I recently returned from a 24 week internship with Fonkoze, a microfinance institution in Haiti. It is widely argued that microfinance is unable to serve the poorest members of a community and that microfinance can only be successful if it targets the “economically active poor”. While in Haiti I was working on a program that was tackling this idea, Chemen Lavi Miyò (CLM). The title means “Pathway to a Better Life” in English. This program actively targets the extremely poor women living in rural communities using Participatory Wealth Ranking. This system works with members of the community to highlight the different extremes of poverty and to target the poorest women within the community. CLM was created as recognition that standard microfinance was bypassing the extremely poor. CLM is an eighteen month program that focuses on providing assets, training, health services and confidence building rather than micro credit. At the end of the eighteen months it is hoped that the women will be ready to graduate into Fonkoze’s Ti Kredi (small credit) program where members will have access to small loans for the first time. CLM is a very hands on approach to development. The women who are selected, and agree, to be a part of the program receive two assets, from a choice of pigs, goats, chickens or a small commerce. As well as training for these new assets, members will receive weekly visits from a Case Manager who will provide advice and encouragement for these women during the eighteen month transition from extreme poverty into sustainable livelihoods.

During my six months in Haiti I had the opportunity to see how this program works first hand. I worked closely with Case Managers, who would trek through the mountainous central plateau of Haiti every week in order to visit the CLM members. The transition that is accomplished by these women is no small feat. Even during my limited time in Haiti I was taken aback by the achievements of these inspirational women. I had the great pleasure of meeting women who, in a short space of time, had gone from being marginalised within their own communities to becoming active members of those communities. These women, who only recently had been considered the poorest members of their communities, were now running their own successful micro enterprises. After my time with Fonkoze I have no doubt about the success this organisation has in fighting poverty in one of the poorest countries in the World.