August 4, 2011
Thanks to our partnership with Grameen Creative Lab and to another grant from Vista Hermosa Foundation we have hired a Haitian expert who will work full-time to help our partner schools create social businesses.
The purpose of this is two-fold. First, it’s a revenue source. Haitian schools rarely have adequate funds to pay teachers even a tiny salary. They limp along without enough funds for materials, decent school furniture or to maintain their modest facilities. Social business offers a potential solution. The school creates an income generating activity, the parents and students can participate along with school director and teachers, and the school develops an addition revenue stream for helping to cover salaries and other school expenses.
The second reason this is so important is because students and teachers learn entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship and education are key for helping a country to develop.
We’re excited for another reason. Our “Natif Natal” film about a Haitian success story of grassroots groups creating social business to pay teachers’ salaries to educate their children is going to be shown throughout Haiti on local television stations. And, we’re going to use this as an opportunity to promote the social business concept in Haiti and to foster greater collaboration among organizations working in social business. Click here to view the film.
Haiti Partners
PO Box 7882
Delray Beach, FL 33482
Email: hello@haitipartners.org
Phone: (772) 539-8521
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One Response
It is refreshing to see another approach is being taken to help Haiti rebuild. Specially with education, I travelled to Haiti a lot in the country side for work, and it is a shame how much money donors, NGO are spending to build schools but to be closed a year later because of lack of funding. The set up is to take pictures with kids, send back to their respective country saying “helping 1000 kids to go to school in a rural community” but omit to say, a year or 2 later, OOOPs, we spent too much on building the school no more money for teachers to keep school open. DIRESPECTFULL. Kids go right back on the street and we expect the country to be better or less violent. People are donating money to different organisations expect a minimum of result, with most developing countries, Haiti in particular with a lack of responsible governance, result and deliverables are not important to most donors.
Haiti Partners, May God Bless you all, continue in the direction you are going, create a better model of education for Haiti and reach out to those who can help to promote the concept you are adopting. Not familiar with social business but a welcome change for this island nation.