23769: (news) Blanchet: Fw: Fonkoze summit: Global experts attack Haitian poverty (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net>
From: "Ethan Casey" <ecasey@blueear.com>


> Dear colleague,
>
> Anne Hastings, the director of Fonkoze (www.fonkoze.org), Haiti's largest
> microcredit institution, has asked me to tell you about an event Fonkoze
is
> sponsoring next week in partnership with Zanmi Lasante (Partners in
Health),
> Dr. Paul Farmer's organization, next week on Haiti's Central Plateau.
>
> We've been spreading the word by disseminating the notice below and have
> noticed that you haven't signed up to receive daily email summaries during
> the summit. If you'd like to receive them, please email me at:
>
> summit@fonkoze.org
>
> We'll also be publishing summaries of what the summit achieves via email
and
> online at www.fonkoze.org/summit.htm along with your questions and
thoughts,
> should you wish to offer them. And if you have any private questions,
please
> feel free to email me any time.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Ethan Casey
>
> Zanmi Lasante/Fonkoze summit publicity
>
> Global summit on reaching Haiti's poorest, Nov 14-19, 2004:
> http://www.fonkoze.org/summit.htm
>
> ***
>
> Join Global Grassroots Leaders Attacking Haiti's Poverty
>
> Five seasoned practitioners from Asia, Africa, and Latin America will
gather
> November 14-19, 2004 in Haiti. Their assignment: Solve the problem of
> economic dependency for Haiti's most vulnerable.
>
> Fonkoze (pronounced Fon-koh-zay) and Zanmi Lasante (Partners In Health)
are
> organizing the working summit to attack Third World problems with Third
> World experience. Fonkoze is Haiti's largest microfinance institution.
Zanmi
> Lasante is the leading non-governmental provider of rural primary medical
> care in Haiti.
>
> Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Zanmi Lasante, says: "I am tired of bringing
> people on the edge of death from tuberculosis, AIDS or other diseases to
the
> point where they can become economically active, then watching them suffer
> because they have no way to make a living." Farmer's work in central Haiti
> is the subject of the bestseller Mountains Beyond Mountains by Pulitzer
> Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder.
>
> The organizers invite you to take part by receiving email updates before,
> during and after the November 14-19, 2004 summit. You can also interact
via
> our website with these experts as they design their solution for Haiti.
You
> will be party to the birth of the solution. To join the summit, email:
>
> summit@fonkoze.org
>
> "We want to explode the myth that we don't know how to end extreme
poverty,"
> says Anne Hastings, Fonkoze's director.
>
> "We know it can be done because we do it every day," adds summit
participant
> Rabeya Yasmin, manager of BRAC's program for the ultra-poor in Bangladesh.
> "In our program, 75% of participating women have achieved a sustainable
> livelihood over a 2-year period, at a cost of $291 per person."
>
> "Microfinance is a way out of poverty for those ready to participate,"
says
> Hastings. "But those in extreme poverty are not yet ready. Getting them
> ready is our challenge."
>
> The summit's concrete and interactive format will "immerse the
practitioners
> in the reality of Haiti, then quickly bring them out of that and into
> intensive working sessions, drawing on their deep experience in radically
> different cultures," says Hastings.
>
> "We're pushing the boundaries of problem-solving methodology, by fostering
> intensive cross-cultural interaction among expert practitioners. The
purpose
> is to design the programs that will transform the most destitute from
> recipients of charity to independent heads of households."
> _________________
>
> For more information or to receive summit updates, email:
summit@fonkoze.org
>
> To follow the summit online, visit: http://www.fonkoze.org
>