"Oh, be careful little feet where you go"

Fondespwa is committed to providing three services to our members: low interest rates on the loan, a high savings rate and excellent training/education. At some point, we will expand to providing other financial services such as health insurance, life insurance and housing. With respect to education, Fondespwa will focus on teaching business/finances (accounting, marketing, customer service, etc.), family healthcare ( cleanliness, proper use of medication, sexually transmitted diseases, wife abuse, etc.) and self- improvement (speaking up, self confidence, business ethics, respect for others, etc.). The end game of Fondespwa: developing Independent Women Leaders. To accomplish this, we need excellent teachers. Fortunately, we have found them. Olannne, a very experienced Head Teaching Nurse, who we hired today, Jeff a successful business man in Port au Prince and Lex a highly respected Haitian, and as you know, the Founder of Mission of Hope. With these three teachers, we will be able to confidently accomplish our vision. As time goes on, we want our all our teachers to emerge from within Fondespwa. We were visited today, by a Caucasian woman and man who run an orphanage, in the southern part of Haiti. Michelle, told us of a 2 year old boy, Kirby, who was born deaf due to an infection his mother had during child birth that he contracted. Kirby, had been to number of Haitian and American doctors to determine, if this was a brain issue (no real soft spot on his head) or solely an ear problem. As there are no advanced devices in Haiti to do the proper testing, the doctors said he would need to go to the the US, ASAP. Well in Haiti, ASAP meant 6 months from now, not the next few weeks, as that is how long it would take to complete the paper work. It just takes an inordinate amount of time to get any type of government documents completed.. And then, because his illness is not life threatening, it was highly likely, in the end, he would be unable to receive the required authorization to be allowed to go to the States. So, in essence, Kirby, who is highly intelligent and personable and possibly could have this rectified, will never have that chance. Larry then told us of a little girl who was hit by a car. He took her to the hospital and told them he would return with the money to pay. When he returned 3 hours later, she was still bleeding on the bed and had not even been attended to. Many hospitals frankly, do not have a concern for those in need. It is truly a sad situation for the materially poor when they have an illness or severe or even minor accident. And with children as we know, that is almost a daily occurrence. It is tremendously difficult for these mothers, watching their little ones suffer.