Client of Fonkoze (Haiti microfinance org)

I find it difficult to take pictures in Haiti as I don’t speak Creole and the potential for exploitation via poverty tourism feels high. I was there this last long weekend as a board member of the fundraising arm of Fonkoze, a microfinance/poverty alleviation institution. I’ve been to Haiti a number of times yet really I can’t claim to have much more than a passing knowledge of peoples’ lives. Still it is quite jarring to return to the States after seeing some of the intense poverty especially of Port-au-Prince, even though the rural areas are in many ways worse off.

This handsome woman is attending a center meeting to which we were invited to attend in Terre Rouge. About 50 women who have small loans get together on a weekly basis to repay over time, share stories and, if they are lucky, get some educational training on business practices, literacy, and health screening. This comes at a cost to them—the cost of travel and loss of time to do business in the market—but the social aspect and mutual support is presumably important to them. The organization lends to women as they have reliably been shown to invest the proceeds of their small businesses into their families. Fonkoze has the goal of eliminating extreme poverty through economic and social empowerment. It used to say that if members stayed with the organization for five years they would end up better able to ensure putting one meal on the table each day, that one’s children would have a greater likelihood of going to school rather than being sent out to be a restavek (a slave in someone else’s household), and that a member would gain greater confidence to face the future. As the organization is undergoing massive change with the departure of the founder a year-and-a-half ago, perhaps they don’t want to promise this anymore, although my sense is that their idealism and commitment isn’t diminished. The organization is flawed but it is trying: it's been around for 20 years and has a presence in every major area of Haiti.