A day in the life: Job training

One of the many efforts in which we're involved is "development." It's a broad term that includes helping people create jobs for themselves.

One of the ways that we're helping people make a living is in breadmaking. Specifically, using technology (heavy duty equipment) we're helping become more efficient in making cassava bread.

Cassava bread is made from the poisonous root of manioc. Manioc contains cyanide. It's used around the world to make cassava bread, but the roots must be treated carefully to ensure the cyanide is removed properly.

Since cassava bread is eaten by virtually everyone in Haiti, we're helping to construct cassaveries in several villages in our zone. And to date, almost none of the cassavery-produced cassava bread has left any of those villages. So we know there's still a market beyond the villages.

But before any of the cassaveries opened, we provided training to co-op participants. Sure, most people knew how to make cassava bread. But if there were new people getting involved, we wanted to provide them with instructive guidance... particularly in relation to the potentially deadly depoisoning process.

Here are a couple photos we took of the training:The trainer was great. She imparted knowledge, such as harvesting techniques, that was new to many of the participants.

Tim White