Gate in Fondwa, on the road to Jakmel, Haiti

Fonkoze board members at University of Fondwa 

The University of Fondwa 2004 (UNIF) is a post-secondary institution in Haiti which
 educates the daughters and sons of rural peasants in the areas of agronomy, 
business management, and veterinary medicine and equips them 

to be future leaders of their communities and nation. 

Two of dozens of students at UNIF

UNIF was destroyed in the January 12, 2010. The community came
together to clear the rubble and rebuild UNIF and the adjacent
St. Antoine School for K-12 education, serving more than 600 children.

University students gather for afternoon class in Fondwa

A student in Fondwa taking a break after class

Cemetery outside of Fondwa

Family in Fondwa 

Located in an area north of Jakmèl, the capital of Haiti's Southeast department,
Kapwouj is a small rural community, primarily dependent on agriculture and livestock-rearing.    

A home in Kapwouj near the community center, where
Fonkoze clients gather weekly for business skills development,
training, debt management and repayment. 

Fonkoze clients in Kapwouj at a center meeting. Access to capital in Kapwouj is
even more limited than in Jakmèl, which means that women who have been historically poor
need solid financial training and the ability to scale up their businesses over time.  

Fonkoze’s Ti Kredi ("little credit") program effectively provides financial training
and the gradual scale-up of loans. Fonkoze introduced the Ti Kredi program
to the region in 2011, with approximately 300 clients.  

Women who enter Ti Kredi are extremely vulnerable, many of them only slightly
better off than those who qualify for Fonkoze's program for the ultra-poor. 

After a one-month introduction to microfinance and the basics of running a business,
Ti Kredi clients receive their first loan, the equivalent of about $25, with a month to pay it back.
They then receive a $35 microloan with a 2-month repayment period,
and finally, a $60 microloan with a 3-month repayment period.

By the end of the six-month program, they gain the skills and experience to enter Solidarity, 

Fonkoze's primary lending program, which starts with loans of $75. 

The 300 clients in Kapwouj who entered the Ti Kredi program in 2011 graduated 

into Solidarity lending, and now belong to the Jakmèl branch, which serves 

over 3,700 Solidarity clients, 825 of them in Kapwouj. 

The Ti Kredi program re-entered Kapwouj in 2013, and has about 115 clients currently in the program,
working their way to the third step of Fonkoze's Staircase Out of Poverty.

Fonkoze Founder Father Joseph Philippe with school girls from St. Antoine School

Fonkoze Director of Communications Linda Boucard with students from St. Antoine

Beautiful students in Kapwouj bid our delegation adieu