I’m new with Lambi Fund and new to working with Haiti, so before I went there two weeks ago, I don’t think I truly understood the level of need that existed throughout the country, though this set in very quickly.
But I also didn’t understand just how powerful Lambi Fund’s programs are to the communities where we work, though this also didn’t take me long to realize. For me the evidence wasn’t just in the progress reports from our community partner organizations, or the incredible gratitude they showed us, it was in their faces when they talked about what was now possible because of their partnership with Lambi.
They were no longer worrying about feeding their families, they were planning for growing their small businesses to bring prosperity to their communities. The head of one organization that Lambi Fund is helping to produce honey explained that with two more devices, they would be able to make honey that meets international standards and begin exporting abroad.
That is powerful stuff considering that these same people were using a piece of tree bark to produce honey before they partnered with Lambi Fund.
Intellectually, I understood before I went that our model of funding grassroots organizations according to democratic principles was an incredibly practical and effective way to approach development. But to see community after community transformed because of the up-front capital we provide to help them get their dreams off the ground was truly inspirational.
