Like many small businesses Moosa Creek Nursery wanted to claim social responsibility and start using their company to positively impact the surrounding community and more ambitiously, the world. Moosa Creek was started in 2004 as the brainchild of Hank and Su Kraus. The business started as what seemed like a family project as I, along with my three other siblings, was often aroused in the early morning to help build shade houses, clear pots, or weed the few yet well-cared for plants. Hank and Su have always had a passion to help those less fortunate and have supported many different charities throughout their life, so it was natural for them to build a business around improving the world. Their passion for native plants led them to invest their earnings in charities protecting the environment through restoration. 

 

Then, in 2008 Moosa Creek began their partnership with Plant with Purpose, a Christian organization whose mission is to help revive the lives of families and communities through sustainable agricultural training, land restoration, savings-led microfinance, church mobilization, and local leadership. When Moosa Creek first began supporting Plant with Purpose, Hank and Su wanted to personalize their involvement and were given the name and picture of a young girl named Susita. Her village of Angel Feliz is on the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti and suffers from abject poverty. She has been the spark that ignited the fire behind Moosa Creek’s continued involvement with Plant with Purpose.

 

Like many small companies, Moosa Creek wants to see the impact their donations they have had; to see how they’ve affected people like Susita. A personal curiosity has grown to know what has happened to the girl named Susita. Where, what, how? Longing to see if her life has been changed for the better. And that, brings us to our mission: to find Susita. See her, speak to her; to share our compassion with her, our hope for her future, and to tell the world that a difference can be made in someone’s life.

 

So, who will carry out Moosa Creek’s mission? I, Sophia, the third daughter of Hank and Su and Laura, my best friend. We’re so excited for the opportunity to take part in this adventure and share the joy, anticipation, and burden of embarking on this journey with you through this monthly blog. We will bring you updates and describe the story of the lives of the people we meet and provide an honest evaluation of Moosa Creek’s impact on the people and land of the Dominican Republic. 

We are young, courageous, and thirsty for the truth. Friends connected by a mutual sense of curiosity, a sense of longing to see the world and change the world. A need to find the truth about our planet and the truth about how we can leave the world a better place than when we arrived.

 

Next summer, we will be travelling to the Dominican Republic in search of truth. We want to tell you the story of Susita. And maybe we won’t be able to tell that story. Maybe we will tell another story. Or maybe there will be no story to tell. Whatever happens, we will tell the truth.