Haiti: One Year Later

(Community Matters) The Entrepreneurs Foundation’s/Austin Ventures HelpHaiti one-year report

Greetings on the one year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake. Today we remember the over 200k Haitians who died and 1.5 million left homeless. Through your generosity, we raised over $1.5 million to help them. Your money has been well invested.

On Monday night I attended an event hosted by Fonkoze, where they were joined by representatives from Partners in Health and Concern Worldwide, celebrating the extraordinary spirit of Haitians and the good work accomplished since the earthquake.

Despite sometimes contrary media coverage, especially these three agencies (our major partners in Haiti) have accomplished much with our and others’ contributions. On Monday night I was reminded that these agencies have a competitive advantage in serving displaced Haitians – overwhelmingly their employees are Haitians and these agencies were operating in Haiti for at least 14 years prior to the earthquake. My new friend Anne Hastings (Fonkoze CEO) reminded us that life in Haiti was horrible for many before the earthquake, and it’s horrible for too many today – though it is getting better for many, and prospects are even better for some than before – especially because of the investment of monies in economic empowerment programs and the wide delivery of health care.  Still . . . too much remains to be done, especially building permanent housing for displaced Haitians. [I’m reminded too much remained to be done for displaced persons due to Katrina even after one year – some argue even after 5. It takes many years to recover from unprecedented death and physical destruction. Immediate spend of all monies usually results in too much waste, too much corruption and ignores the long term nature of permanent solutions.]

The President & CEO of OPIC and the CFO for Mastercard Foundation also spoke at the event. They have both toured Haiti extensively and both unequivocally and enthusiastically praise the progress being made – especially Fonkoze’s economic empowerment programs as well as Partners in Health’s progress extending the availability of health care.

Your monies have been spread widely between the initial emergency response, subsequent health & sanitation efforts, shelter, food & water, education & schools, and economic empowerment. In fact, the largest category of our grant making has been economic empowerment (31%, or $476k of the $1.5 million). Our grant committee believes that funding proven programs which allow Haitians the chance to build an even better life than before the earthquake is critical. During my August trip to Haiti, I witnessed the work of our partners first hand; I spoke with displaced Haitians and came away convinced that many are committed to the hard work & training necessary to build better lives. We have also assessed that hundreds of millions of dollars in unspent monies are better earmarked to fund other needs. The failure of governments to fund their billions in pledges is another matter, however, and the Haiti government remains crippled in helping rebuild and govern.

Fonkoze, Partners in Health and Concern Worldwide have long collaborated in helping Haitians, some of the poorest people in the world and certainly the poorest in the Western hemisphere. Our last grant, a $163,000 match grant, is targeted at furthering a collaboration between Fonkoze & Concern especially for 500 families in a Port au Prince suburb model camp. At our last grants committee meeting, we decided we’ve invested broadly, and that we want to invest deeper (ie., more targeted) in helping specific families build better lives than even prior to the earthquake. We negotiated to fund a specific program with a defined timeline and measurable milestones, allowing us to continue monitoring the effective use of your philanthropic dollars.

The below graph details how we have allocated your dollars. We continue following the progress of our partners, encouraging collaboration & innovation, and monitoring results. Monumental challenges remain for all Haitians, even those served by our partner agencies – chaos as a result of a contested presidential election, a cholera epidemic though while currently contained could erupt again, and other physical vulnerabilities of everyone living in temporary and substandard shelter. Yet, my assessment remains optimistic, even if for ages in Haiti, beyond the mountains more mountains.

Appreciatively,

Eugene

$1,554,977 Granted to date*

*includes monies raised against match grants