Too poor for loans: Fonkoze micro-finance in Haiti

I listened to a great podcast today on how a Haitian non-governmental organization is making a big difference for the very poorest people of Haiti.

To Fool the Rain: Haiti's Poor and Their Pathway to a Better Life (click on the link to access the one hour podcast)

The podcast highlights a Haitian micro-finance called Fonkoze (click on link to learn more).

One of their programs provides grants to "ultra poor" women in Haiti. The interviewee indicates that these women typically don't have the means to be able to even pay back a small loan. If they make $1.25/day, they are making too much to qualify for the program.

Although our Haiti Educator and Leadership Institute doesn't work directly with the ultra poor of Haiti, our premise is that by appropriately supporting and equipping teachers, we will positively impact the lives of their students who might grow up in incredibly impoverished households.

There are different ways for people to move out of poverty. Certainly, micro-loans can support the ability of individuals to become self-reliant. Education is another means and we must recognize that these are not in competition with each other but are, in fact, part of a holistic approach to development and capacity-building.

2017 Haiti Educator and Leadership Institute countdown

We are just about thee months from this year's Educator and Leadership Institute in Cap-Haitien, Haiti and there have been some exciting developments:

1. Instructional team doubles to accommodate a new cohort of Haitian participants. 
We will be taking 12 instructors with us this year to teach two cohorts of teachers (each cohort will include approximately 150 participants). We are offering the same six courses as last year (math, science, critical literacy, early learning, special education, and leadership) but these will be offered in two sections: "part 1" for those who are new participants and "part 2" for those who participated last year. One of the exciting requests that was made from one of our school partners in Haiti was to include some instruction and resources on ecological sustainability. This is a critical topic in Haiti and we are delighted that one of our new instructional leaders has a specialized background in this field.

2. New women's education, entrepreneurship, and empowerment network.
We will be completing a needs assessment as part of ELI 2017 to determine how we might be able to support female students and educators in the area of entrepreneurship and empowerment. We are excited about the potential this network might have for connecting emerging female leaders in Haiti with established female leaders in Haiti and Canada. A number of our Canadian participants will be meeting with groups of high school and university students, as well as young Haitian educators, to examine the feasibility, and scope, of this professional learning network.

3. New specialized workshops.
This year, in addition to the four hours of morning courses and the afternoon practicum, we will be offering a number of specialized workshops that participants can complete in the late afternoon. These will include topics such as online learning and technology in the classroom. These will be led by our participating members from Apple and Desire2Learn.

I am thankful that we have such tremendous partners in Haiti and Canada. The success of ELI is built on these partnerships!