Report on Haiti microfinance loans
My son is in Haiti today and my thoughts drift there with him. When I was in Haiti last May, I saw that one long-term answer for Haitians to be able t...
My son is in Haiti today and my thoughts drift there with him. When I was in Haiti last May, I saw that one long-term answer for Haitians to be able to provide for themselves was to help the nation's entrepreneurs to create jobs. As I walked through a tent city one day, a man called to me. "Are you just taking pictures, or are you going to help us?"
I went over to him and said, "Tell me about yourself."
"My name is Augustin. I have a small bakery that I started since the earthquake."
He showed me the inside of his shop. "If I could get some help, I'd expand and start a bakery in another neighborhood."
Augustin confirmed what I'd been thinking. We needed to start a microfinance ministry to make loans to small businessmen like him who could create the jobs that Haitians need.
Since then, a participant on one of our trips, Matt Loeffler, volunteered to help us start that ministry. He just filed his first report. I was delighted to see that one of the first loans they made was to none other than Augustin. Since then his business has continued to grow. Here's Matt's report:
Over the past 3
months, I've had the blessing of working with a few of our amazing Haitian
pastor partners and the business owners within their congregations and it has
been an extremely fruitful and rewarding process.Our approach was to have the pastors select a group of
individuals from their congregation who they knew to be both successful
business owners and solid men & women of faith. This way they had a support network within
the church of others they could seek for help, counsel, and spiritual support
under the supervision of their pastor.
In total we gave out 18 loans to 4 different church groups this summer.One gentleman, Augustin Jean Louis, runs a
very successful bakery business called Boulangerie Pain De Vie (Bread of Life
Bakery) with 2 locations, 3 employees at each.
When AIM first met him he only had one oven at the nearest location but
was making a good profit on the bread he was able to produce. By his own success he was able to purchase 2
more ovens, triple his production, hire some workers, and grow his
profits. He has a dream of one day
owning 10 stores.The money we lent him gave him the opportunity to purchase
more products and turn it into additional profits. It also served as
the first step in what we hope will be a long-term relationship.
On one occasion, after receiving the funds, the group of
business owners gathered together at the back of the church to pray for
the money and sing worship to God. Many people feel beaten down by the futile
economy and virtually non-existent job market, but their spirit of hard work
and productivity is alive and well. They
just need a little help getting started.
