25066: Wharram - News - In Time of Drought Women Key to Family Livelihood in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Bruce Wharram <bruce.wharram@sev.org>



 In Time of Drought Women Key to Family Livelihood in Haiti
10 May 2005 15:05:00 GMT
Source: NGO latest

Melina Pavlides/CWS

Website: http://www.churchworldservice.org
May 5, 2005 By Melina Pavlides/CWS Gros-Morne, Haiti

>From March 29 to April 9, CWS staff Martin Coria, Don Tatlock, and Melina
Pavlides, visited 13 communities in Haiti's Northwest and Artibonite
Departments where CWS Emergency Response and Social and Economic Development
Programs are sharing resources in a concerted effort to assist families
following last September's Tropical Storm Jeanne and to address ongoing
issues of food security related to drought.

Daily life in Haiti, a mostly agrarian society, consists of frequent trips
to the market for a majority of the country's eight million people. Last
September, many lost what little they had in the massive flood caused by
Tropical Storm Jeanne that killed some 3,000 persons. Now in a protracted
season of drought, families rely on profits from commercial trade to meet
basic needs, because there is little farming or harvesting. Women are
central to this commercial sector.

Women, especially in rural communities, often travel 10 - 15 miles or more
on foot, by mule, or by overcrowded bus in the hot sun with their
merchandise in tow to reach village markets where they sell, buy, or trade
their goods for a small profit. After hours spent in the market, they begin
the long journey home to provide for their families. The following day the
process starts all over again. "The sheer physical strength, ingenuity, and
resilience of the women of this country is remarkable," says Peter Graeff,
(CWS Program Assistant for Haiti from 1983-88), a 30-year veteran of the
country, and now an independent consultant for CWS.

CWS, together with long-time partners Service Christian D'Haiti (SCH) and
Christian Center for Integrated Development (SKDE), is supporting economic
activity of women through 13 local community groups or cooperatives (co-ops)
with micro-credit and literacy programs in Haiti's Northwest Department. The
micro-credit programs, also managed by women, provide small loans that boost
the economic capacity of member families to meet immediate needs – food,
school, medicine, and transportation, while also expanding buying power in
the markets. "Loans used for commercial buying and selling helps supplement
seasonal crop income," Graeff explains. "Harvests are far between in the
region, especially now because of the drought, so women often travel five
days a week to the city marketplace."

"The women manage the micro-credit programs very well," says Martin Coria,
CWS Associate Director of the Social and Economic Development Program. "In
many cases, the women have already secured their own capital for the
programs before receiving inputs from outside sources like CWS and other
funding partners. We hope with more input, training, and support, these
communities will increase their profit margins, build on their capital,
develop more advanced skills in income generation, and move toward
sustainability," says Coria. "It takes time and will require more advanced
training, but the groups we have met are eager to learn and are progressing
very well."

"For us, the priorities are to send our children to school, provide food and
medicine for our families, and to add to the capital of the community bank,"
says Madam La Vie Saint-Phillip, secretary of Fidelity Community Bank in
Gros-Morne, which has 250 members. "Even in the dry months, we are able to
finance agricultural and small manufacturing enterprises that sell rice,
salt, sugar, beans, oil, flour, kerosene, soap, and matches. One of our
goals is to be more versatile. When something becomes unprofitable, we want
to be able to change or diversify our activities to meet market demands."

For many of the women running the micro-credit programs, replenishing
capital is an overarching goal. "More money means more members and expanding
to address needs of more women and their families," adds Saint-Phillip. "We
don't want to exclude anyone. If we continue to replenish capital and build
on it, we can become more inclusive."

"Women are ready and energized to do better in the buying and selling
market," says Toussaint Wilbert, project coordinator of SCH. The progress of
the micro-credit programs that facilitate their trading activities, however,
cannot grow too fast or serve borrowers superficially. Continued support in
terms of accompaniment, training, and management skills is vital."

CWS-assisted literacy programs for women in the co-ops have produced
remarkable results in empowering and preparing women for increased growth
and opportunity. "When they go to the banks in Gonaives, they can read and
understand business documents," says Norelia Eneteda, president of "Serious
Business," a micro-credit group and member of the literacy program in the
Bravard community. "They are able to make better decisions with greater
confidence."

For 23-year-old Erlene D'estines, the literacy program has more symbolic
meaning. Once she completes the SKDE-sponsored literacy-training program,
she will be certified to train others -- something she is extremely proud
of. "My independence is very important to me," D'estines says. Although I
want to have a family someday, my education is most important and because
this opportunity was given to me, I want to share it with others. I remember
when I was first able to read and write my own name, I cried."

As part of its multi-country sustainable food security program, which
receives major support from Foods Resource Bank, CWS will continue to assist
women-run micro-credit and literacy programs in Haiti's Northwest and
Artibonite Departments through 2008.

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of
Reuters. ]