ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

We build self-sufficiency in Haiti by providing skills training, micro-lending, agricultural education, and infrastructure development.

HTCF's Economic Development Programs

Since 1999 the Health Through Communications Foundation (HTCF) has worked with local organizations, the mayor’s office, and community leaders in many areas of Haiti to support long-term, community-led development.

We believe that the overall health of a village is much more than medical care. To enjoy optimal health, a community needs support in all of the following areas:

1. Having a solid spiritual foundation and the ability to deal with stress
2. Being a responsible citizen
3. Receiving a social and technical quality education
4. Living in a secure and healthy environment
5. Having decent jobs to take care of oneself and the family
6. Having decent housing
7. Capacity for healthy nutrition
8. Disease prevention and access to medical care
9. Good relationship with family and community
10. Entertainment and leisure

Since then, we have helped many communities throughout Haiti move toward these goals. The earthquake of January 12, 2010, destroyed much of the progress we had made, but we rose again from the debris, blood, and lost lives.

Today, because of insecurity, chaos, and the destruction of infrastructure, more and more people are being displaced from Port-au-Prince and forced to move into already strained communities such as La Vallée de Jacmel, where our hospital is located. Our work in economic development and education is now more needed than ever.

Any economic progress can be easily derailed if we do not see those we serve as whole human beings—body, mind, and spirit.

Training the Children

We believe that education is one of the strongest “medicines” we can offer. It fosters a healthier lifestyle among underserved youth and helps prevent them from leaving their villages for the slums of inner cities, where many join gangs out of desperation.

Now, especially with the destruction and insecurity in Port-au-Prince and the heavy migration to smaller communities, the demand for education in remote villages has been stretched to the limit.

Offering enrichment programs and vocational training for underprivileged and vulnerable youth is vitally important. Our goal is to give children the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty and receive the lasting gift of education.

Since 1999, we have supported many trade schools that provide training in:

• Home economics
• Sewing
• Farming and agriculture
• Animal husbandry
• Internet and computer technology
• Carpentry
• Electrician training
• Iron works
• Masonry
• Plumbing

Training the Adults

The adult population—mostly unemployed and barely surviving—needs financial and educational support as well. Many adults simply need the opportunity to learn and develop skills that allow them to support themselves and their families.

Our goal is to help them lift themselves out of poverty and empower both themselves and their communities.

HTCF’s economic development work with adults focuses on building skills in areas such as:

• Literacy and business skills training programs
• Conservation and use of rainwater collected from roofs for household use & irrigation.
• Encourage growing of fruits and vegetable around the house using rainwater.
• Infrastructure Building
• Creation of farming cooperatives to replace the small family plots.
• Organization of the transport of the crops to town by a community created transport cooperative.
• Use of techniques in crop storage and conservation.
• Better crop selection and rotation
• Technical assistance and guidance
• Transformation of local products as a source of jobs.
• Introduction of more modern farming tools
• Micro-lending

Micro Lending

Micro-Lending

We live in a world where roughly three billion people live on less than $2 a day. Many cannot find formal work where they live, because few jobs are available. To survive, they create their own small businesses—often as street vendors—working long hours every day.

To start these businesses, they may have to borrow from deceptive loan sharks or pay high prices to buy merchandise on personal credit.

Over the years, HTCF has helped many small organizations by:

School Gardens

With the help of partners such as Association Solidarité Fribourg Haïti in Switzerland, other dedicated supporters (“our angels”), and CODEHA – Corde Enfant Haïtien, we started our first École de Jardins – community school garden in 2010. Our goal is to replicate this model in many areas throughout the country as funds permit.

These school gardens:

• Teach children the love of the earth, reforestation, and how to grow food
• Help them learn how to sell surplus produce, introducing them to basic economics
• Offer a practical way to understand the value of work and money
• Give children in remote villages a reason to stay and strengthen their own communities instead of leaving for slums or dangerous migration routes

A child who knows how to grow food and care for the land carries a skill—and a sense of dignity—that lasts a lifetime.

Community Gardens

We are expanding this vision to community gardens, starting with spaces around Parc Dr. Carolle Jean-Murat.

Community gardens:

• Promote sustainable agriculture and reduce the environmental impact of large-scale, industrial farming Decrease food transportation costs and contribute to a more eco-friendly food system
• Improve physical and mental health by encouraging outdoor activity, providing access to fresh produce, and reducing stress through connection to nature
• Strengthen social resilience, bringing people together and fostering a sense of community
• Provide gardening space for those who do not have land or a backyard of their own
• Enhance nutrition and food security by increasing access to fresh, locally grown produce, especially in areas with limited access to markets or healthy food
• Offer important educational benefits, especially for children, who learn where food comes from, how to care for the earth, and how to value healthy eating

By helping people work their way up the economic ladder with dignity and pride, they can earn enough to afford basics like safe water, nourishing food, and schooling for their children.

Father Joseph Network – FJN

Father Joseph Network (FJN) & the University of Fondwa

“Haiti will never perish as long as serious individuals work together to reconstruct the country.”
— Father Joseph Philippe

Since 2005, we have had the privilege of working closely with Father Joseph Philippe, a Spiritan priest and founder of the Father Joseph Network (FJN).

FJN is an umbrella organization that includes:

• The University of Fondwa (UNIF) with:
• School of Business Administration
• School of Veterinary Medicine
• School of Agronomy
• The Association of the Peasants of Fondwa (APF) and Local Development Committees (LDCs), currently active in more than 40 communal areas
• Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest microfinance institution, with 46 branches providing small loans to the poorest people in the country

In 2006, through our combined efforts, funds were raised to build the 8th and 9th Fonkoze branches. Over the years, we have also helped provide funds for reconstruction and relief after the devastating earthquake of 2010 and the many hurricanes that followed.

Our Vision for FJN

• Teach our Innovative Holistic Medicine program at the University of Fondwa (UNIF), blending spiritual, traditional, stress-management, and conventional medical practices so future professionals can care for the whole person.
• Provide scholarships to students, especially those from rural and low-income backgrounds.
• Support student initiatives and scientific research that explore practical ways to help small farmers grow more food—experimenting with natural fertilizers, comparing crop varieties, and studying how innovation can strengthen food security.
• Help with infrastructure that allows students from different regions to live and study at UNIF.
• Fund local community programs through the Father Joseph Network as resources permit.

By establishing sustainable food production and animal husbandry in Fondwa, La Vallée de Jacmel, and other areas, we can reduce reliance on imported food, which is often expensive and poor in quality. Encouraging community, backyard, and school gardens, along with food-processing initiatives and research, will enhance food security, protect the environment, and strengthen economic stability for local communities.

Supporting the AKESNA Sisters (via FJN)

Within this broader vision, we also collaborate with FJN to support a congregation of religious women of Haitian origin who serve across the country. A stipend was provided for Dr. Carolle to create and deliver an 8-week live online course in holistic health for the congregation of AKESNA Sisters, a network of Haitian sisters working in schools, clinics, and parishes.

This course introduced them to an integrative, mind–body–spirit approach to health, teaching them how to look for the root causes of illness—emotional, spiritual, social, and physical—before rushing into costly tests and treatments.

Since completing the course, Dr. Carolle continues to serve as a free health consultant for these sisters: when one of them has a medical concern, she can consult with her to review the situation, explore underlying causes, and identify simple, practical steps that often prevent unnecessary expenses. In this way, the congregation can preserve its very limited funds, improve the sisters’ quality of life, and strengthen their capacity to serve others. Some of the AKESNA Sisters are nurses and teachers, which means that every insight they gain is multiplied in their classrooms, health centers, and local communities.

The long-term vision is to turn this 8-week course, complete with quizzes and practical exercises, into a culturally sensitive, Haitian Kreyòl curriculum that belongs to the sisters as part of their spiritual and cultural heritage. This curriculum will become the foundation for an ongoing series of teachings, in both written materials and audio format, so that sisters in remote areas without internet can still receive the lessons via audio files (for example, through WhatsApp).

These teachings will also feed into a broader Haitian Kreyòl education project—a kind of “online medical school” for Haiti, where sisters and, eventually, the wider community can find clear, compassionate explanations of common health issues, mind–body–spirit tools, and root-cause approaches to healing.

Through these strategies, the vision of “working together for the rebirth and reconstruction of Haiti,” as championed by Father Joseph, can be realized—showing the power of collective action in fostering health, prosperity, and resilience.