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Global Partnerships to develop health services for Fonkoze clients
The Seattle-based nonprofit will develop health services for more than 50,000 women.
For immediate release, Thursday, November 17, 2011
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Seattle, Wash., - Global Partnerships (GP), a Seattle-based nonprofit social investor, announced today that it has launched a strategic initiative with Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest pro-poor microfinance institution, and Linked Foundation, a Carpinteria, California-based private foundation, to improve women’s health in Haiti.
The three groups are partnering to design and implement a package of essential health services intended to ultimately reach more than 50,000 Fonkoze clients—poor and ultra-poor women throughout Haiti—over the next three years.
“Given Fonkoze’s excellent programs and trusted relationship with tens of thousands of impoverished Haitian women, this is an important opportunity to reach the poorest of the poor with much-needed health services on a fully sustainable basis,” said Rick Beckett, President and CEO of Global Partnerships.
“In 2010, 15 percent of the poor market women served by Fonkoze left our program because of expenses related to health issues,” said Carine Roenen, Director of Fonkoze. “For years our clients have asked us to provide them with health services. Working with Global Partnerships and Linked Foundation will allow us to start responding to that request and reduce our clients’ vulnerability to disease and health-related economic shocks. It’s like a dream come true.”
The goal of the initiative is to develop a core package of health services and education that address prevalent health concerns of Fonkoze’s 100% women client base, and can be delivered in a low-cost, financially sustainable way by Fonkoze. The package, which is in the process of being designed, will likely include components such as preventive health education sessions, regular health screening and referral, and access to primary care consults.
The initiative is part of Global Partnerships’ three-year plan to forge partnerships to bring essential health services to 100,000 people living in poverty in Latin America. It is GP’s second strategic collaboration with Linked Foundation.
“We are delighted to work with Global Partnerships to help Fonkoze build on its exceptional approach to poverty alleviation by developing a sustainable health program,” said Dorothy Largay, Founder and CEO of Linked Foundation. “The potential for impact is tremendous.”
With the launch of this initiative, GP is working in nine countries in Latin America, including Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru.
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About Global Partnerships: Founded in 1994, Global Partnerships (GP) is a nonprofit social investor based in Seattle, Washington, and Managua, Nicaragua, whose mission is to expand opportunity for people living in poverty. GP invests in and develops sustainable solutions to help impoverished people in Latin America earn a living and improve their lives, including microcredit, basic health care, business education, technical assistance and access to markets for farmers, and green technology. See also www.globalpartnerships.org.
About Fonkoze: Fondasyon Kole Zépol (Fonkoze) is Haiti’s largest microfinance institution with more than 55,000 borrowers, most of whom live and work in the countryside of Haiti, and more than 255,000 savers. It operates out of 46 branches across Haiti and in every province of the country, including many towns and villages where no other banks operate. Fonkoze’s unwavering commitment to serving Haiti’s poor has driven the institution to develop its Staircase out of Poverty approach—a series of complementary programs and products designed to meet clients wherever they are and accompany them on their journey out of poverty. See also www.fonkoze.org.
About Linked Foundation: Linked Foundation is a private foundation that alleviates poverty by promoting and investing in solutions that improve the health and economic self-reliance of women in Latin America. See also www.linkedfoundation.org.