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Fonkoze Highlighted In New Philanthropic Guide For Long-Term Development In Haiti
Fonkoze is featured in a new guide, “Haiti: How Can I Help? Models for Donors Seeking Long-Term Impact,” released on Thursday, June 10, 2010, by the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. The guide profiles Fonkoze’s poverty alleviation model as a highly effective avenue for today’s results-oriented philanthropists who are looking to help the people of Haiti develop the capacity they need to build a brighter future after the earthquake in Port-au-Prince.
Micro-finance helps unlock the entrepreneurial potential of the poor with small loans and other assistance they need to lift themselves out of poverty. Fonkoze also offers micro-insurance services, education, literacy, and health programs, remittance payment services, and savings accounts for more than 200,000 clients. Overall, Fonkoze directly touches the lives of more than one million Haitians.
Fonkoze targets the poorest of the poor in Haiti. As of 2007, 79 percent of Haitians were living on less than $2 per day and 55 percent were living on less than $1 per day. More than 99 percent of the people receiving Fonkoze loans are women and the average size of Fonkoze’s basic loan is just $172.
“Fonkoze is honored to be profiled in the Center for High Impact Philanthropy’s new guide on Haiti,” said Natalie Domond, Fonkoze’s Director of Social Performance Management. “Fonkoze’s commitment to its clients is unwavering and founded on the principle that Haiti’s rural poor want innovative services to help them take control of their future and build a better life- especially following the earthquake.”
“Haiti: How Can I Help? Models for Donors Seeking Long-Term Impact,” is available free of charge at: http://www.impact.upenn.edu/international-issues/reports/category/haiti/.
Fondasyon Kole Zépol (Fonkoze) is Haiti’s largest, most innovative micro-finance institution with over 200,000 clients. It operates 42 branches across Haiti and in every province of the country, including many towns and villages where no commercial banks operate. It is the institution on which Haiti’s poor have relied on, especially during crisis, since 1994.