Haitian Microfinance, Inc. is pleased to announce that it has made a $25,000 grant to St. Boniface Foundation. The grant was made as a challenge to donors for an equal amount, the purpose being the establishment of a Fonkoze branch at Fond des Blancs, Haiti.
Fond des Blancs, Haiti, is a village approximately 68 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince. The village has an estimated 40,000 residents within a 5-mile radius. St. Boniface has established a hospital in the village that employs a staff of approximately 100 individuals, including 6 Haitian doctors.
In addition, St. Boniface has worked with the local cooperative of over 600 residents, which has a limited microlending program as well as projects assisting members in the production of honey, raising goats, and assisting fisherman with equipment to increase their productivity. The village has a thriving market, library, and family planning clinic.
St. Boniface, in addition to providing financial assistance to its various projects and operating the hospital, also sends volunteers from Jacksonville and Boston at least six times a year to perform surgery at the hospital.
In March 2007, Haitian Microfinance Inc.’s executive director visited Fond des Blancs to observe the hospital, the village market, and a meeting of the co-op before issuing the challenge grant to St. Boniface Foundation. The Fond des Blancs project can provide a model for other cooperative ventures between communities in Haiti and U.S. NGOs to raise the health, education, and economic welfare of specific communities in Haiti.
If the reader would like more information concerning this project, please contact Nannette Canniff,
Executive Director, St. Boniface Haiti Foundation.
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or you can visit their website at www.HaitiHealth.org.
