Pathway to a Better Life
By Pastor Lorne Hlad, Prince of Peace Lutheran
She's known hardship her entire life. She's known hunger for as long as she can remember.
In fact, she has no experience of what a "full" stomach feels like. She rises early every morning and gets busy assessing the damage to her dwelling caused by the winds and rain that fell throughout the night. She tries to work early in the morning before the scorching temperatures rise. She knows how painful it is to labor in the heat without access to water.
She is filled with love and worry for her children and gladly sacrifices her own meal so they might eat. It's never enough to go around, and she weeps at the sight of their beautiful black hair as it increasingly turns red - a sign of severe malnourishment.
While the odds are stacked against her, she hasn't stopped dreaming. She's tenacious and resilient. She fights every single day to live. She's physically weak, but emotionally she's a heavy-weight champion. She wants a path to a better life and if empowered the right way, she knows deep within her soul that a hopeful future for her family is possible.
She is not alone. She is just one of the many thousands of women who live in desperate poverty in the Central Plateau of Haiti.
Just a 90-minute flight away from America's abundance, this is a scandal of our shared humanity.
Chemen Lavi Miyò (CLM), or "The Pathway To a Better Life" program empowers Haiti's poorest women to lift themselves out of ultra-poverty, with hope and vision for their futures.
The CLM initiative is one of The Haitian Timoun Foundation's longest running partners in Haiti, and throughout the years, has successfully launched and funded over 700 women through this life-changing program.
Fonkoze’s CLM program employs specially trained case managers to work with CLM members throughout an intensive 18-month process to help them build sustainable livelihoods and the confidence and skills necessary to further grow them and create a better life for themselves and their families.
To begin, CLM provides each member with the productive assets – such as livestock or a commerce inventory – needed to start two income generating activities. All CLM members also receive the materials to construct a 9×9 meter home with a sturdy roof, a stable floor, and a latrine; and a water filter.
Each member also receives a small cash stipend while her fledgling business grows and free healthcare in partnership with Zanmi Lasante, Partners in Health’s Haitian sister organization.
But the CLM case managers remain at the heart of the program. Case managers make weekly visits to every member, which often require overnight stays and hours-long hikes to reach women in Haiti’s most remote locations.
During their visits, CLM case managers provide each member with confidence-building, enterprise management, and life skills training. They also help each woman to successfully navigate the unique challenges she encounters throughout the process and to build a plan for her future as she moves forward. In turn, the women provide the hard work, determination and resilience to succeed.
The Haitian Timoun Foundation is committed to launching a new cohort of 100 women through the CLM program later this year and is currently raising the necessary funds.
As we come to the Easter season, Prince of Peace is once again supporting HTF through our annual Resurrection Project. Every dollar given to this year's Resurrection Project will go towards launching the next HTF sponsored cohort of women through CLM.
It costs approximately $1,500 to fully fund a women through this 18-month program.
How many women will Prince of Peace support in this next cohort of 100?
When CLM was the focus of our Resurrection Project in 2015, collectively we raised over $15,000 and set 10 women on a path to a better life!
Supporting the Resurrection Project helps make resurrection possible for desperate women and children who live on the constant brink of life and death. Your financial gifts, of any size, will be "Good News" for those whom Jesus calls beloved.
The Good News of the resurrection is Good News for ALL of creation! Thank you being people of generosity and resurrection life!
Pastor Lorne
Prince of Peace Lutheran
Loveland, Ohio
POP’S 2020 RESURRECTION PROJECT
Thank you for your support this Easter Season to help eradicate ultra-poverty in Haiti.