By Patricia Shafer | Chief Catalyst for Mothering Across Continents
We are grateful to donors of our Global Giving campaign for our High Hopes Haiti “Educate 30 Young Women Business Leaders in Haiti.” As a result of the campaign, led by Project Catalyst Courtney Jackson, we extended our Summer Institute of vocational, leadership and mentoring training for 30 young women ages 15 to 30, many of whom are still in high school. Throughout September and November 2013, the project facilitator continued English language, computer literacy and small business skills sessions.
As a “give back,” women in the training group provided English lessons to small groups of children at a local primary school that received laptops in 2012. (See photo #1 below.) The young women have also interacted with more mature women in the community that receive micro-loans. (See photo #2 below.) They’ve shared tips on how to better grow small businesses and consider pooling loans for more impact. They wrote their first email expressing their thanks for this life-changing experience. We were able to share this story with members of a Rotary Club in the U.S. whose members are mostly Haitian-American. Some were moved to tears.
This momentum added credibility to recent grant applications to repeat the Summer Institute in 2014. In Haiti, where 76% of the population is “rural,” with many people living in abject poverty on less than $1.25 a day, supporting a young woman’s earning potential is a model of real empowerment. Donations that are making the current program possible underline the message that the program can be sustained.
Our challenge now is that we are only $650 away from our goal of $6,000 to fund the rest of this year’s program. This is exciting yet daunting. We ask the generous donors that made this year-long project possible: “What else can we do, together? How can we attract the last bit of support needed for this important project?” If you have ideas we'd love to hear them! Please email Courtney at cjackson@motheringacrosscontinents.org.
Thank you, again, for your support!
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