Help Haitian Families Rise From Poverty to Dignity

All 160 Families Have Savings Accounts, Thanks to Supporters Like You

Your generous support for families in Beyond Borders' Family Sponsorship Program is changing everything for them, and I can't thank you enough for it!

They are beginning to earn a living and are on the road to financial independence, thanks to you and your generosity.

That's because your sponsorship is making a series of key financial interventions possible that collectively will ensure that families can earn a dignified living and provide for themselves long after they graduate.

In addition to the livestock and goods to start a small business that your support makes possible for families, all 160 families in the current cohort of the program now have a savings account in their local Village Savings and Loan.

This milestone is a key part of their journey to financial independence -- and it's made possible by you and supporters like you. Thank you!

Village Savings and Loans empower families to save for the future. S&Ls also provide access to funds that families can borrow to expand their small business or get much-needed emergency funds in times of crisis. S&L members are trained by Beyond Borders in financial transparency and accountability, and leaders are elected by members of each Village Savings and Loan.

Families also get regular training in how to manage their new businesses, along with weekly cash stipends at the start of the 24-month program to help them stabilize their household income and focus on developing their earning and saving capacity.

I'm so grateful for all that you make possible for families through your generous support. Thank you again for your generosity and your solidarity as families work to overcome extreme poverty, gain financial independence, and transform their lives for good!

It's No Exaggeration: Your Generosity is Changing Everything for Families

It can sometimes be hard to convey the depth of transformation that families in our Family Graduation Program experience. It's no exaggeration when I say that your generous support will change everything for these families. 

Recently, I read a powerful and moving testimony from Monrose, 54, the mother of one of the 110 families who graduated in July 2023. The moment I read it, I knew I wanted to share it with you. In Monrose's story, you'll see how life-changing support like yours can be for families like her’s.

Here is Monrose, who lives in the village of Titans on Lagonav Island, in her own words:

Life was always difficult for me. My father and stepmother sent her four children to school, but I had to stay home and do all the chores. I have five children of my own. I used to avoid coming in contact with any neighbors so that no one would know how we were living. There were many days that our only meal was vines from the woods boiled with a little sugar cane. But some days I didn’t even have enough money to buy a bucket of water. One year, I sold the shelter I had built so that I could send the children to school. Then I really had nothing.

When I joined the Family Graduation Program, the first thing I did was use my stipend to buy moonshine to add flavors and then sell it for a profit. The other women encouraged me to try even though moonshine doesn’t sell well in other areas. It sold well. My caseworker Girlande showed me how to put some of the money into savings. She also showed me how to write my name so that I could sign.

Before I started in the program, I was always hungry. I’m not hungry anymore. You can see the meat on my bones. Now my children and I sleep in my house where it’s dry inside. I have a business and lots of goats. If I need to pay a large bill, I can sell a goat and there will be more. 

My house feels so big, it’s like a church. This year with the drought it was difficult to keep the garden watered, but I will plant again. I live right here in the middle of three busy paths. I don’t hide anymore! I chat with passersby. In the program we learned how to stand tall. I am proud of my situation even if it took me 50 years to get here. Sometimes I even have something to share.

Now I can count on myself. Life is still hard, but I only take steps forward. There are many other people around here that are in the same situation that I was in. I pray that each one of them can receive a boost like I did! ~ Monrose

I'm so grateful for all that you are making possible for families through your generous support. 

Your generosity and your solidarity will empower them to overcome extreme poverty, gain financial independence, and transform their lives for good, just like Monrose and her family did.

Your Generous Support Keeps Kids Healthy

One of the ways that supporters like you are making a difference for families is by helping parents keep their children healthy and well-nourished.

That's because your generous support makes it possible to conduct baseline health screenings when families join the program. These screenings -- conducted by the Family Graduation Program's project nurse -- identify any children suffering from malnutrition.

The program nurse looks for children who are lethargic, show signs of dehydration, or are covered with a rash. Children suspected of being severely malnourished are referred to the island's only hospital where they can get treated by a doctor. Those with less severe cases are given fortified milk or ready-to-use therapeutic food to help them overcome their malnutrition. 

Children continue to receive therapeutic food, fortified milk, and follow-up visits from the project nurse until they have fully recovered. It's this kind of care, concern, and close accompaniment that supporters like you make possible for children and their families.

Thank you for helping to keep children healthy!

Your Support Provides Real Stability During Haiti's Crisis

You are making all the difference for families in the Beyond Borders Family Graduation Program during Haiti's ongoing political crisis, providing them with real stability in a time of profound challenge.

Before the 160 families in this current cohort joined the Family Graduation Program, their lives were punctuated with frequent episodes of misery and despair.

But now -- even as the political crisis sends prices in their local market skyrocketing and makes it that much harder to earn a living -- families are persevering in the gains they've made, thanks to your support.

That's because your generosity is providing them with the skills and resources they need to earn a dignified living in normal times and to manage the complexities of a crisis like this.

One of the ways that your support does this is through the creation of village savings and loans. In normal times, they provide access to credit to fuel economic growth, and in times of crisis they serve as a source of emergency funds for families in need.

You can read more about how your support is empowering families in both good times and bad here: https://beyondborders.net/our-work/overcoming-poverty/

Thank You Again!

Your generosity and your solidarity is empowering families to overcome extreme poverty, gain financial independence, and transform their lives for good.

If you have any questions about what you read here, please contact Brian Stevens, Engagement Director, at (305) 450-2561 or b.stevens@beyondborders.net.

Links:

• Get an In-Depth Look at Haiti: Join a Beyond Borders Circle
• Read our Fall 2024 Impact Report from Haiti
• See the latest photos from Haiti on Instagram

Thank you again for your generous and faithful support for families in Beyond Borders' Family Graduation Program. Your solidarity means more than I can say as families navigate this tumultuous time in Haiti.

Ensuring Safe, Dignified Housing for Families

Right now on Lagonav Island, supporters like you are helping to ensure safe, dignified housing for families in the Family Graduation Program, so that none of them ever again have to live in a house like the one pictured above.

One of the primary reasons that Beyond Borders invites a family to join the Family Graduation Program is the poor state of their housing. It's one of the things that keeps families trapped in extreme poverty.

And while your support is helping to change this for families, what they receive from you isn't a handout. Each family works extremely hard. They will do all the manual labor of taking the wood and lime and rocks and water to the construction site of their new (or repaired) home.

Each family will pay for the windows and doors too, thanks in part to their caseworker who, in weekly visits with them, will help them learn how to manage the money they are earning from the income-generating assets (like farm animals, or the goods to start a small business) that your support also provides. 

Your generosity together with their hard work and determination will transform the trajectory of their lives. 

Your generous support for families on their journey to escape ultra-poverty is making all the difference for them during a very challenging moment in Haiti -- and for that I can never thank you enough!

What is Most Special About Your Support for Haitian Families?

You probably know that the generous support of people like you makes it possible to provide families with either the goods to start a small business or animals like goats, pigs, chickens, and donkeys to raise and breed so that they can begin earning a reliable income.

But your support for families in Beyond Borders' Family Graduation Program provides so much more. 

Education and close accompaniment are the heart of what your generosity makes possible.

Thanks in part to your support, a trained, dedicated caseworker makes weekly visits to families throughout the 24-months of the Family Graduation Program.

Caseworkers provide coaching, intensive education and training in how to care for and produce income from their new animals or their new business, and ongoing classes in life-skills like how to start a savings account, and how to set goals and plan for the future.

Your support also makes it possible for families to have access to free veterinary care for their new animals and free health care for themselves. Home repairs -- or building an entirely new home -- latrine construction, and a small cash subsidy of just over $6 U.S. per week during the period before they are bringing in income are also part of what you help make possible.

Supporters like you also help families bring home any children they’ve sent away and enroll them in a quality school close to home.

But what is most special and essential about your support is the close accompaniment of families that you help provide -- something we believe is the key to success.

Many families selected for the program are isolated from their community, in part because of their extreme poverty. They feel alone and need close accompaniment and relationship building.

This emphasis on accompaniment and building relationships among families in the program fits well with Beyond Borders’ ethic and the way we work in communities. It's an approach rooted in the dignity, solidarity, and grassroots empowerment of families -- and it's made possible by you.

Thank you again for standing in solidarity with families during this difficult time in Haiti.

Your support is making their journey out of ultra poverty possible.

New Monitoring and Evaluation Officer to Ensure Families Maintain Progress

Our partners implementing the program were able to recruit and appoint a monitoring and evaluation officer in February 2024. Also during the quarter, the staff benefited from a retraining session. The retraining was conducted with the aim of strengthening the team's capacity. The training theme was: raising awareness. We discussed the graduation approach as a strategy for getting people out of extreme poverty, coaching, coaching plans, emotional etymology, and home visits with documentation. This training allows the team to have greater capacity to support participants in lifting themselves out of poverty and to have more knowledge in project advancement. This training was conducted over three days, from February 14-16 in Ansagalè.

Veterinarian Hired to Care For Families Animals

With support from people like you, a veterinarian was hired to take care of the animals for a period of 18 months in the Pikmi, Palma, and Titans sections. The veterinarian is responsible for providing care to the animals at the members' homes and at the gathering points. From January 16 to March 30, 2024, the veterinarian checked the animals before they were distributed to the members. The veterinarian's follow-up visits happen two to three times a week at the beneficiaries' homes. The animals need to receive medication on a quarterly basis after an initial dose, however, additional follow-up visits to the members' homes may be necessary based on the animals' needs. For the quarter, the veterinarian took care of the following number of animals: Goats = 276, Donkeys = 30, Pigs = 11. Thank you for making the vet’s work possible!

Small Cash and Food Support for Families Continues

With support from people like you, small cash support continues to help participants save money, cook meals at home, and engage in other activities such as buying an animal, starting a small business, paying for school, buying materials to build a house, and purchasing water for household use. The persistent dry season has had a significant impact on the participants' living conditions in the sections. There are 160 participants who received a total of 2,400,000 gourdes over 15 weeks of small cash support, with each participant receiving 1,000 gourdes per follow-up visit. Thus, participants received a total of 21 weeks of small cash support amounting to 3,360,000 gourdes. The small food support will last for 24 weeks in the project.

Nurse Provides Care to Families

For this quarter, the nurse continued to follow up with participants at their homes, providing consultations when necessary, as well as conducting medical follow-ups. While making home visits, the nurse had an accident, injuring her right ankle. After a doctor's diagnosis, she was given medical leave to help her ankle heal for a month. However, from January to February, she managed to care for participants through home visits and mobile clinics. She conducted a five-day mobile clinic session from February 5 to February 10, 2024, for 160 participants in three centers. A total of 480 people (324 women and 156 men) received care at the clinic. Among the 480 people, 152 were program participants, and the other 328 were their spouses and children. During the clinic sessions, the nurse discussed the topic of personal hygiene to help people take better care of themselves and their families.

Your Generous Support Made Even More Work With Families Possible

Here’s a look at some of the other work with families that your support helped make possible this past quarter:

• 160 families took part in a second training to reinforce their capacity to raise and breed animals
• Animals purchased and distributed to all 160 families
• Cash stipends distributed weekly during visits by case managers to help families respond to  worsening food insecurity
• 99 families received water filters
• Materials to construct sanitary latrines purchased for 100 families
• 160 families were active in their village savings and loan

Thank You Again

Your generosity and solidarity are making all the difference for families in a difficult moment for Haiti. Thank you for continuing to stand with families.

If you have any questions about what you read here, please contact Brian Stevens, Engagement Director, at (305) 450-2561 or b.stevens@beyondborders.net.

Links:

• Pledge now to sponsor a family in Haiti!
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