FINCA Haiti Client Stories

When the earthquake struck on January 12, 2010, Noel Marie’s house was cracked, but none of her family members were injured and she did not suffer any losses in the devastation. In the aftermath of the earthquake, her business has continued growing as she has added several lines of products, including soft drinks. Her life has steadily improved, thanks to her hard work and FINCA loans, and she has been able to pay the tuition fees for the children.

Just as life was starting to improve for her, Pascal Marie lost her only son in the earthquake of January 12, 2010, which also destroyed her mother’s house. She was overcome with grief and did not think she could go on. With the support and sympathy of the other members of her Village Banking group, who visited her very often to console and encourage her, she was able to find the strength to start up her business again.

Sanilia Casseus used her first FINCA loan of 8,000 gourdes (US$200) to buy an expanded variety of sundry products to start building her trade business and improving her life. She was in Port-au-Prince on the day of the earthquake. Fortunately, neither she nor her family was harmed, but she lost everything she had purchased, which represented a great part of the capital of her business. Soon after the earthquake, FINCA decided to forgive her debts and then provided her with a new loan so she could continue building her business.

Eloi Berlus, age 50, and his wife have two sons.  With the FINCA loan his life had improved, but then the building completely collapsed in the catastrophe of January 12, 2010. For several months afterward, Eloi was obliged to accommodate the school’s pupils under tents. Then he received a new loan from FINCA to help him reconstruct the school building, even though this will be a long process. Eloi admits that he needs more money for the reconstruction, but he thinks that one day he will be able to reach the goal.

Ildrese Point du Jour  joined a FINCA Village Banking group in 2008 and received a small loan for her small business selling canned food in the market. For nearly two years, Ildrese saw rapid growth in her sales and profits and she was a very good client for FINCA. Everything was going very well for Ildrese. In the earthquake of January 12, 2010, however, Ildrese lost her entire inventory and the walls in part of her house were badly cracked. But Ildrese soon received a new loan from FINCA and was able to restart her business.

Antoine Bigord began his relationship with FINCA in 2009, and says it has been very fruitful for him. Antoine used his first FINCA loan to purchase new items such as canned foods, vegetable oil, olive oil and soaps, to expand the range of goods he offered at his hardware shop. He continued to invest in these goods over the next three loans and bought shelves to display them. Antoine’s business grew steadily until the earthquake of January 12, 2010, “when all of those efforts were over in just a few seconds.”