Update: Economic Recovery in Haiti and the Americas

Alberto Solano joined Grameen Foundation in October 2009 and provides leadership and management oversight for our portfolio and activities across the Americas.  He is leading our economic recovery efforts in Haiti.

Today, Leigh Carter (Executive Director of Fonkoze USA) and I gave a briefing about the current situation and role of microfinance in economic recovery efforts in Haiti.  I also spoke about the role that microfinance plays in relief and recovery efforts after natural disasters and Grameen Foundation’s work in the Americas region.

Leigh currently serves as Executive Director and CFO of Fonkoze USA, which is the US-based support partner of FONKOZE.  Leigh provided an overview of Fonkoze, the current situation in Haiti and its long relationship with Grameen Foundation.

Simple Acts of Kindness for Haiti

by Kay Hixson, Director of Marketing and Communications, Grameen Foundation

Sunday and Monday offered an opportunity to help Haiti in person. Hundreds, maybe thousands, answered the call.

People sorting supplies for Haiti in Washington DC

Boxes of goods for Haiti

This past Sunday, I visited the Haitian Embassy in Washington, DC to deliver baby and medical supplies. People were everywhere, bringing clothes, medicine and all kinds of things. Others were writing checks to support the relief effort, or just standing in the rain wanting to be near. Yes, it was a little chaotic, but no one seemed to mind. No one was pushing or shoving. No one was grumpy or impatient. When the Embassy personnel gave a directive, the crowd followed quickly. Friendly police were everywhere trying to direct traffic, which was backed up for blocks in all directions. Instead of writing parking tickets, the police helped people carry in the supplies and did their best to answer questions. While I was there, I heard that the Embassy-sponsored drive had just received the OK to bring the planes with emergency supplies into Haiti. I left with a lighter heart and was glad to see compassion and generosity in action.

Devastation in Haiti

By Kay Hixson, Director of Marketing and Communications, Grameen Foundation

Photo by Ben Depp.

As the hours wear on, we see more and more of the destruction. We just got these photos in today from our partners on the ground in Haiti. It is unimaginable that so many people have perished, but our spirits are lifted when we see heroic acts, people helping each other, and many risking their lives to help save their neighbors. We give a small sigh of relief every time we get a short text message saying “we found someone and they are OK.”

Photo by Ben Depp.

There’s much to be done, short and long term. One way to start is by adding your comment to this blog. We’ll send them to the people of Haiti through our partners and friends in Haiti. You will probably never see the smiles you generate on the face of some weary, displaced Haitian or an exhausted relief worker. But it just might be the boost they need to keep going. I hope you will join us with a comment, and donate if you can.

Photo by Ben Depp.

Help Haiti Rebuild

Alex Counts is President and CEO of Grameen Foundation, and the author of “Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World” (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

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Battling the odds has never been a new concept to the people of Haiti.Fifty-eight percent of the country’s population is undernourished. Fifty-four percent live on less than US$1.25 a day.

Damage from Haiti's 7.0 magnitude earthquake

But despite these conditions, Haiti has also had to endure a number of natural disasters—most recently, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Tuesday, January 12, near Port-au-Prince. Damage from the worst earthquake in 250 years has been described as “unimaginable” and “incomprehensible.” All hospitals were leveled by the disaster, and a devastating death toll is expected, potentially in the hundreds of thousands.  The archbishop of Port au Prince is one of those whose lives have been lost, and the offices of the World Bank and InterAmerican Development Bank have been destroyed.

PPI Shows Fonkoze that Clients Are Moving Out of Poverty

When you read about organizations that help the poor, do you wonder how they know they are making a difference? We’re seeing positive results in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Fonkoze, the largest microfinance institution (MFI) in Haiti, is demonstrating that their programs help clients move out of poverty.

For Fonkoze, the mission is clear: target the poor and ultra-poor, mainly women in rural areas, and provide services to meet their special needs. In 2006, Fonkoze—working with Grameen Foundation–introduced the Progress out of Poverty Index™ (PPI™) assessment tool to measure the poverty level of its clients and to track their progress.

Another Wall to Fall

Alex Counts is President and CEO of Grameen Foundation, and the author of “Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World” (John Wiley & Sons, 2008). Below, he recounts his visits to assess the state of microfinance with Grameen Foundation partners worldwide.

Alex Counts

I am coming to the end of my longest fall trip – it’s been a whirlwind and culminates in an emotional climax tonight.

Today, there will be a massive event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  The theme for many will be “another wall to fall,” with the focus on how poverty needs to follow the Cold War into the dustbin of history.  To symbolize this, Professor Yunus will be the final speaker at the event, which will also feature many European heads of government.

My journey began in Miami, where I was attending the board meeting of Fonkoze USA, the U.S. sister organization of the largest microfinance institution in Haiti. We heard Fonkoze’s co-founders, Father Joseph Philippe and Anne Hastings, report about some positive trends in the their organization and also some troubling developments in Haiti, including the fall of the government (i.e., the Prime Minister was forced out by the President) the day before we arrived in Miami – something that could set back many recently announced humanitarian projects, some of which Fonkoze would stand to benefit from.  With Haiti, even at the best of times it seems like two steps forward, one and half steps back – but Fonkoze battles on.   The board of directors of Fonkoze elected me their Chairman, in part due to the great support that they have gotten over the years from Grameen Foundation.  I was honored and humbled.

GF Staff and Yeardley Smith, Haiti

GF President Alex Counts Journey to Haiti: Day 1

Alex Counts is the President and CEO of Grameen Foundation.

Fourteen months earlier, I had visited Haiti and spent an afternoon meeting with five families who were beginning participation with the so-called “Ultra-Poor” program of Fonkoze, Grameen Foundation’s local microfinance partner organization.  Also known as by its Creole acronym CLM (“Path To A Better Life”), this program takes people who would normally be too destitute, too sick, and too socially excluded to join and succeed in traditional microcredit programs (which Fonkoze also offers).  Even after twenty years anti-poverty work, I was disturbed by my visit to early stage CLM clients: the children’s distended stomachs, the glazed-over looks of the adults, the abysmal housing conditions, the fact that almost everyone in those families was sick.  I wondered, despite the CLM program’s carefully tailored economic, health, housing and empowerment interventions, whether any of those families would be ready for the traditional microcredit anytime soon.

GF and Yeardley Smith Team up to Fight Poverty

Yeardley Smith

Actress and television voice of Lisa Simpson, Yeardley Smith has teamed up with Grameen Foundation to fight poverty.

She has recently returned from a trip to Haiti to visit GF partner Fonkoze and learn first hand about the experiences of poor women whose lives have been transformed by microfinance.

She will be blogging here about this live-changing journey over the next few days.