HOW TO HELP* For more information about providing a $650 mule or a $50 stretcher for a village in Haiti, call the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti at 423-495-1122 or send an email to contact@cnphaiti.org.* Donors can name the mules they sponsor and receive a picture of them.
Nutrition workers in Haiti often must walk up and down mountains for hours to reach the communities where they work.
Villagers sometimes must walk five to nine hours just to reach a road and find vehicles that can carry them to a hospital.
The Chattanooga-based Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti, which has been in the country since 1998, has a solution: mules.
In general, mules — the offspring of horses bred with donkeys — rarely become ill, can withstand temperature extremes, can live on frugal rations and have tremendous stamina and resilience with much longer working lives than horses, according to the British Mule Society and local mule breeder Deb Kidwell.