» 2015 Starts Out as a Success for Femmes de Chermaitre Vassar Haiti Project

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2015 Starts Out as a Success for Femmes de Chermaitre

February 1, 2015 by pasinha

“Women are everything,” Toussaint Vina (secretary of the co-operative) reminds us in the video.

That’s the reason we believe in the importance of the women’s initiative, and the potential of the Femmes de Chermaitre women’s co-operative to succeed. Femmes de Chermaitre is made up of the women in the community who have experienced significant personal and economic hardships and came together in late 2013 to formalize their support networks and create a co-operative, in hopes of collectively improving their livelihoods.

Many of them have lost more than one child to what should be preventable illnesses. There are also women who have had to give up their children as restaveks (domestic servants) because they are not able to financially support them. And yet, these are the same women who continued, without pay, to cook school meals for 383 children in the village school. They are the ones who took action to organize themselves into their very own co-operative.

Men anpil, chay pa lou – many hands make the load light.

They strongly believe in the power of women working together, and have an incredible network of solidarity. We are certain that their growth will reverberate through the entire community: they will be able to afford and grow more food for their families, send their children to school, and realize their goals of sustainable, thriving livelihoods.

Since their formation, they have been making coffee, producing peanut butter and jams, as well as fabrics, handcrafts and jewelry for sale in regional and U.S. markets. This year, VHP successfully began selling their richly aromatic organic coffee, hand-sewn napkins and artfully beaded earrings at our Haitian art and handcraft sales. We have been very heartened by the results.

Our crowdfunding campaign will help Femmes de Chermaitre hit the ground running by purchasing their own coffee plants and more equipment, and finish the construction of a multi-purpose community centre to house the co-op’s activities.

So far we have successfully “tipped” the campaign – which means that the women will receive the contributions pledged by all of you. We have three days left in the campaign, so if you would like to make a donation now – YOU STILL CAN! We are SO thankful for everyone’s support and excited to see what the future brings for Femmes de Chermaitre.