FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 1, 2011

Meg Galloway Pearce: 
Phone: 202-572-4045 
Email: meg.pearce@clintonbushhaitifund.org

New Clinton Bush Haiti Fund Grant Will Strengthen Female-Run Businesses in Haiti

Support Will Reinvigorate Haiti’s Oldest Microfinance Institution

WASHINGTON, DC – The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund continues to nurture economic opportunities for Haiti, today announcing a grant to a unique Haitian microfinance institution. The $850,000 grant to Fonds Haïtien d’Aide à la Femme (FHAF) will help put this institution on a path to financial recovery, and allow it to continue to provide loans to women throughout Haiti.

Haiti needs business capital to rebuild, and FHAF has demonstrated a deep commitment to providing microfinance for small and growing businesses. For twenty-nine years, this women-created and women-led institution has provided loans to thousands of female micro-entrepreneurs in both underserved rural and urban areas of Haiti. The earthquake shook FHAF both physically and financially. Its headquarters in Port-au-Prince collapsed, and it lost substantial equipment. As FHAF works to rebuild, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund will provide resources for FHAF to restructure its business so it can be a strong, successful lender again.

The Fund’s grant supports a variety of measures to reenergize FHAF. It will help hire and train Haitians for key director positions, as well as update the lender’s technology system. It will also provide the capital for FHAF to continue providing loans to its best clients. Concentrating on these important adjustments will help furnish FHAF with the resources, knowledge, and capacity to thrive again.

“By reaching out to women through small business loans, we are also reaching out to her suppliers and customers in the community,” explains Henrietta Holsman Fore, Clinton Bush Haiti Fund board member and former USAID Administrator. “Research shows that these microloans mean more than just invigorated businesses and empowered women, they also mean invigorated communities with education for children and health care for families. FHAF places a high value on pulling women into the Haitian economy, and it deserves the opportunity to succeed.”

The grant incorporates valuable mentoring and strategic expertise from Nodus Consultores, an international consulting firm that specializes in strengthening financial systems for small and growing businesses in developing countries. Nodus and FHAF have worked closely to reimagine FHAF’s potential, and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund’s grant will bring this vision to life.

Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded after Haiti’s January 12, 2010 earthquake, when President Barack Obama asked former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to lead a major fundraising effort to assist the Haitian people to “build back better.” The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund initially responded to the catastrophe with millions in humanitarian relief. By the time the Fund began independent operations in May 2010, it transitioned to primarily serving its longer-term mission of sustainable reconstruction efforts designed to promote job growth and economic opportunity, and enabling Haiti to chart its own successful future. To learn more visit www.clintonbushhaitifund.org.

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