The following is the press release following the end of the Global Conference (summit). You cannot help but admire their vision and zeal, and we must pray for steadfastness in the face of extremem difficulty.
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[Port-au-Prince, Haiti, November 22] - Global leaders in the field of poverty reduction met last week in Thomonde, a remote village in central Haiti, to collaborate on a plan for eliminating extreme poverty in that country within 10 years.
Fonkoze, the largest microfinance institution in Haiti, and Zanmi Lasante, Haiti's leading non-governmental provider of rural primary medical care, joined efforts with Haitian and global partners and experts in health and microfinance as well as community mobilization, education, water, sanitation, and agriculture. The experts came from as far away as Bangladesh, Cameroon and Bolivia, as well as the Dominican Republic.
"I am tired of bringing people on the edge of death from tuberculosis, AIDS or other diseases to the point where they can become economically active, then watching them suffer because they have no way to make a living," says Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Zanmi Lasante, which already serves 75% of those infected by HIV and other diseases in Haiti's Central Plateau. Farmer's work is the subject of the bestseller Mountains Beyond Mountains by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder.
"The summit enlisted international experience to shatter the myth that we don't know how to bring people out of extreme poverty," adds Anne Hastings, director of Fonkoze. "No one can tell us anymore that it's impossible." Fonkoze serves 60,000 microfinance clients around Haiti.
"We will crush the cycle of poverty in five years by accompanying extremely poor families and households infected and affected by HIV and TB with tailored social assistance, training and business incentives, to empower them to become economically self-sufficient."
The initiative launched by the summit will replicate BRAC Bangladesh's pioneering model for reducing extreme poverty. This initiative is inspired as well by the experience of the other global experts and will be adapted to the local Haitian context. Realizing that extreme poverty in Haiti is not homogenous, the summit participants designed new programs specifically targeted to the most vulnerable: extremely poor families and households living with HIV and tuberculosis.
"This marks the beginning of the globalization of the anti-poverty movement," says Dr. Robert Davis, Senior Vice President, Program Services for Freedom from Hunger, who served as one of the summit's facilitators. "We're adapting proven models from around the world to solve extreme poverty in Haiti."
Principal implementing partners of the summit initiative include FONKOZE, Medishare, Zanmi Lasante, and Concern Worldwide. Participating global partners are Grameen Bank and BRAC in Bangladesh, Pro Mujer Bolivia, and Afriland Bank/MC2/Muffa in Cameroon. Strategic partners include USAID projects FINNET and HAP, Save the Children, Plan International, Haiti Outreach, MEDA, Freedom from Hunger and Grameen Foundation USA.
To receive ongoing information about the summit's results, email:
summit@fonkoze.org
Read bios of the summit participants and messages published daily during the summit at:
http://www.fonkoze.org/summit.htm
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[Port-au-Prince, Haiti, November 22] - Global leaders in the field of poverty reduction met last week in Thomonde, a remote village in central Haiti, to collaborate on a plan for eliminating extreme poverty in that country within 10 years.
Fonkoze, the largest microfinance institution in Haiti, and Zanmi Lasante, Haiti's leading non-governmental provider of rural primary medical care, joined efforts with Haitian and global partners and experts in health and microfinance as well as community mobilization, education, water, sanitation, and agriculture. The experts came from as far away as Bangladesh, Cameroon and Bolivia, as well as the Dominican Republic.
"I am tired of bringing people on the edge of death from tuberculosis, AIDS or other diseases to the point where they can become economically active, then watching them suffer because they have no way to make a living," says Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Zanmi Lasante, which already serves 75% of those infected by HIV and other diseases in Haiti's Central Plateau. Farmer's work is the subject of the bestseller Mountains Beyond Mountains by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder.
"The summit enlisted international experience to shatter the myth that we don't know how to bring people out of extreme poverty," adds Anne Hastings, director of Fonkoze. "No one can tell us anymore that it's impossible." Fonkoze serves 60,000 microfinance clients around Haiti.
"We will crush the cycle of poverty in five years by accompanying extremely poor families and households infected and affected by HIV and TB with tailored social assistance, training and business incentives, to empower them to become economically self-sufficient."
The initiative launched by the summit will replicate BRAC Bangladesh's pioneering model for reducing extreme poverty. This initiative is inspired as well by the experience of the other global experts and will be adapted to the local Haitian context. Realizing that extreme poverty in Haiti is not homogenous, the summit participants designed new programs specifically targeted to the most vulnerable: extremely poor families and households living with HIV and tuberculosis.
"This marks the beginning of the globalization of the anti-poverty movement," says Dr. Robert Davis, Senior Vice President, Program Services for Freedom from Hunger, who served as one of the summit's facilitators. "We're adapting proven models from around the world to solve extreme poverty in Haiti."
Principal implementing partners of the summit initiative include FONKOZE, Medishare, Zanmi Lasante, and Concern Worldwide. Participating global partners are Grameen Bank and BRAC in Bangladesh, Pro Mujer Bolivia, and Afriland Bank/MC2/Muffa in Cameroon. Strategic partners include USAID projects FINNET and HAP, Save the Children, Plan International, Haiti Outreach, MEDA, Freedom from Hunger and Grameen Foundation USA.
To receive ongoing information about the summit's results, email:
summit@fonkoze.org
Read bios of the summit participants and messages published daily during the summit at:
http://www.fonkoze.org/summit.htm
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