Grantee Highlights

ESPERA Fund in Haiti
 

By Renate Schneider
  

If you are reading this, you have access to electricity. Very likely you also have a roof over your head to keep out the elements, and privacy to go to the bathroom. You turn on the faucet and water comes out. You don't worry about contracting cholera. Not so in Haiti. And yet, it often does not take a whole lot to make a difference.
 

Mothers' Club of L'Artiboliere Committee and Renate Schneider

In October of 2010 a new ESPERA Fund grant was established in a remote rural community in south west Haiti. The community of Artiboliere has had a mothers' group for a number of years. The women get together on a regular basis to discuss issues of concern to them, and more importantly to support each other in the difficult circumstances they confront daily. The Mother's Club has 25 core members.

When they first learned of Mary's Pence ESPERA Funds they met for several hours to talk about how they would use the fund, how they would structure the loans, and what businesses could be started or enhanced. They lost no time in imagining their future.
 

"If it was not for the ESPERA Fund grant, I would not be able to send my children to school," says Dieula Paul, 38, and mother of four. With funds from a loan she buys corn and beans or whatever is in season from the farmers, and sells these items in the city of Jeremie. For 46-year-old Dominique Yanik it is simple, without the loan which allows her to sell wood for house construction, her four children would still be walking around barefoot. But with the profits from her business she has been able to buy shoes for all of them.

Members of the Mother's Club of L'Artiboliere

The mothers group chose the first recipients of the ESPERA Fund loans by consensus of all its members. This was a very important process for the group, and it avoided any semblance of favoritism and jealousy. The group chose five women for this initial pilot. All five received some basic training in how to run a business, from making a business plan to reinvesting some of the profits back into the business. The groups also decided by consensus that they would set the interest rate at 3% for this first round. They proudly report that in December they made their first payments and opened up a bank account. 
 

Mirloudes Laurant is a 35-year-old mother of four and sole support of her family.  She sells kerosene for lamps. She says, "Since I started this business my life has really improved." Guilna Francois, 37, buys a goat every week, then slaughters the goat and sells the meat at the market. One of her four children goes to school in Port au Prince, and she has spent many sleepless nights not knowing how she could continue to send support money for food. Now she can sleep, because she has some income. Esther Jean Jacques is a young 25-year-old mother who buys cosmetic products in Port au Prince and then sells them in her community. Every one of these women found something they could do with a small loan, and that has made all the difference for them, their children, and their community.