The Delegates Reflect
Peyton Morris, along with nine other delegates, recently ‘climbed’ Fonkoze’s Staircase out of Poverty as part of the 2012 Bucks County Delegation. The 4-day trip consisted of visits to Fonkoze clients at all points along the staircase, from a mother of four raising two goats high in the hills above the Central Plateau to a Canadian-educated engineer crafting solar lighting systems at a modern factory in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Below she shares delegate reactions:
We had an intense but uplifting week. In this post, I share comments from fellow delegates taken from our debriefing the night we returned from the Central Plateau. These comments come straight from the heart. Thank you, Fonkoze, for showing us that there is hope for Haiti.
“Fonkoze spreads hope one person at a time.”
“I was moved by the quality of your staff and how they have instilled such tenderness into each program.”
“When we first saw Port-au-Prince, we thought that there was no hope. But when you see what Fonkoze has done in the countryside, you see that there is hope. So that gives you hope for Port-au-Prince.”
“What really struck me was the difference between the women in the first program and the Ti Kredi program. The women at the very bottom of your staircase, the ones you keep saying are one crisis away from total disaster, were so quiet. They didn’t meet your eyes. They didn’t really move. But the next day, when we went to the Ti Kredi meeting, just one level up, it was like another planet. The women looked strong and in charge. They sang and danced and laughed. They looked us in the eye and shook our hands. They were filled with light. I recorded that meeting, with the dancing, and I’ve shown it to everyone. It makes me cry every time I see it. The transformation was extraordinary.”
“Fonkoze has a way of bringing order out of chaos.”
“You guys don’t have an organization. You have a family.”
“Fonkoze has a real response to poverty that is so empowering to their clients. You give people tools, not band aids.”
“I was really impressed by Fonkoze’s responsiveness. You responded immediately to the earthquake, and then the cholera epidemic. And yesterday I saw this in action. If there was something about the mechanics of a new program your staff didn’t like, they discussed it right then and there. There was no attempt to sugar coat it for the delegates. You have created a great culture here.”
“It wasn’t until I saw Gauthier interacting with the Chemen Lavi Miyò members that I understood why he said he couldn’t imagine doing anything else with his life. He is so respectful of these women and their lives. He listens. He doesn’t preach. He doesn’t overwhelm. He meets them where they are. It was remarkable. All of your people seemed like this. It’s a kind of love.”
Vote for the Solid Women!
Fonkoze’s Solid Women video is a finalist in the DoGooder Nonprofit Video contest! It’s now up to the public to decide. Please vote for us today and every day until March 28th!!! And please encourage your friends, family and colleagues to vote every day as well!
http://www.youtube.com/nonprofitvideoawards?x=us_showcase_4629_45
“…women, brave as stars at dawn”
This International Women’s Day, we took some time to reflect on all the brave women that inspire us in the Fonkoze Family. Read the entire message from Fonkoze USA Executive Director, Leigh Carter, here.
Fonkoze’s 2nd annual benefit is just a few weeks away!!
Last Thursday, March 1st, Anne H. Hastings, CEO of Fonkoze Financial Services, sent a personal note to our community of supporters inviting them to join us for our 2nd annual benefit, Insuring Haiti’s Future, taking place in New York City on Thursday, March 29, 2012. After reflecting on the success of our inaugural event in 2011, Ms. Hastings shared, “I personally invite you to join us once again for a celebration of courage, innovation, and partnership…This event will help us raise critically needed funds with 100% of the net proceeds going directly to support our innovative, poverty-fighting programs in Haiti.” Please click here to read her message in its entirety!
You’ve seen them, you’ve read about them, and you’ve talked about them. Fonkoze’s Solid Women were introduced into our lives last November. Their solidarity motivated Fonkoze’s staff and inspired our friends to stand with us last holiday season.
Fonkoze’s communications team in Port-au-Prince revisited the Solid Women: Lozelle, Mariette, Seden, Antonia, and Joseline and screened the video for them and their families. Watching the video sparked a new surge of hope for the Solid Women. “For me, the video shows a promising future for my life. Not once, I thought you would’ve come back to show it to us…now our story has been shared all over,” said Mariette. Click below to watch their reactions.
What is your message of HOPE to Fonkoze’s Solid Women?
For the Solid Women video, click here to watch or to share on your social media channels.
Source: youtube.com
Tyler Tappendorf, project manager for Fonkoze natural disaster insurance Kore W, or “Reinforce You,” explains how Fonkoze created a microinsurance product to protect clients’ hard-won assets from rain, tropical storms, and earthquakes.
Source: youtube.com
A Haitian bank thrives after the quake by helping the poor
“Fonkoze’s defiance of the odds serves as evidence that Haiti may be able to construct a business culture as the nation itself rebuilds. ” - GOOD magazine
Source: GOOD
A safe home for her family and business
Earthquake victims Jocelyne Borderon and her teenage daughters live in a new cement house thanks to a partnership between Fonkoze and Haven.
Fonkoze client Jocelyne Borderon, 43, lives in a new cement house with heart-shaped blocks for windows. Next door, her brother and sister live in a crumbling mud house. Next to them, her mother lives in a transitional shelter made of tarp and wood.
Jocelyne was one of about 200 Fonkoze clients and earthquake victims for whom new houses were built at no cost to them by a partnership between Fonkoze and Haven and BRAC. She knows she is lucky to have a new, safe house in Cabaret, a seaside town not far from Port-au-Prince where many lost loved ones, homes, and businesses to the earthquake.
“I’m very happy because I’m in an organization that cares, that helps me,” Jocelyne said.
Jocelyne’s house collapsed in the earthquake, killing her husband and leaving her alone with five children, ages 11 to 24, and her Fonkoze membership.
She moved into her neighbor’s collapsed house, which had nothing but a tarp for a roof and a few remaining walls. With no protection from intruders, thieves stole the merchandise for her small business and men with guns tried to assault her teenage daughters in the night, she said. “Jesus sent Fonkoze to take me out of this,” she said.
Jocelyne said construction started on her new house, which sits in the same place her old house did, in December 2010, and by March, her family had moved in. She has recovered her business, has all her children attending school, and has continued taking loans, now at HTG 7,000 at a time, about US $175.
“I don’t have a husband. Fonkoze is my husband,” Jocelyne said.
Fonkoze’s housing programs are continuing with two new small grants to build 18 more houses. The first one is from Medico, or Lion’s Club Belgium, for $20,464. The second one for $52,000 from a group of Chinese artists called Rattray Kimura Foundation. More than 100 clients are still hoping for new houses through the project, so we’re working to find more funding. If you’d like to help, check out our Ways to Give section on our web site.
After their home collapsed in the earthquake, Jocelyne and her family lived in this makeshift shelter before their new home was built.
Jocelyne feels lucky to have the best house in her family.
Earthquake anniversary roundup
Yesterday Fonkoze offices were closed for the national day of mourning declared by the Haitian government to remember the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. Today we held a memorial ceremony in our downtown office to reflect on the loss of family, friends, and colleagues and the progress since the earthquake. In a prepared statement, Father Joseph Phillippe told Fonkoze staff that he believes we’re still here because the Fonkoze mission is not yet finished, and we must continue to work to rebuild the country and better serve our clients.
This week there have been many articles published about Haiti since the earthquake, and many have highlighted Fonkoze’s work. Here’s a roundup.
Our partner Oikocredit wrote about Fonkoze’s natural disaster insurance for clients, one of our most important innovations to come out of the earthquake. The article quotes Fonkoze Financial Services CEO Anne Hastings, who said, “I really became committed early on that we couldn’t help our clients continue to build their assets if we didn’t have a way to help them protect their assets.”
Grameen Foundation CEO and Fonkoze USA Board of Directors Chair Alex Counts, who’s working on a book about Fonkoze, wrote about Fonkoze’s strengthening since the earthquake on the Grameen Foundation blog. Alex writes, “Did this organization collapse under the weight of the quake and its aftershocks? Far from it. In fact, today it is probably stronger than at any time in its history.”
Mercy Corps, a founding partner with Fonkoze in MiCRO, a natural disaster microinsurance company that provides the policy to Fonkoze clients, also wrote about the importance of protecting the poor from disasters like floods and earthquakes. ”Already, a total of 5,385 Fonkoze borrowers across Haiti received $1.5 million in insurance benefits during the 2011 hurricane season.”
Fortified against disaster: A Fonkoze client profile
Josette Lazarre, center with her family, received an insurance payout when rains ruined her merchandise. The insurance helped get the nurse back on her feet and treating her neighbors for cholera. Photo by Vanessa Short.
This summer, when rains drenched southern Haiti, Josette Lazarre couldn’t stop working. The 48-year-old Fonkoze client was a first responder to the growing cholera epidemic in her community near Les Cayes.
A nurse and mother of three who lost her husband in the earthquake, Josette lost all her merchandise – medical supplies including water purification tablets, oral rehydration solution, and medicines – in the weather, which covered some parts of the south in a foot of rain.
Fortunately, Fonkoze had rolled out its natural disaster insurance in time for the tropical weather season. Josette received HTG 5,000 (about US $125), had her current loan cancelled, and received a new loan through Kore W, Haitian Creole for “Reinforce you.” All together, the rains were so significant that Fonkoze received a payout from reinsurer from Swiss Re and in turn paid out more than US $ 1 million to clients who had damage. The insurance is one of Fonkoze’s major innovations since the earthquake.
“It got me going again,” Josette said. “Fonkoze is doing an extraordinary job.”
Fonkoze provided her the initial medical supplies and training to get her pharmaceutical business up and running. Fonkoze also provided the first cholera education in her community, she says.
This summer, Josette says she treated up to 100 people a month for cholera. Sometimes she couldn’t sleep through the night because she got so many calls. Equipped with intravenous fluid and needles, she hiked into the mountains to give the sick first aid until they could make it to a cholera treatment center. With no ambulances, her service saved lives.
Since the Okoto branch opened nearest her, she’s lobbied neighbors and friends to join Fonkoze, many of whom were suspicious because of bad experiences with other lenders. Now a client for four years, she is the chief of the solidarity center in her area and helps verify claims made through Kore W. She says she visits each member who claims damage to their home or business to ensure the system works fairly.
“When your house is destroyed, when your business is lost, it should be the government that helps,” Josette said. “The only one who comes to see if we’re okay is Fonkoze. I love Fonkoze.”
