Mar 1, 2022 | Haiti, Our Impact Page, Women Stories
Meet Mimose: Community Health Entrepreneur, Haiti
“We have saved the lives of many malnourished children. But unfortunately, we lost some too, because when we found them, their cases were already too advanced.” – Mimose Anicy
Mimose Anicy, mother of eight, became a Community Health Entrepreneur with Fonkoze’s Boutik Sante program in 2017. Mimose’s isolated community in Northeast Haiti is very far from the nearest health facilities and her services are in high demand.
“Headaches, stomachaches, menstrual issues, hypertension—people come to me for help or advice because they know that every month I receive training from Fonkoze,” she says. Anicy is especially proud of the lifesaving work she has done to address malnutrition in her community.
Since joining Fonkoze, Anicy has steadily grown her business. She started selling oil, gasoline and rice, later expanding to sell cosmetics, fertilizers and other supplies. And now, she offers new products through her Boutik Sante inventory. Solar lamps and iodized salt are two of her most popular products.
Soon after COVID-19 spread to Haiti, Mimose shifted her business from the public market in Saint Rafael to her house. Thanks to Boutik Sante’s reliable supply chain, she was able to sustain her business, primarily by selling her Boutik Sante inventory.
It is Mimose’s business that puts food on the table for her eight children and pays their school fees, including for her two children who are in university. Her savings has enabled her to buy cattle, horses, goats and a half-acre of land for a farm that her husband tends.
Women like Mimose bring hope, healing and essential care in the darkest times. You can support WE’s partnership with Fonkoze by Donating Here. Thank you!
Oct 30, 2021 | Haiti, Women Stories
Meet Bernadette Joseph, a mother of six living outside Port-au-Prince in Masissade, Haiti.
To earn a living and care for her family, Barnadette spent years buying and reselling charcoal, barely earning a profit from the risky and laborious work. Thanks to support and loans from WE partner Fonkoze, Bernadette was able to expand her business to selling used goods, including clothing. But she still had to travel too far from home and wasn’t earning enough to support her children.
That’s when Bernadette became a Community Health Entrepreneur (CHE) with Fonkoze’s Boutik Sante program. For three years now, through Boutik Sante, Bernadette procures over-the-counter health products from Fonkoze that she resells in her boutik, or community health store. She no longer has to travel long distances for her inventory and is filling vital needs in her village for health products, malnutrition screenings for babies and children and even educating her community about health practices. As important, she is incredibly proud to be a life-saving resource in her community.
“I’m helping to reduce malnutrition in my community,” says Bernadette.
“There are children who would die if they were not treated.”
Your donations help empower women just like Bernadette. In the aftermath of the recent earthquakes in Haiti and on-going political instability, now is the time to make a difference for Haitian women. If you can help, please contribute on WE’s website today.
Sep 17, 2018 | Haiti, Women Stories
Odette helps her community.
In Odette Midy’s community near Lavale, Haiti, the nearest place to buy over-the-counter health products was more than an hour away. Rather than make the long journey by foot, Odette’s friends and neighbors would often let illnesses and wounds go untreated. Soon, people would get sicker and infections would take hold.
Today, through her community health store (Boutik Sante), Odette is trying to change this. Her participation in Fonkoze’s Boutik Sante Program – an innovative social enterprise that expands access to over-the-counter health products and services in rural Haiti – is enabling her to do just that.
The Program has helped Odette to expand her business and gain skills to serve as a valuable resource in her community. For example, Fonkoze’s registered nurses are training Odette and other Fonkoze clients to administer basic screening services (blood pressure, malnutrition, diabetes, and others) and to incorporate health-related products into their existing businesses. They thus become “Community Health Entrepreneurs.”
When asked about her motivation in life, she says, “I am not married, but I work hard for my eight-year-old daughter. I want to see her succeed in life.” Odette also says that Fonkoze is the one partner she can really “rely on.” She was able to build a home with profits from her small business, which she expanded with loans from Fonkoze.
Having been a Fonkoze client for ten years, she has gained the respect of the 55 other Fonkoze clients in her Credit Center, which they named Tèt Ansanm (Heads Together). They even elected her to be their “Center Chief” – the leader of the group.
Odette is pleased with the progress she is making, saying, “Everything is selling well. My Fonkoze friends are also my clients, and the people in my village are happy to buy from me.” Sometimes, she serves more than 30 clients in a day.
