Invest in Haiti's Future Leaders

As the school year in Haiti is coming to a close for REBUILD globally’s Elèv Progam, we are eagerly awaiting the transition of our two seniors into the Lavi Program where they will begin their training to become full-time members of the deux mains designs staff. In celebration of their up-coming transition, our Global Operations Director reflects on the importance of steady income, and the residual effect it has on peoples’ lives:

“In recent years, I have tried to get into the habit of fully imagining a situation, rather than just sympathizing with it. This tactic helped me in 2010, when I thought about all of the people living in tents after the earthquake in Port Au Prince, Haiti, that left so many people homeless and displaced. Rather than becoming de-sensitized to the massive tent cities that flowed through the capital city like ominous ocean waves, I would close my eyes each morning and imagine that I was waking up in the sweltering heat of a tent on the top of a barren hillside. The imagery I conjured, and the discomfort and dread it invoked, gave me the incentive to keep working as a part of the rebuilding efforts.

Nowadays, rather than imagining life in a tent, I attempt to visualize what it would feel like to have no economic security, whatsoever. What would my life look like if I had no guaranteed income? In an effort to empathize, I summon a panic that results from the idea that my ability to guarantee food for my family is left to chance, and that my daily income, quite simply, is a matter of luck.

Most of the staff at deux mains designs can relate to this feeling authentically, as it is a lingering memory they carry with them from the days before they gained full-time employment.

Annette has been working with deux mains designs for fourteen months. Before coming to work for the company, she sold goods in the market of Carrefour, and tells of the uncertainty involved in that routine, ‘If I was a still vendor, and got up today and went to market and didn’t sell anything, I would have to go home empty-handed, and would not be able to feed my kids,’ she said. ‘Now that I have a job, I can borrow money if I need to, and know that I’ll can pay it back quickly. This provides me with great hope.’

To be honest, as a foreigner who has lived in and out of Haiti for many years, this idea of full time work creating such a tremendous advantage for people, never fully registered in my mind until I began working with REBUILD globally and deux mains designs. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit that I was blinded to such a basic and seemingly obvious concept: that steady and reliable income is more meaningful and productive than unpredictable commerce.

In defense of my daftness, however, if you’ve ever been to Haiti, you know that life here can be complicated in the most daunting way. As the famous Haitian Proverb states, ‘dèyè mòn, gen mòn,’ or ‘beyond mountains there are more mountains;’ meaning that even when one successfully overcomes a challenge in life, there will always be more to face.

This sentiment couldn’t be more true in Haiti; a place where seemingly insurmountable problems swirl around us, and while proposed solutions are presented in rapid fire, the complexities run deep, like roots entwined beneath the soil. As a result, the simplest of solutions are often within reach, but go unnoticed.   In the case of economic insecurity, the painfully obvious solution is that by providing a steady and reliable income to vulnerable people, they will inherently be able to solve their own economic struggles.

Jolina, the first woman employed by deux mains designs, even in the midst of tragedy, understood that a reliable and well-paid job was exactly what she needed to bring her family out of her post-earthquake tent, and into a thriving household, “When I met our Founder, Julie, in August of 2010, if she had given me rice and beans and oil, all of it would have been gone by now,” she said. “Because we created a business, however, and I received a job, I able to feed my family still today.”

Purchasing land, building houses, paying for children’s school tuition, providing food for families, administering healthcare…. what comes to mind when we hear these action points? If you’ve had an experience anything like mine, you think of a charity or NGO’s annual report from the developing world. What’s interesting, however, is that by receiving a steady income, these are the action points that Jolina and Annette, along with the entire staff at deux mains designs have taken for their own families and communities. These are the success stories in the annual report of their own lives.

According to Jolina, ‘When you have full time work, every fifteen days you have hope because of the money you receive from your paycheck. Fifteen days has the power to change everything.’”

--- Sarah, Global Operations Director

Soon, our the two graduating seniors from REBUILD globally’s Elèv Program will have access to full-time employment at deux mains designs and will transition into adulthood with the pride of being able to provide for themselves and their future families. We are so thrilled that our social business eco-system is thriving, and we cannot thank you enough for your continued support as we wage the war on generational poverty in Haiti!