Chemen Lavi Miyo (6min) - Pathway to a Better Life

This 6-minute film follows case workers in Haiti's central plateau as they work with new members of a program to reach people living in extreme poverty. The program - Chemen Lavi Miyò or "Pathway to a Better Life" in Haitian creole - is testing a new approach to helping people living in extreme poverty to transition into a sustainable way of life. This highly structured and intensive program combines livelihoods and basic support with training and financial management so that at the end of just 18 months, participants will be equipped with the skills and a business plan to move themselves out of poverty. The case managers "accompany" the women now in the early stages of their journey out of extreme poverty - a time of great change in their lives, but also some setbacks. Zetrenne Joseph, a grandmother who is caring for 2 grandchildren after their parents died, tells us that she no longer needs to beg in the local town to feed the kids. But last night it rained, and she and the two boys spent the night moving around in the mud in her tiny shack. Elmina Bousquet was forced to give up 2 of her 9 children to servitude in Port-au-Prince because she was unable to feed all her children. As a result of the program, she's been able to bring the 2 girls home. We witness the proud moment when a group of graduates from the program-women who completed the first round last December-make their first independent repayment on a mainstream microfinance loan from income they have earned on their businesses, and Merline Thomas, a "CLM graduate" who finished the program in December 2008, sells her produce at the local market. Above all, we observe the remarkable transformation in the lives of these women, and in their hopes and plans for the future. After a series of pilots in 3 regions of Haiti, the program is now ready to scale up in the central plateau, largely because of the high standard of health care offered in that region through a partnership with Paul Farmer's Zanmi Lasante, Partners in Health. "What we want to demonstrate," says Anne Hastings, director of the program, is that there is a "proven, replicable, methodology for accompanying people as they struggle to make their way out of these conditions into a ...decent standard of living." She wants to scale up the program to reach every single village in Haiti, and to demonstrate to the world that "it isn't rocket science to eliminate this kind of poverty... It doesn't take a genius to implement this model. It just takes dedication to working with this population group."

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• chemen
• lavi
• miyo
• haiti
• fonkoze
• cgap
• ford
• foundation