in our area that enables them to start and develop a small business. This program promotes economic growth and stability as well as provides a supportive networking environment for the small business owner. Currently there are 397 families participating in this program! When a village has gathered 40 families who wish to participate, they can join the program. At the moment there are two more villages that are almost ready. We also have 180 other individuals who are waiting to join. The mini-loan must be repayed within 40 weeks. Some families are on their eighth loan. In conjunction with this program, Monique has established a savings incentive which these people have never in their lives had before. We will give you more news about this project on our website: www.partnersforhaiti.org

The gospel continues to be preached in the hills of Haiti. One young girl was recently baptized at the mission.

Our school started with 275 students at the mission and 75-80 students at our satellite school.

Thank you so much to those who continue to help us with this work. As you can see, we have so many more needs to fill than we had last year.

In Him,

Raymond Fillion