The Open Society Foundations has announced $2.5 million in emergency relief for Haiti in the aftermath of the August 14 earthquake in the southwest of the country.

The funding will assist smallholder farmers in the region as well as micro-agribusinesses — many of them run by women — that play a vital role in the local food supply chain, which has been seriously disrupted by the disaster. To be administered by FOKAL, Open Society's foundation in Haiti, the grants will provide emergency aid to farmers and agricultural workers, many of whom are involved in cocoa growing and dairy farming, while supporting their efforts to organize and mobilize in response to the earthquake. The assistance is aimed at enabling approximately ten thousand families in extreme need to access and build shelter, buy food and water, and plant quick-growing crops.

"This financial aid is significant to continue our work on the ground responding to the emergency," said FOKAL executive director Lorraine Mangonés. "It will also help intermediary technical support structures working closely with the farmers on the ground to get back on their feet so they can effectively engage in reconstruction and recovery efforts....We hope the international community's response to the earthquake learns from past mistakes attending Haiti's deadly 2010 earthquake, which killed more than two hundred thousand people. It is now time to empower the Haitian people to have dignified agency in their own recovery."

(Photo credit: FOKAL)