So our rural food distribution programme is taking a bit of a turn. Our country director, Guy, received a text message from one of the field staff this morning saying that others in the communities where we are distributing food are wanting to receive emergency rations as well. Of course we would love to do this, but we have limited resources and can only provide for so many, and that for a limited time. I hope this doesn't get ugly like it has in the urban areas. I did hear about a church programme which airlifted in some food and other supplies to a community called Cheridant, where our office happens to be located. Apparently the helicopter was mobbed and less than half the supplies actually got to the church organizers.

Before all this, we had already decided to keep our food distribution short, and transition to an emergency employment program as quickly as possible. This accomplishes several things:

a) employment is more dignified that food handouts

b) it gets urgently needed cash into the communities with which they can buy food, probably cheaper than we can distribute

c) it is easier (and at this point probably safer) to transport and distribute cash than food at least in rural areas

d) we can have a lasting effect because the employment will apply soil conservation techniques and plant trees

The big problem now is that the season for all this work is already upon us, and we still don't have all the funding to get it done. But the window of opportunity is very small, and missing it would be tragic on more than one level. Pulling this off will not be easy to say the least, but all our staff in Haiti and the US are scrambling to make this happen.