Growing Potential

School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic aren’t going to keep 24-year-old Rolna Prophilien from pursuing his passion. 

The young man, who lost his father at a young age and has a disabled mother, lives with his cousin in a town just east of Port-au-Prince. He’d found a love of gardening as he grew up, planting trees and growing different types of food like plantains, sweet potatoes, corn, and beans. He ultimately found Kids Connection Haiti and, with our help, obtained the help he needed to begin studying agronomy at the Université Américain des Sciences Modernes d’Haitiwith a dream of specializing in breeding.

When shelter-in-place orders shut down his classes, Rolna got an idea: a vegetable garden. He wanted to make the most of containment and practice what he is learning at school, his social worker from KCH said. So he struck a deal with a relative who owns a bit of property to grow peppers on the land. In return, he’d share the benefits of the harvest, which will take four or five months to grow. Over the last several weeks, Rolna began preparing the field to plan about 1,200 pepper seeds. And what began as an individual project quickly grew into a project involving other KCH students such as Robenson Mentor and Yvrose Jean-Philippe who are also studying agronomy. 

This vegetable garden has some great potential with Rolna’s goal to eventually grow everything from carrots and beets, to tomatoes and eggplant and he is even hoping to start a chicken coop on the land. 

What does he need to make that happen? He estimates about $250.00 USD — would buy the seeds, soil, a sprinkler, a small generator and transportation back and forth from where he lives in Thomassin to the garden in Pernier. For now, he is happy to have the chance to collaborate on this new project in spite of the limitations created by the pandemic. 

He’s excited at the prospect of turning it into more. “Rolna is overjoyed about his brand new experience,” his social worker said.