Small Business Development
Micro-credit institutes provide Haitians the opportunity to start or improve small businesses. Local
groups of small business owners and potential business owners (typically 15 to 25 individuals) create a
cooperative. The cooperative provides loans to each of the members at high interest rates. The high
interest rate is to ensure that the loan is only short term and is not subsidizing the business. The
principal is then returned to the original lender and the institute continues functioning with the money
created from the interest and from potential future loans. Hope for Haiti will also provide hands on
business training to small business owners in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their
businesses. Small business development creates long-term economic growth and provides job
opportunities.
Micro-credit institutes provide Haitians the opportunity to start or improve small businesses. Local
groups of small business owners and potential business owners (typically 15 to 25 individuals) create a
cooperative. The cooperative provides loans to each of the members at high interest rates. The high
interest rate is to ensure that the loan is only short term and is not subsidizing the business. The
principal is then returned to the original lender and the institute continues functioning with the money
created from the interest and from potential future loans. Hope for Haiti will also provide hands on
business training to small business owners in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their
businesses. Small business development creates long-term economic growth and provides job
opportunities.
Future Projects
Hope for Haiti, P.O. Box 496, Westminster, MD 21158-0496 Telephone: (410)-848-7343 e-mail: admin@hope-for-haiti.org
Hope for Haiti
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School Construction Project
Hope for Haiti has been working with the administration of Ecole du St. Espirit de Grande Sable since 2006.
The small school in Grand-Sable, Ile-a-Vache provides preschool through second grade classes for 35
children whose families do not have the means to pay the costs associated with private or public education.
Because there are no other schools in Grand Sable most children have to walk up to three hours a day to
and from schools in other villages. Many of these children have poor attendance because they cannot
make it to school on days when the weather is bad and they are unable to cross one of the many waterways
on the island.
Ecole du St. Espirit de Grande Sable was a one room school with a dirt floor, palm frond walls and a tin roof
destroyed during the 2007 hurricane season. Hope for Haiti is currently raising funds to build a new school
for the community of Grand Sable. The school construction project encompasses building a 10 classroom
concrete school building, hiring and training new teachers, purchasing furniture, supplies and materials.
The project will provide free schooling to a majority of the children of Grand-Sable as well as other needy
children from surrounding communities. The budget for the construction project plus a two year operating
budget is $20,000.
UPDATE - The first five classrooms are complete. The new Ecole du St. Espirit de Grand Sable is currently
providing free education to 150 children. Plans are underway for the construction of an additional five
classrooms that will expand the school to a total of 300 children.
Below: Left and Middle-pictures of the original school destroyed in a 2007 hurricane.
Right- the first phase of the new school construction project.
Hope for Haiti has been working with the administration of Ecole du St. Espirit de Grande Sable since 2006.
The small school in Grand-Sable, Ile-a-Vache provides preschool through second grade classes for 35
children whose families do not have the means to pay the costs associated with private or public education.
Because there are no other schools in Grand Sable most children have to walk up to three hours a day to
and from schools in other villages. Many of these children have poor attendance because they cannot
make it to school on days when the weather is bad and they are unable to cross one of the many waterways
on the island.
Ecole du St. Espirit de Grande Sable was a one room school with a dirt floor, palm frond walls and a tin roof
destroyed during the 2007 hurricane season. Hope for Haiti is currently raising funds to build a new school
for the community of Grand Sable. The school construction project encompasses building a 10 classroom
concrete school building, hiring and training new teachers, purchasing furniture, supplies and materials.
The project will provide free schooling to a majority of the children of Grand-Sable as well as other needy
children from surrounding communities. The budget for the construction project plus a two year operating
budget is $20,000.
UPDATE - The first five classrooms are complete. The new Ecole du St. Espirit de Grand Sable is currently
providing free education to 150 children. Plans are underway for the construction of an additional five
classrooms that will expand the school to a total of 300 children.
Below: Left and Middle-pictures of the original school destroyed in a 2007 hurricane.
Right- the first phase of the new school construction project.
