Disaster Response Haiti Project #63848

Hope and Solidarity 4 Haiti!

by Economic Stimulus Projects for Work and Action (ESPWA)

Project Report | Jan 29, 2025
Challenges, Victories and Determination

By Marie-Rose Romain Murphy | Servant Leader

Dear Friend,

We want to thank you for your unfailing support. We are living in interesting times and we need your support more than ever.

Looking back at this past year is bittersweet. Our Network faced plenty of challenges in Haiti, our country, where political strife and extreme humanitarian crisis have put all of us in a state of constant insecurity and anxiety.

As a community foundation, Fondation Communautaire Haitienne-Espwa (the Haiti Community Foundation) is here to stay. ESPWA and the Fondation have worked “tèt ansanm”/heads together our communities to meet their needs according to their priorities and helped to make their oh so modest dreams a reality.

In December 2024, floods and landslides devasted the Southern Peninsula of Haiti that we serve. Thousands of community residents lost their homes, crops, and farm animals- their livelihoods that they had worked so hard to build. Some even lost their children. It is a terrible setback and a painful way to end the year. Nevertheless, “Lespwa fè viv” as we say in Creole. “Hope keeps us living”. With your support, we shall overcome with the grit and determination that characterize our organization, our communities and our nation.

Getting things done and doing them well in Haiti is an achievement and a victory. We have had many over the past year:

VICTORIES

Thanks to the support of the Vitol Foundation and of an anonymous donor, we set up FR2 “Fon Rapid Repons”/Rapid Response Fund which allowed us to support local clinics in the South of Haiti that face an overwhelming number of cholera cases without support. We also worked with the Haitian Red Cross chapter of Saint Louis du Sud to provide outreach and services to their communities. According to the World Health Organization, in 2024, Haiti dealt with the third worst cholera epidemic in the world. Children in remote communities were particularly affected. Our support saved hundreds of lives.

The non state armed forces that other called gangs have been controlling Port-au-Prince where services and supplies in Haiti are centralized. Hundreds of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) fleeing the violence left for the provinces. The UN International Migration Organization estimates that 67% of these IDPs went to the Southern Peninsula which was not prepared for this migration. Our Network focused on boosting local agricultural and fishing production as food insecurity and dependency on imports have been off the charts. We have supported associations of local farmers and a network of fishermen and women. A Network of Disabled Women produced a video to show how our support was critical to finance and develop their micro-businesses and help them attain a higher level of self-sufficiency.

Our Next Steps

We are working on many initiatives that are transformational for our communities, the region and the countries. Watch for our upcoming manual on “Mutuelles Solidarités Plus”, a community group savings model that we reengineered to maximize community participants’ benefits and revenues. We have helped dozens of MUSOs and have been linking them in a larger network. It is a game changer as it helps low-income community stakeholders access financing and build financial assets at a reasonable cost!

We are also working on an impactful transformation center that will leverage the Grand’Anse breadfruit production to create gluten free and highly nutritional breadfruit flour which is in high demand in Haiti and abroad. We are thankful for the support of local and international organizaitons such as L’Organisation Internationale du Travail and to Francois Chavenet, The Haiti Community Foundation’s National Treasurer who joined his family in donating the land for this project.

The floods of December have set our communities back, but as we said and as we will repeat, we shall prevail.

Please continue to support us. Your donation is tax deductible and will help our communities and their families to” leve kanpe”/get back on their feet.

Mèsi anpil!

The Haiti Community Foundation Network and the communities that we serve.

Espwa means hope in Haitian Creole

Permalink

Aug 2, 2024
Community-Led Development = Resilience + Progress

By Marie-Rose Romain Murphy | Servant Leader

First, we want to thank you for your support that we don't take for granted. We are in fact very grateful for your solidarity with Haitian communities. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

The situation in Haiti has been challenging. If you are thinking, what else is new? You are probably right. We do have a new Prime Minister now and efforts by the police and international stakeholders have been made to target the gangs controlling Port-au-Prince. Hope is there even though we are not stable yet.

ESPWA working with the Fondation Communautaire Haitienne-Espwa has been working in the Grand Sud of Haiti to support community initiatives and efforts to address their own issues and help their communities move forward.

In January of this year, thanks to your support and the support of the Vitol Foundation and an anonymous funder, we set up "Fon Repons Rapid"/Rapid Response Fund to provide much needed financial and in-kind support to many clinics and organizations in the Grand Sud that were overwhelmed by an out-of-control cholera epidemic. Communities far from the urban centers and their young children were particularly affected. We started receiving SOS calls from places like Pestel and Abricots that were not getting any support from local, regional or national health authorities. Our immediate response save hundreds of lives. We also worked with the Haitian Red Cross' Saint Louis du Sud Chapter on their prevention and outreach efforts.

In terms of community development, we have been working on supporting community savings programs and linking them to each other into networks. Our support has helped them to increase their revenue by over 66%. We are working on a Manual that will help other organizations to set up and develop these programs in other parts of Haiti and other parts of the world where access to financing is an issue for rural communities.

Other projects with exciting potential are on the way. Nothing more satisfying than seeing community dreams take shape and come true!

Allow us to share one of our stories with you.

One of our community partners, FCOCACB (Femmes Coopératives pour la Commercialisation Agricole Coordonnée de Belance) is building a multi-purpose community and commercial center with the help of the Haiti Community Foundation (Fondation Communautaire Haitienne-Espwa together with ESPWA, Inc- Economic Stimulus Projects for Work and Action).

As we are integrating community-led development and disaster preparedness, to develop and strengthen resilience in Haiti. The building will support:

--An agricultural products transformation center;
--A community room which will double as a shelter for community residents in times of disasters;
--An office;
--A storage area for products

Please comment and request more information if you would like to hear more.Thank you for helping us to work With communities For communities.

The Haiti Community Foundation Network (ESPWA and Fondation Communautaire Haitienne-Espwa)

Permalink

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.