Reflecting on cooperatives and economic deveolopment

Last week, the cooperatives in Duchity, Haiti had their second annual meeting. Last year, their group had 300 members and this year they're nearing 1000! Their elected president is a woman, and they have various other women in high ranking positions. In one much-anticipated election, a woman beat out five men to lead one of the committees. This marks huge progress Ina country with such distinct traditional gender roles. Cooperatives often provide women with economic solvency and help them to gain equal status in their communities.

I continue to be amazed at just how effective the cooperative model can be. So many foreigners come to Haiti to build schools and churches, often with great intentions, but the amount of money spent on these projects is incredible! If only people could think of investing in development and empowering Haitians to lift themselves out of poverty, they might start to see some amazing returns for their money. With hard work and cooperation, cooperative members are able to make money and support themselves.

Duchity announced at their meeting that they have purchased their own land. They already have plans to construct a training center, which will be used as a meeting space, a training center, and a community center. And because their cooperative is so productive and profitable, they aren't even asking for any loan money!

Yesterday, I met an international coordinator for the Canadian Pentocostal church. He told me about a community that one of his churches partners with just outside of Port-au-Prince. The priests at that church welcomed the partnership and keep asking money for bigger and bigger projects. For him, it all came to a head with a school that they wanted to build, which he refers to as the Taj Ma-Haiti. He tried explaining to their Haitian partners that any church in Canada would love to have a building like that, but they make do with much less, but Haitian priests were insistent that the school represented what the community needed. The Canadian organization had to take a step back. They hired a Haitian organization, productive cooperatives Haiti (pcH), to do a full community assessment. The Canadian Pentocostal church sees their role in partnering with a church as a commitment to partnering with the whole community and lifting all of God's children to a better standard of living. Now, with the assessment complete, they can approach their church partners with a better understanding of the community, its strengths, and its needs, and everyone can coordinate their efforts in the most efficient development projects. They anticipate doing agricultural training, using appropriate technology to help the fisherman increase productivity, helping the community to improve their access to clean water, and helping them to build successful cooperatives. Over time, each of these investments will make the community more self-sustaining, and then they can decide if their own money would be well spent on a Taj Ma-Haiti, or perhaps a more traditional school building.

Miguel, Parish Twinning and Rising Above Poverty

Miguel is pretty remarkable.  He’s smart student who speaks Creole and French and understands quite a bit of English.  But even more remarkable, he’s not married, he has no children, and he’s twenty.  Wow.  He’s charming and attractive, and he doesn’t even have a girlfriend…  that doesn’t happen in Haiti.

So, what made this possible?  What gave him the confidence to pursue his education, and what let his family allow him to do that?  After all, he should be working in a field somewhere, building a family, and being a productive person.

He lives in a parish with a twin/partner in the states.  He goes to a church-based school.  We can credit his language skills to his education, which likely has roots in that twinning relationship.  But there are twin parishes all over the place here through a billion different NGOs, and most twenty year-olds are still done with school.  I’ve learned that school is a potential starting point, but it doesn’t hold the answers.  That’s not where I put my money, my investment dollars, or even my time.

Miguel’s overall success in life really is due to his family’s stability.  Fond Baptiste has a productive cooperative.  His family is economically stable.  They can let him finish school, they value his education because they see how it will help them all, and they encourage him to wait to have a family because they see hope for his future. 

Kids all over this country go to church-based schools, but if their families are not stable and their communities can’t see a future for in their education… Schools aren’t the answer.  Churches aren’t the answer.  Economic development and community building are.

          I’ll go one step further, and then I’ll get off my soap box.  There is a ridiculous amount of money coming into Haiti every day.  People are bringing everything from beanie babies to life-saving medications.  Many organizations have been doing this for years and years providing all variations of handouts.  As my friend, Colleen, said tonight, there’s nothing more demeaning that repeatedly asking someone, “What do you need?”  To truly partner with someone you need to live with them, work with them, and ask them how they do things.  Haitians have been surviving, against all odds, for much longer than they technically should have.  We need to recognize their strengths and empower them to stand up with outstretched empty hands.  Only then will we start to learn.  And I’m just starting myself… 

Leaving for Haiti

Hi all!
    My trip to Haiti is fast approaching.  I can't believe I fly out in 2 days!!!  This trip I'll be working on a partnership with a really cool Canadian-based organization named FIDA and their Haitian counterpart PCH.
    Here's my understanding of their organization... supporting schools, building orphanages and adopting kids (often kids with living parents) are all really temporary fixes focusing on child poverty.  As Betsy puts it, "I don't believe in child poverty, I believe in adult poverty."
    By whatever mechanism, a community can be referred to FIDA-PCH.  They have an assessment team that goes door to door and asks families about their strengths, their cultural background, and their past work experience.  Then they synthesize all of their findings and make some recommendations to the community.  After the village chooses their own path, they can apply for grant money and make it happen.  For example, a farming community who had ceased to farm because of problems with the irrigation system applied for a grant to fix the irrigation system.  They got a grant, and FIDA hired local villagers to work on their own project (not outside volunteers, Haitians are fully capable of manual labor). FIDA helped them toward an agricultural cooperative.
     And then what happened?  Men started coming back from the cities where they were living in slums and looking for work.  Families started saving.  The community invested in their own schools.  Nutrition in the community improved.  Families didn't have to leave their kids in orphanages for them to get 3 meals a day.  And the community owned their success.  They did it.  By fixing the adult poverty, the child poverty disappeared.
   I spent a month at Walls Guest House last fall taking Creole classes and meeting with various NGOs to see who I might work with in the future.  But I never thought to work with FIDA-PCH.  Two days before I left, I met Betsy Wall.  (Her parents formed FIDA as their retirement project.  Her dad would work out in the fields with the cooperatives, while her mom ran the guest house as a fundraiser.  Now FIDA is a massive Canadian nonprofit and very effective.)
    As I was telling Betsy about my goals, she mentioned that their communities have health promoters and trained birth attendants who have been begging her to start a medical program.  I helped advise them on a really simple door-to-door health survey, which they've started incorporating with their field.   assessment.  And here I am packing to go down and do who-knows-what with them.  We'll start with an orientation, hopefully outline some goals and objectives, and then I'll get to meet the health promoters.  I'm hoping to help coordinate education and programming.  Maybe I'll teach on some topics.  They've also requested that I assist in developing a prenatal-care program.  (Haitian Ministries and Emily Smack were kind enough to pack me a HUGE bag of handmade baby blankets and other baby-related items for the midwives to hand out at their prenatal classes.)

(myself, my mom, & Enoch when we were in Haiti, 10/09)

  Anyhoo... I'll keep you posted as to my adventures.  Here's my tentative itinerary for anyone who's interested.  :-)
Peace, Becky

Leave Tuesday, May 4, 2010 American Airlines 837

Depart: 9:05am New York, NY (JFK), Arrive: 12:50pm Port Au Prince, Haiti (PAP)

Return Friday, May 28, 2010 American Airlines 896

Depart: 2:05pm Port Au Prince, Haiti (PAP), Arrive: 7:25pm New York, NY New York (JFK)

You will be working with our team here in Haiti, productive cooperatives Haiti. Pierre Richard is the coordinator and Jean Elto Vincent is the administrator.

1. They propose that you spend May 5 and 6 at the pcH office for orientation and planning.
2. You can spend May 7, 8, 9, 10 in Kenscoff.
3. May 11-14 you will be in Delis which is in the Chaine de Mathieau mountain range. Transportation will be provided and you will be returned to the guest house each night. There is no physical clinic building in this community.
4. You have a free weekend.
5. May 17 you will be at pcH office for planning.
6. May 18 is a holiday (Flag Day)
7. May 19-21 and May 24-27 you will be in Fon Batis which is in the Chaine de Mathieau mountain range as well. You will be accommodated there for the week days and will return for the weekend to the guest house. There is a building that was intended to serve as a clinic but there is limited supplies or equipment. There is no doctor or nurse but there are some health agents and trained midwives.
8. May 28 is debriefing at the office.
9. You will be provided a translator with medical knowledge.
10. Transportation will be provided to and from the field and to and from the guest house as well as accommodation and food in the field.
11. Supplies can be purchased in Haiti. As to what to bring, I have asked of the field can provide some advice.
12. You can fly directly into Port au Prince. You can arrange directly with Veniel for airport pick up and accommodation as per the above schedule. I unfortunately will not be around.