UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

Knights Landing is a community of primarily migrant workers who have been struggling to provide health care to both their human and animal members.   The Knights Landing One Healthy Clinic with the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine is the first medical clinic dedicated to providing both human medical and veterinary general wellness services.   Clinics are held every 3 rd Sunday of the month.   In January, the veterinary side saw 40 dogs and 20 cats for general wellness exams.   We provided our patients with preventative medications such as vaccines and flea preventatives.   You may be thinking that it’s too cold and it’s not flea season.   But, believe it or not Knights Landing happens to be a hotspot for fleas and fleas are a year round problem in most areas of California. Through support from the Blum Center, UC Davis, we are able to enhance the services we provide.   In the next few months, we will be building stora...

After the earthquake in 2010 many residents of Port au Prince had to leave their destroyed houses and moved to these hillsides to build temporary homes.   Haiti is the poorest country of the Caribbean, the Americas, and stands at the 20 th poorest country in the world according to IMF reports from years 2009-2013.   This fact has been compounded by a history of political coup d’etats and natural disasters that have prevented the Haitian economy from developing.   Today, an estimated 78% of Haitians survive on less than $2 a day and more than half of the population live in extreme poverty on less than $1 a day (Ministry of Planning; 2007) .   The majority of those living in extreme poverty live in the rural parts of the country as subsistence farmers, although most farmers are often unable to provide sufficient food to feed their families.   Food insecurity is a critical challenge that Haiti continues to face.   The country’s food system is u...