What is CLM?
I was able to oversee two village committee meetings in a row during the first two trips outside my base. A village committee consists of the poor women who are participating in CLM as well as some village authorities and the people who used to help these women out. Before I can explain anything else, I must explain what CLM is first. Gauthier also gave us a presentation about CLM yesterday. So I hope this is easy to understand.
CLM
Although Fonkoze is a microfinancing organization, CLM has little to do with microfinancing. It is what I would call a comprehensive aid program. It stands for ‘path to a better life’ in Creole, and the program is based on the BRAC’s TUP (Targeting the Ultra Poor) program in Bangladesh. The idea is based on the fact that microfinancing is not able to help the poorest of the poor members because in order to do microfinancing, one is required to have certain amount of social connections and assets. However, the poorest of the poor women around this world really have nothing in the literal sense. So what can we do for them?
How it came to be
Gauthier's boss, Anne, had been trying to search for ways to help the poorest of the poor in Haiti for a long time. Fonkoze is a microfinancing program, which requires you to have some kind of activity that generates revenue, however small it is. But the poorest of the poor people are those who don't even have that minimum requirement. Ti-credit was their first program to do such thing, and it is a kind of micro-micro-loan that women can take out in 25 USD (1000gourds) increments. Basically, it is a very small short-term loan (first one lasts a month, the next two, and the third three). However, this did not work out well because it was not structured well for the people and also the people didn't do all the things that were required to succeed in the program.
Ann had a microfincing summit in Haiti a few years ago, and there, she met a woman who came to talk in the summit about TUP (Targeting the ultra poor) program. They have been doing what Ann had wanted to do, so she immediately started writing the proposal and looking for funds. Gauthier was called into the project immediately and he was given two months to wrap up his successful business program and one month to hire his staff and leave to Bangledesh for training. They got trained for 6 weeks and then Shila (a woman from the BRAC) came to help them set it up for 10 months. This is how CLM came to be.
How the CLM members are selected
CLM begins with what is called a selection process. It is a kind of a rapport building with local community. In this phase, they do what is called social mapping. They basically draw a map of the village and mark everyone's house on that map. Everyone gets a number and while they do the mapping, they invite village people to come and join in the process. At the end of the meeting 5-6 persons are chosen and they identify each person and where they would place them in the 5 categories of wealth and poverty-- from the richest to the poorest. Making the village people themselves to identify each person and where they would place them in the categories are effective because the reality of poverty varies from village to village depending unique circumstances. Moreover, making the people themselves describe who is the poorest allows everyone to agree later on that the women were selected because they were truly poor.
Fonkoze staff then makes the visit to each of the houses who were ranked in the last two categories of poverty. Considering how rural areas in Haiti don't really have a systematic way of organizing people and also how difficult the terrain and road conditions are, this is a difficult job that requires a lot of work. They have three measurements of poverty they use in order to find out about each individual’s situation: Poverty score card, PPI (Poverty P-something Index), and Food security survey (designed by World Hunger). These are the three tools that they use to measure the poverty, and they each have scores, which tell them which categories of poverty each individual is in. There are categories like ‘food insecure’ and ‘food insecure with hunger,’ and all the women who were selected in the program were in the category of ‘food insecure with hunger.’
The real criteria for the program are that the person has to be a woman and to have at least one child. She also has to have almost no productive assets or lands, and she should also be at least 15 years old. However, this age requirement had been waived a couple of times. In one case, after they selected a mother, the mother died and her 14 year old daughter had to take over everything. Most people on the program don’t even own their houses.
All these names on the list make what they call the primary selection list. Gauthier goes personally to the each house on the list and have a conversation with the woman. He finds more about them in that conversation. Everyone should feel relaxed, and in this way they start talking about the information needed. After the conversation, they determine if the woman is ready or not, and sometimes they have to have more than one conversation. In one case, the woman lied about everything because she was so embarrassed about her circumstances, so she almost did not get into the program. It is only after when the staff talked to the kids that they found out the real information that was needed to have her in the program.
During all this questioning process, Fonkoze doesn't say anything about the program. The women almost never ask why they are doing, and when one person did, they just told her it was a survey.
Once the final verification is done, (by Ebert, Mistard, and Gauthier who are the supervisors), they go back to their homes. Once they have the verified list, they tell them about the program, the name of the program, and make them choose two activities out of the three. Having two activities increases the chance of the success because if one fails, they have another one as a backup. They can choose among chicken-raising, goat-raising, and small commerce. They also tried to use donkey but it did not work as well.
Training
Then the women are invited to the training sessions. Training is three days per activity and there is a follow up training every three months. Women still do not really believe that they are going to get anything until they actually see the goats or the chickens or whatever they selected. In order to get them come to the training sessions, Fonkoze provide them money for transportation and also feed the women two meals a day. In the pilot program, out of 120 families, almost everyone came: one absent, one who left early, and another who met a man and went to a honeymoon of some sort (but others convinced her to come and she showed up later on). Once a person misses one or two days of training, they do not qualify for the program.
Women are still not sure what they are getting into exactly and they don't even believe it until they see the assets they are about to receive. They didn't know anyone who ever gave them anything before, and they just can't believe it is going to happen them.
Asset Transfer (this happens a week after the training (should be no more than 30 days after))
While CLM members are training, the Fonkoze staff goes out to prepare for asset transfer. Collecting so many numbers of goats or chicken is a big job because in Haiti, there are no farms that you can order certain numbers of chicken and then come to pick them up the next day. The case managers have to physically go out into the markets and buy 2-3 chickens at a time for days until they have the necessary number of assets they can give out to one group of people. Last year, they ordered some hybrid chickens from Dominican Republic. The women loved them because they looked big and nice. However, the costs were expensive because of the transportation costs. Moreover, in the case of the island Lagonav, the chickens had to travel long-distance in a truck while it was raining, cross the sea on a boat, and were distributed when it was raining. All the chickens died prematurely.
Fonkoze has animal specialists who are trying to find out what kind of animals is most suitable for the terrain and the conditions these women are living in. They also treat the animals by themselves (i.e. vaccination). The case managers are, in a way, experts of chicken-raising, goat-raising, etc. In case of chicken, they have done some experiments with Haitian chickens and learned that if they raise the chicken in isolation, they don’t get chicken flu. Also, they experimented with their diet and captivity so they would lay fuller eggs. They also bought special cage for the egg layers so the chickens could be well protected. These chickens are 16 weeks old, and they will start laying eggs in their 18th week and continue to do so for a month. They have calculated the costs of the eggs and feeds, and also reduced the chance of death. Everyday, the chickens give eggs, and that is 5 eggs a day. Some of them, the women can feed their children, and others, the women can collect and sell it in the market for a good price. These eggs won’t hatch, so if they want to expand their assets, they have to buy either new chickens but hatch-able eggs.
In the asset transfer, women receive about 5 chickens or about 2 goats or 105$ worth of assets they have selected. Fonkoze never gives the women cash. If a woman asked for small commerce, then the case manager will go with them to buy whatever they wish to buy for their business.
When they receive the assets, they sign an accord that states that they won’t sell the assets or cause harm to them. It also states that the asset they receive is not a gift but it is for something to generate revenue. Also, the community witnesses the women signing that accord.
Weekly Visits
Although the asset transfer has finished, it is not even near the end of the story. Each case manager is in charge of 50 families, and basically, they have to visit all of them every week. This is a tough job because it is not like all the women are living close by. Sometimes you have to ride the motorcycle for an hour to visit the next house. With the terrain so hard to travel, it is a real commitment and effort to visit almost seven to ten women a day. When they do visit the women, they are supposed to do a few things.
First, they check on the women and how they are doing. Each woman receives a pink booklet that has slots for the women to write down every activity that is happening to their assets. (they get some training in writing, starting with their names). They can discuss any problems they are having, and the case managers help them come up with a solution. The goal of the program is not to give the women and solve the problems for them. It is to baby step them for 18 months, so by the end of the program, these women can solve their problems by themselves. So basically, the case managers are mentors and guides who advise what to do. But they cannot force the women to do anything. The case managers also have to physically check the assets and see if they are still there. They must see that they are there.
Weekly Stipend
Another important thing is that the case managers give each member 300 gourds every week. This is a stipend, so they can start learning about saving or start pooling money together. For example, 10 women can get together and each week, they will give 100 gourds in one pot. One person receives it for that week, the other for the next week, and so on until they go round for every person. This is kind of pre-saving stage.). They can also feed their children better and even send some to school if they can. The school costs are expensive. One woman said that it costs about 250-800 Haitian dollars, which is 1250-4000 gourds, to send one kid to school. This is a lot of money. I really wish the Haitian government would work on this. They can at least make this happen. Make the schools free. Free education, not even for all ages, but at least the elementary school and the middle school or something like that. After 6 months, they generally have something to generate income, so the stipends stop.
Education (for the women)
Finally, the case managers are supposed to discuss about one issue a week. There are ten topics relating to health, security, family planning, etc. The topic of the first meeting was clean water. The second, family planning. But they have ten topics that they go over with the women each week, and when they are done with the ten, they repeat them. The goal is that the women will have them ingrained into their heart by the program is over and will be able to solve their own problems.
The most important issue is that the family is drinking clean water. CLM members are very vulnerable because they either get the water from the spring or even from the river, or then get sick. During the education, case managers tell the women to boil the water and also show them how to purify water. They also in some cases provide filtration system. A NGO called Gift of Water, which is precisely into water and filtration systems, showed the women how to use two buckets--one on the top and the other one at the bottom—chlorine tablet, charcoal filter, and cloth filter to purify water. When they start drinking clean water, stomach problems and diarrhea are eliminated. These women would start carrying their own bottles of water and also others from the village start coming to get clean water from them as well.
These are the ten different topics:
1. Clean Water
2. Family Planning
3. Early Pregnancy
4. Sexually Transmitted Diseases
5. Pre and postnatal care
6. Sanitation, Hygiene and Latrine
7. Worm
8. Vitamin A
9. Vaccination
10. Food habit
Home improvement
CLM is a comprehensive program. They also help the members build their houses better. The houses I have seen are made out of thach (big tropical leaves) and mud. These are weak in rain, and especially during the hurricanes. The better kind of roofs here are the tin roofs, which is water-proof. The women have to prepare rocks, sands, and wood (all of which they can find in the nature, although they might have to buy some wood), and the CLM will pay for tin, nails, and labor (this costs about 8000 gourds, which is about 200 USD). Women are more proud of the house when it is finished because they participated in the process. CLM provides the tin roof for only 9 square foot and if the woman wants more, they have to buy the tin.
Health Care
The most important component of the program is health. If the person is not healthy, they are not able to make it to the end and graduate, so providing the CLM members with the access to the health care is very important.
Fonkoze does not have enough funds to provide direct health care to them, so they link the CLM members to the partner organizations. Zanmi La Sante is the partner that is doing a lot for CLM members, so central plateau works out well. Plan international helps in Twoudino. However, in Lagonav, they tried to work with World vision to provide health care, but even after everything was signed agreed, World Vision pulled back (Fonkoze staff all seem to hate World Vision because they apparently compete with other organizations, etc. Also, Fanillia was talking about how their policy of only providing food for pregnant mothers actually increased the pregnancy among the poor women).
When there was a woman who was sick with hiv AIDS, Fonkoze brought her all the way to Port-Au-Prince to treat her. The new director of health of Fonkoze was able to arrange some nurses to go and provide health care for the CLM members a couple of times. Also, two nurses who came from the States gave the case managers training on primary health care and emergency treatments. So the entire staff learned how to do these things in a couple of days. Also, they were able to get lots of medications for wounds and colds. In these ways, they were able to provide health care in Lagonav directly. Once, they organized a health fair with two nurses, and they treated a lot of the infections. When they came for 3-4 days, 670 people (there are only 50 CLM members in this island, so all the other villagers came as well) came to get treatment.
Education (for children)
Like I already said somewhere, the education costs are expensive in Haiti. But the CLM staff really encourages the women to send the kids to go to school (as when they don’t anything can happen to them. For instance, they can get pregnant, causing even more problems and fall into perpetuating poverty). When the women don’t have the provisions to send kids to school, the CLM staff negotiate with the school masters and try to pay the money in small increments that the women can afford to pay. As for the uniform, they also arrange it so that the kids can go with any clothes on. When they don’t even have regular clothes, they sometimes ask for donations of clothing and shoes from other village members or in other places. But in these ways, they were successful in arranging the kids eventually start going to school.
Vegetable Gardens
CLM also give the women plant seeds so they can plant vegetables. They can eat the vegetables and also even sell them to generate revenue. Last time, it was so successful that they are going to start it much earlier this time. They got the seeds from this organization that were really into gardening and seeds. I am constantly amazed at how these different organizations can come together in such a remarkable way.
Social Mobilization: Village Committee
They also try to community mobilization. There are many problems that can potentially arise when these women who used to have nothing start to make something. There are cases of jealous neighbors cutting the heads of the goats that were left loose. What the CLM tries to do is to create a village committee, consisting of the people who used to help these women before CLM came in (they ask the women where they would go and ask for help when problem rises) and the CLM members themselves. Their role is to help the CLM members protect their assets.
I have sat through two beginning meetings, and what they do is basically talk about what CLM exactly is and ask the people’s help in advising and protecting the CLM members. They emphasize that by helping the poorest in the village, the whole village is being elevated. Also, the members are often school teachers or priests who are genuinely interested in helping these women. In many ways, this group is the mediators between the people in the village and CLM members.
Also, the CLM members are also instructed to help each other. In one case, when one woman was thrown out of her house because of jealousy, another woman in the program took her in. They are now sisters. In many ways, these women who previously did not have any social assets (connections) now gain valuable network of people who care about them. This will hopefully last even after they graduate from the program.
Graduation and Confidence Building
At the end of the 18th months, CLM members can graduate, and they can also choose to move onto the next level Tikazi (Ti-credit), which is the smallest microfinancing program. Before they graduate, they have three days of confidence building. They plan for the future, and also give the women a strong sense of empowerment and self-esteem of how they made it through the program.
In many ways, these women who used to have nothing and had really low self-esteem experience a transformation in every respect of their lives. More village people come and talk to them as the women now have assets to sell and sometimes also to use the clean water or latrine. They gain respect in the village, and also gain social capital with it.
Evaluation
Gauthier was proud to show us the evaluation an outside firm did 9 months into the program. A well-known independent consultant came to do a evaluation of the program half way into it, and the results were very positive. I can attach the whole evaluation, but let me just say that it was very positive in all aspects.
People who are working for CLM must really genuinely care for the members. How else do you continue to care for the women who sometimes will try to cheat you or lie to you? They have put so much thought and insight into the program. Out of 150, 133 graduated. I have enormous respect for the case managers. They travel long distances on motorcycles, rain or shine. They cross rivers. They go and work and care. In many ways, I am gaining a new optimism—a new trust—for the people and what they can do.
