Haiti Delegations -- Learn about Fonkoze and Microfinance as a tool to eliminate poverty

  Haiti

Port-au-Prince

Duration of Program: 1-2 weeks
Typical Duration of Program: 1-2 weeks
Dates: October 25 through 28

Description: While this particular delegation is only a little more than three days, we will still incorporate our basic delegation pedagogy. That is, the delegates will come out of this experience with a good introduction to Haiti, to micro-finance, and to Fonkoze. We accomplish this by walking our delegates through what we call, "the ladder out of poverty." But, because this delegation is shorter in duration than our normal trips, the more "prep" work we do, the more we will get out of the experience.

As you will see on your trip, Fonkoze meets its clients wherever they are on their journey out of extreme poverty. So, while Fonkoze has a strong core program of Grameen Bank-style solidarity lending, you will learn about Fonkoze's efforts to reach out to ever more marginalized, vulnerable rural women offering them programs like ti kredi (little credit) or Chemen Lavi Miyò (Path to a Better Life). At the other end of the ladder, you will see clients graduating out of solidarity lending into formal sector business development.

Our founder says, "you can't just give a woman a loan and walk away from her...you must accompany her as she makes her way out of poverty." That is why Fonkoze is much more than micro-credit. Fonkoze offers a full range of banking services to its clients, literacy and life-skills education and training, health and malnutrition programs, micro-insurance products, and other innovations to serve them as they lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

Highlights: Meeting and interacting with Fonkoze clients. Hearing in their own words about life and struggle in rural Haiti. Learn how Fonkoze is helping women entrepreneurs in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere struggle to make a living and understand the economics of life in the underdeveloped countryside where much of Fonkozes work is focused.

Qualifications: Willingness to learn about Haiti and microfinance.

Cost in US$: USD 1,000 plus airfare to Haiti

Experience Required: no

Typical Volunteer: someone who is interested in going to Haiti on a Fonkoze USA delegation to learn about microfinance

Age Range: 15 plus

This Program is open to Worldwide Participants. This Program is also open to Families, Couples and Individuals

Participants Travel to Haiti Independently

Typically Participants Work in Groups

Application Process Involves:

• Online Application plus Application Assessment

Post-Program Services Include:

• Exit Debriefing Abroad

Fonkoze USA's Mission Statement: Fonkoze is Haiti's largest micro-finance organization with a mission to build the economic foundations for democracy in Haiti by providing the rural poor (mostly women) with the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty. Fonkoze USA is a US-based, non-profit, that works hand-in-hand with Fonkoze to raise funds, technical assistance, and awareness about Fonkoze, and the elimination of extreme poverty in Haiti.

Year Founded: 1997