Fonkoze USA

Fonkoze is HaitiÕs leading microfinance institution. Headquartered in Port-au-Prince, Fonkoze has 40 branch offices throughout the country.

FONKOZE is Haiti’s leading microfinance organization and offers full banking services to Haiti's poorest citizens. Before the earthquake, Fonkoze was managing more than 60,000 loans and 200,000 savings accounts. Headquartered in Port-au-Prince, Fonkoze's home office was destroyed in the earthquake. Fonkoze is seeking funds to re-establish its headquarters and provide new loans to borrowers so they can re-establish their businesses.

PROGRAMS:  Chemen Lavi Miyò, or the Road to a Better Life, is a precursor to microfinance. It reaches out to the poorest of the poor and provides training, confidence building and other services like health care and home repair. It assists clients as they move from abject poverty and misery to their own microenterprise and are ready to enter their first loan. Ti Kredi, or Little Credit, reaches out to families that are not ready to manage a loan in Fonkoze's core solidarity-group credit program. Ti Kredi offers them a smaller initial loan of just $25, shorter repayment periods, additional support from their loan officer, and literacy classes. Solidarity Group credit is Fonkoze’s core program in which five close friends organize themselves into solidarity groups that take out their loans together. Starting with three-month loans of $75, women can grow in this program until they are borrowing sums as large as $1,300 for six months. The groups meet regularly for Literacy, Business Training, and other educational programs.