Global Partnerships, Fonkoze Pledge to Reach 50,000 Women in 3 Years

In a partnership with Linked Foundation, Fonkoze and Global Partnerships plan to reach 50,000 poor and ultra poor women in Haiti with essential health services.

In 2010, 15 percent of the poor market women served by Fonkoze left our program because of expenses related to health issues,” said Carine Roenen, Director of Fonkoze. “For years our clients have asked us to provide them with health services. Working with Global Partnerships and Linked Foundation will allow us to start responding to that request and reduce our clients’ vulnerability to disease and health-related economic shocks. It’s like a dream come true.

The initiative marks Global Partnerships first project in Haiti and brings to nine the total number of Latin American and Caribbean countries in which the organization is working.

About Global Partnerships: Founded in 1994, Global Partnerships (GP) is a nonprofit social investor based in Seattle, Washington, and Managua, Nicaragua, whose mission is to expand opportunity for people living in poverty. GP invests in and develops sustainable solutions to help impoverished people in Latin America earn a living and improve their lives, including microcredit, basic health care, business education, technical assistance and access to markets for farmers, and green technology. See also www.globalpartnerships.org.

About Fonkoze: Fondasyon Kole Zépol (Fonkoze) is Haiti’s largest microfinance institution with more than 55,000 borrowers, most of whom live and work in the countryside of Haiti, and more than 255,000 savers. It operates out of 46 branches across Haiti and in every province of the country, including many towns and villages where no other banks operate. Fonkoze’s unwavering commitment to serving Haiti’s poor has driven the institution to develop its Staircase out of Poverty approach—a series of complementary programs and products designed to meet clients wherever they are and accompany them on their journey out of poverty.  See also www.fonkoze.org.

About Linked Foundation: Linked Foundation is a private foundation that alleviates poverty by promoting and investing in solutions that improve the health and economic self-reliance of women in Latin America. See also www.linkedfoundation.org.