Maranatha Orphanage in Port Au Prince Haiti has been open since the mid 1980's. During that time they have found homes for 100's of children.


In January 2006 RR had a meeting with John Mchoul and Bill Manessero two men who run different facilities/orphanages in Port Au Prince and have a desire to take up Tilapia farming. I explained the NFC goal. We wanted a living classroom designed toward the sustenance farmer so he could in theory with a shovel, some fish and the knowledge he gained there be a successful aquaculturist. Being successful is defined as he could feed his family perpetually not just one or two times on his current resources and in turn reduce the environmental impact that the 3rd world farming techniques were having on Haiti. The deforestation in Haiti is altering the climate there and turning once lush Rain forest into semi arid desert. It is all because small farmers with small plots of land can not feed themselves without over harvesting the forest around them. Instead of taking a tree here and there they tend to clear cut to make firewood which leads to erosion and depletes the soil making their life even harder as they try to feed themselves.

The Tilapia project wants to teach a new way . A way in which a small farmer can raise fish and crops in a manner in which he can feed his family and still preserve the environment around him. If successful this way can change Haiti one person at a time and by doing so protect the forest and the small streams in them.

After a bit of discussion about the specifics first thing there was to figure out what we had for resources so we measured our prospective grow out pond and it was 24 X 12 X 4 abandoned cement swimming pool about perfect for its intended purpose. My plan was the breeder tubs /grow out ponds model. While many times in 3rd world Tilapia farming they simply put male/female fish in a pond/pool and harvest when they can there is a better way. Male Tilapia cease to grow in any significance once they spawn so to throw them in a mixed pond leads to oodls of stunted fish. I do mean oodls because Tilapia can breed every few weeks and can live on duck weed, leaf litter,bugs and sunshine. They tolerate poor water quality and are essentially as tough as cockroaches tasty as t bones. So if you make your grow out pond males only you get higher quality fish for little or no more effort. The only thing you need to do is put breeding pairs in a couple/ two 100 gallon drum type honeymoon hotels and move them to a new facility when they have spawned leaving the fry to grow out in the old honeymoon hotel until they are old enough to sex. Then the males go to the grow out tank and well the little girls go to a better place :)

All this sound complicated ? Well it is but if run right it is a simple way to make a difference in Haiti. So we agreed to hire a Haitian to run the project . After some looking around we found sources for Tilapia in country, several programs up and running and a willingness for them to train someone to run our little project . So now we await for stage two. We have a plan and the resources to make it happen we simply need to get Haitian staff on board send them off to Tilapia School and make chapter two of out Tilapia Story. Heck if we do all this right we will be eating Tilapia in say 6 months ....

Look for the next installment as it happens on the NFC/Maranatha Haiti Tilapia project