DOXACREDIT is a microfinance program to assist poor people in Haiti to overcome poverty. The program is already started in the town of Lascahobas and is helping poor women to start small retailing businesses. The program is already bringing positive results. DFI’s field personnel recently indicated that this program can be extended to women living in the rural areas with loans as small as $150.
Program Overview
Like other underdeveloped countries, Haiti has been struck with an economic crisis for years. The hardship has hit extremely hard the poor in the urban and rural areas; people have no jobs and their family suffered. To help the poor, the Government and some non-profit organizations have established some programs to help. Despite good intention, reports have shown that a very small portion of the help reaches the poor as a result of bureaucracy and corruption. These kinds of mistakes are avoidable. Doxa has started a Microcredit project to help the poor to avoid repeating these mistakes and with the understanding that the poor can best be helped when the funds allocated to their help are channeled down directly to the grass root level. The project started in the town of Lascahobas, Haiti. With time, the scope of the Mini-Credit project will be extended to cover other geographical areas.
Project objectives
Long-term objective:
To stimulate sustainable economic development at the grass-root level
Short-term objectives:
• To assist the rural poor to generate their income and survive the prevailing economic crisis;
• To assist small entrepreneurs and people working in the informal sector (small tailor shop, vegetable vendors, women selling snacks and ready-made clothes…etc) in strengthening their business and learning to manage a loan;
• To improve the local economic situation and develop a community of self-reliance.
Type and method of assistance
A sum of money is given as a loan to a small entrepreneur or an individual working in the informal sector to be used as a capital to support his/her business. The amount of money varies according to the type of business and the individual’s ability to manage and return the loan. This loan without interest has to be returned during a period of twelve months. The repayment of the loan will start on the third month, giving him/her a chance to gain some profit before starting to repay the loan. This means, the sum of money to be paid back every month is 10% of the loan.
The nature of the project should remain social at grass root and not rigidly structured to allow changes and adaptation to local needs.
Criteria for project beneficiaries
To be eligible for this project the person needs to meet the following criteria:
• Residing in the project site/district;
• Having a small business that has been running for a year or two or has experience running small business;
• Having very low to no income and living in a poor condition;
• Showing strong motivation to improve his/her business;
• Reliable and strongly committed to pay back the loan;
• Each person is to receive a loan for no more than two times;
• The second loan can only be given when the payment of the first loan is completed;
• The second loan will be paid back eleven times over a period of 13 months, each time 10% of the loan. This mean, the person pays an interest of 10% for the second loan.
Project implementation
As the Board members of Doxa reside in the United States of America, the management of this mini credit is totally trusted in the hands of the project manager(s) with the oversight of the Board.
The selection of participants is made by the project manager(s). When a candidate agrees to all the conditions and rules of the project, he/she will submit a proof of identity to be attached to monthly report card. The submission of some ID cards will help to increase the participant’s commitment to follow the project rules.
The amount of money given as a credit varies by activities or type of business. The participants should come to the house of the project manager(s) to get the loan and and pay back the loan on a specific date and time. By coming together, the participants are able to share their experience in running their business and strengthen the social contact among them.
Funding of the project
The funding of the project will be done by Doxa-Credit through members’ donations or other fundraising activities.
Future plans
In order to get a more substantial impact on the economical and financial conditions of the community, this project will need to be expanded. In doing so, we should anticipate some problems:
• More personnel to assist the project manager(s) to make visits to the project sites.
• Expand the geographical scope of the project.
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