FJN USA staff member Carly Gayle recently returned from a month-long visit to Costa Rica. She had traveled there from the USA primarily as a holiday before graduate school. While there, she also took time to research and document agroecology and medicinal plant initiatives and to network with organizations that might be interested in partnerships with FJN USA and Fondwa.

After returning to the USA, she created photo albums for FJN with dozens of examples of natural buildings, food forests, tropical food gardens, medicinal plants, and more. She also compiled a document detailing specific agricultural methods observed, organizations and people to contact for knowledge exchange, results from informal interviews, and insights into the medicinal plant trade. This document is intended to support both University of Fondwa agronomy students and Haitian women who have expressed a specific interest in medicinal plant cultivation for export.

As Haiti continues to suffer from blockades and grounded flights, acts of solidarity and knowledge exchange--no matter how small--make a difference in morale on the ground in Fondwa. Contact us if you think of an out-of-the-box way to support the people of Fondwa as Carly did.