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Oxnard orchid farm joins project to help Haiti

February 12, 2015

Cyma Orchids owner Ken Jeong, middle, said he first began the effort after a missionary couple showed him baskets made from coconut palm trees by Haitian locals.

An Oxnard orchid farm has joined hands with Serving Friends International, a non-profit humanitarian organization, to help Haiti.

Titled Haiti Cherie, the project aims to provide earthquake victims living in refugee camps a path to financial self-sufficiency by helping distribute and sell refugees’ handmade baskets.

Cyma Orchids Owner Ken Jeong said he first began the effort after a missionary couple showed him baskets made from coconut palm trees by Haitian locals.

He sent a sample to Home Depot, to which his farm supplies orchids. Soon, he’d signed a contract. The first delivery of 5,000 baskets has already arrived, he said.

Haiti, which suffered a devastating earthquake in 2010, is still struggling under political instability and an unemployment rate of more than 80 percent.

Park Yeon-kyung, a missionary who traveled to the country with Serving Friends alongside her husband, Park Young-guk, said the people of Haiti want three things: three meals a day, job security and education for their families.

“In the refugee village, where 1,000 people live, the more important thing is providing them a form of self-support, not building houses,” she said.

“I hope these baskets, made from suffering people, become bowls that carry the hope of Haitians,” Jeong said.