Fall 2008 Newsletter — Contents
Members of the Asosyasyon Fanm Devwe Lakos
Organization Profile:
Women-Run Community Micro-Credit Project
The organization Asosyasyon Fanm Devwe Lakos (AFDL) was founded on January 6, 2002 by a group of 12 women living in the Lakos area. They wanted to have a space of their own to discuss women's difficult living conditions, their needs and their interests in the community.
Today, AFDL has 37 members living in “bitasyons” and 18 more recruits in training waiting to join the association. The goals of the organization are to give women, particularly in the Lakos area, the opportunity to be fully conscious of the situation of women in Haitian society. They encourage solidarity among women as a means to improve their socio-economic situation.
Each member of AFDL has an economic activity, or is working to establish one that will help her face domestic financial shortfalls. The majority are involved in small commercial activities; they sell a variety of goods, clothes, and agricultural products at the local market.
AFDL members realized that with today's high cost of living, the women could no longer afford to buy large quantities of merchandise. This meant they could not meet the demands of their clients and made very little profit.
They had to borrow money anywhere they could, and travel more often to buy goods for their businesses. The organization had to borrow money at very high interest rates from credit institutions. AFDL had to gather a group of at least 5 borrowers, just to receive the usurious interest rate of 3% a month (36% a year).
This group lending model made each member in the group financially responsible for the repayment of ALL individual loans incurred by members of that lending group.
This weakened the organization and the women's businesses as they were more concerned with each other's ability to repay the loan than about the health of AFDL. Members were consumed with constantly selling goods in an effort to pay off the inordinately high interest.
Community Micro-Credit Fund
The AFDL presented a proposal to the Lambi Fund to strengthen their organization run micro-credit program. The Lambi Fund agreed to add $2,875 to their existing $342 micro-credit fund that had been collected by members. This allowed about 35 members to borrow between $40 and $100 twice a year at 2% interest a month.
Training Seminars
AFDL members were invited to attend a training workshop for organizational development. Over 30 women attended the workshop, which covered leadership, managerial, and business skills.
The second training focused primarily on managing a micro-credit fund. Here, 32 women defined management, discussed the different elements of management, and mutual solidarity.
AFDL members were very satisfied with these training programs and even expressed that they were going to apply the knowledge acquired to not only the organization, but to their personal lives.
Project Impact
The micro-credit fund is running well and members point to a number of benefits. Members have:
- Become more dynamic and engaged in the AFDL's activities
- Access to low-interest, affordable loans
- An increased capacity for leadership and managing projects.
The loans have had a 100% success rate and the micro-credit fund has collected more than $5,000.Capital gained from interest alone has totaled $309. This capital earned stays within the organization and goes towards providing more credit for future loans, strengthening members' savings funds, and a mutual aid fund which is set up to assist members with financial emergencies.
Ultimately, this approach strengthens not only the organization and its members, but the community as well.
