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Banking on hope in Haiti
archived from: 2011-12-12
by: Patricia Bartos

Local supporters help continue earthquake recovery

In the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti almost two years ago, Fonkoze, the country’s alternative bank for the organized poor, is looking to the future by educating its customers while meeting their needs.

“One of the main results was that we were able to find in the midst of this horrible disaster innovative ways to move forward,” said Leigh Carter, executive director of Fonkoze USA, when she visited Pittsburgh Dec. 3.

“We strengthened our programs for the ultra-poor and for those at the top to aid in job creation,” she said. “It’s a multifaceted approach.”

Her organization helps promote the work of the largest micro-credit lending bank in the West’s poorest country, which provides small loans to some 60,000 customers. The group is based in Washington, D.C.

Carter spoke to members of the Pittsburgh Haiti Solidarity Committee and later led an informational session at Duquesne University.

For the past 15 years, the committee has partnered with Fonkoze and the university to each year bring two Fonkoze employees to attend Duquesne University for one year of study.

Duquesne provides scholarships and committee members offer them housing while the students refine their business and leadership skills. They then return home to help strengthen Fonkoze and their country.

Fonkoze today consists of more than 30 bank buildings throughout the country, employing almost 600 Haitians.

Carter most recently visited Haiti in September and reported that the situation in the capital of Port-au-Prince almost two years after the earthquake is “much improved.”

Almost all of the rubble has been removed, and though hundreds of thousands of people have moved on from the emergency tent cities, some 600,000 still remain living there.

The government palace and Catholic cathedral still lie in heaps. “But life goes on,” she said of many improvements under way.

With the installation of a new president in September and a new cabinet being seated, “the feeling is hopeful,” Carter said. “Funds can begin to flow again.”

The country still faces formidable challenges.

Fonkoze itself lost five employees and 10 buildings were destroyed in the earthquake. At one point, following the initial impact of the earthquake, 470 of its employees were living in tents. Most of them have found other accommodations by now, she said.

Almost 20,000 of the bank’s clients lost homes and businesses in the catastrophe. “With our assistance they have been completely taken care of,” she said.

And in the midst of that catastrophic disaster, a wave of cholera hit the country. “We had to roll out a cholera program,” she said.

Fonkoze’s earthquake recovery program provided much help. It gave stipends for people who had lost their businesses or those who took in others made homeless in the disaster. When they were ready, the bank gave them new loans.

But the magnitude of the earthquake damage led to new ideas.

Instead of recapitalizing its customers in the wake of such disasters, Carter said, “we began to think, these types of things are common in Haiti, and the bank decided to move forward with a catastrophic micro-insurance program.”

The bank launched educational efforts to teach its tens of thousands of customers about how insurance works. “We started educating them while helping them,” she said.

Fonkoze — the Creole word translates as “shoulder-to-shoulder” — traces to Spiritan Father Joseph Philippe, a native of Haiti, who founded the bank 17 years ago to provide small loans to stimulate the economic life of the poor.

The organization focuses on rural women, who are joined into groups to provide mutual support and ensure they all pay back the loans. The borrowers also commit themselves to taking literacy and preventive health courses as a condition for borrowing.

Fonkoze is seen as one of the most important institutions in rural Haiti today. The U.S. affiliate works to help promote the work and enable people in this country to help.

“Becoming involved with Fonkoze is a practical and effective way to be in solidarity with our neighbors in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,” said Joyce Rothermel, a member of the local committee.

“Citizen-to-citizen programs can sometimes accomplish more than our governments can,” she said.

To learn more, go to www.fonkoze.org.

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