By Lourdes Eliacin Mars | Deputy Director
Four months into the new year, the Lambi Fund has realized many exciting projects including providing more enterprise opportunities for women. Our 2018 vision is well on its way and with enthusiastic partners like the Organization of Planters for the Development of Ravin Gwomon (Oganizasyon Plantè pou Devlopman Ravin Gwomòn), OPDERGM for short, lives are being changed.
March 2018 marked OPDERGM’s 10th month with their credit fund project. So far, 74 women have benefitted from the 10,000 Haitian Gourd loans. Those women have paid or continue to pay the loan back in a timely matter, repaying at 100%.
When the women of OPDERGM receive the loan, they use the money to buy and re-sell goods at different markets. They sell items like agricultural products, food, cosmetics, or whatever is in-demand at the time. Buying and re-selling goods allows these women to provide for their family and to support themselves in a country that has an unemployment rate of 65%. These small enterprises allow children to go to school and families to have food on the table.
Aside from the individual benefits of the loan, the organization as a whole benefits. Each loan given to members has a small interest rate of 3%. This interest rate, which all members pay as part of their borrowing contract is added to the pot of money that is managed by OPDERGM. Due to this system, OPDERGM now has 212,000 Haitian Gourd added to their credit fund, allowing more members to borrow in the future. What began as a 712,000 Haitian Gourd Credit Fund has now grown to 924,000 Haitian Gourd in 10 months.
The current success of the project would not have been possible without our partner’s resolve to participate in Finance/Record-keeping and organizational management trainings and each member making the effort to repay their loans on time and in full. OPDERGM members take into account that a timely repayment allows their fellow members to receive their loan faster making it possible for them to support their household. In the spirit of community, they all work together to improve their livelihoods.
OPDERGM is one of many examples of our partners making strides to create lasting revenue in their communities. As the title of this report states, the Lambi Fund and its partners are just getting started with projects like these. Our vision is to empower women and put 150 women into their own small businesses.
We thank you for sharing in our vision and are grateful for the constant support!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
