Contribute to Long-Term Rebuilding in Haiti

The governance of Haiti is still in turmoil. While most of it is confined to Port au Prince, the rural communities can be impacted, especially in regards to transportation.  Current situation:

• The political situation of the country often inhibits full follow-up of the rural projects 

• Sometimes there is a slight delay in materials needed

• Product prices are very expensive (inflation), and as a result, women's trade has not grown/developed as well as anticipated. 

• The insecurity in their home area sometimes does not allow them to buy supplies when they would like to do so.

Despite the challenges, the members persist and describe the positive impact of the project:

• Women's small businesses are strengthened

• Women have more autonomy in their activities

• More resources to care for families and rebuild

• Increased organizational management capacity

• More visibility in the area for the rural organizations and its members

Recommendations:

Several organizations have asked Lambi Fund to give another installment as soon as possible. This would allow more members to participate and also the beneficiaries would earn more money to rebuild. We are raising funds to be able to do that and reach more members. 

Women Help Re-Build Haiti

It is a fact that women play a major role in re-building Haiti and supporting their families. One of the ways that women bolster their small businesses is though micro-credit projects.

The Women's Organization for the Advancement of the Desalin Commune, located in the Department of Latibonite, asked Lambi Fund to put a micro credit fund at the organization's disposal to help women who are members of the organization get a loan to conduct small business activities. The Lambi Fund agreed to support the women's project because the organization has experience in managing such small credit projects already but also because it has a structure that shows the organization is doing well. In the project plan, the Lambi Fund made a fund of 500,000 gd available for the organization to lead this small project. It will enable 50 women to get 10,000 gourds each. The duration of the loan was foreseen for 4 months with an interest of 2% per month. From the monthly income the organization will add new beneficiaries.

As planned at the start of the project, Lambi Fund managed to provide half of the money (250,000.00 gd), so the project started with 25 beneficiaries in 2022. Before the project started, a management consultant conducted a training for 30 members of the organization for 2 days in order for the organization to properly learn about the project and run it smoothly. 

The theme of the training was: management and accounting of a credit portfolio. In these trainings, the project management structure was set up with different committees, the roles of different committees established, and discussions were held on the project strategy, and on some management tools (project accounting books, loan contract sheets...etc.) The participants (a total of 25 women) had the chance to discuss the importance and reporting techniques in such a credit project.

So far the project is going very well, the beneficiaries have been reimbursed at 100%. In late 2022 we received from them the report of the first cycle of the project. There were already 24 new beneficiaries. The total number of beneficiaries at this time has reached 49.

Today, more than 6 months since the activities started, the project has reached 78 beneficiaries, so 53 new people have already joined!

In order for the women to be able to repay their small business loans, they started all kinds of small business with the money: garden products (maize, beans, etc.), food products (sugar, flour, etc.), beauty products, and shoes, sandals,.. etc. So far the small businesses are doing well. The women are re-paying their loans and have extra money to feed their families and send their children to school. More info next time.

Phase 2 partial implementation

Lambi Fund made available $90,000 USD (8,730,000 gdes @ 97gdes/$1 USD) to small farmers and women’s projects of participating organizations to help them resume their economic activities.  These funds allowed the small farmers to resume production of fast-growing crops, (some of which have already matured and harvested) and some women’s organizations with small trade projects to relaunch their activities by replacing merchandise that was lost during the earthquake. A total of 478 members of organizations benefitted so far from this program: 352 farmers from 16 of peasant organizations and 126 women of 6 organizations.  

Lambi Fund did not raise enough funds last year to satisfy the need of all the requests that were submitted by its peasant/women organizations on the projected budget of the relief plan.  A hard decision was made to support some organizations, and leave the rest for later, as more funds come in.  The Regional Monitor for the South, with his recent program report reminded the Program Director of the remaining essential need for assistance to organizations that did not benefit of the Phase 2 funding.  On the report he reiterated a list of 15 organizations (11 farmer organizations and 4 Women organizations). As usual, Lambi Fund would only assist 20 members per organization i.e. 300 members currently expecting assistance.  Those members will be selected by the leadership committee of each peasant organization.  The cost for providing relief at the same level previously adopted under the Phase 2 plan converts to 5,600,000 Haitian gourdes or $56,000 USD.  

Thanks to you Lambi Fund  was able to help the following in the first quarter of 2022:

- 45 members of 9 Organizations repaired their damaged homes

- 88 planters in 11 Organizations continue to invest in agricultural production and raise crops to sell at market and to feed their families

- 8 Organizations are planting 180,000 tree seedlings to assist in reforestation of home areas.

According to a recent survey, all members of the organizations involved in these emergency program phases are very satisfied. They greatly appreciate Lambi Fund’s support at this difficult time. It gave them the opportunity to resume their life with dignity and respect and to revive their main activities that allow them to raise money to meet their needs and feed heir families.

The emergency program will continue as the final phase begins, and our on-site Regional Monitors will monitor the evolution of the program and the Organization so that they can better understand the impact of the program on the Organizations and their communities and Prepare for Phase 2.

Since the earthquake last year, Lambi has provided $90,000 USD (8,730,000 Haitian gourdes @ 97HTG/$1 USD) to small farmers and women-led projects to help them resume their economic activities.  These funds allowed the small farmers to resume production of fast-growing crops (some of which have already matured and harvested) and assisted  women-led organizations in replacing merchandise that was lost during the earthquake. A total of 478 members of grassroots organizations have benefitted from this program: 352 farmers and 126 women from organizations across the rural south.  

As a result of the earthquake, several organizations had irrigation systems and potable water systems damaged. There have been many difficulties in these areas for organization members to get potable water.  Members usually walk more than 1 hour to find water from 2-3 sources that have been channeled in the areas.  At times, there is a lot of fighting at these locations because the people are desperate to get water to bring back to their families.

Lambi Fund’s Regional Monitors sat down with several of those organizations who were victims of the earthquake in Okay. The goal was set to provide water towers for the organizations that were most severely affected by this problem, as this system was the most expedient to implement and most cost-effective at that time.  These towers collect rain water to be filtered for drinking and everyday use.  Since Lambi did not have enough funds to dedicate to this project to each organization, the monitors chose only 2 among them to have benefit for a total cost of $30,000 for 20 water towers.  The 2 organizations were RPP and AFGDL.  RPP was provided with 12 water towers and AFGDL 8.  Each water tower holds 1000 gallons each.  More than 300 members of the 2 organizations will have access to the water from the towers. Some of the towers are already in place today and are currenlty collecting rain water.  The installation of the water towers is nearly completed.  

In addition, $22,500 USD has been awarded to 9 organizations to help their members with the reconstruction/reparation of their homes.  The plans are underway and will be completed in early March.  

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