30511: Hermantin ( comment ) Do gooders (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>



Re: Do gooders

Let’s just agree that most of us enter the arena of development because we want 
to do what is right to improve the lives of impoverished communities, but I 
must agree with Pierre that real transformation takes place when those whom we 
want to help so much are given a voice and a role in ameliorating their own 
lives.  This is by no means an attempt to promote the Lambi Fund (honest), but 
I must point to the work the organization has done for the past 12 years with 
Haiti’s   peasant communities.  The Lambi Fund only supports projects that are 
proposed by peasant organizations. These projects which must become sustainable 
within 2 years range from construction of grain mills, animal husbandry 
projects, fish farms, micro credit  etc. They have varied throughout the years 
precisely because Lambi only funds viable and sustainable grassroots projects. 
Lambi’s sole requirement is that funded organizations participate in  training 
sessions  which include project specific workshops as well as training seminars 
designed to strengthen peasant organizations’ viability and overall capacity to 
manage and  sustain community building projects.  It is OK to be a dogooder, 
but Haiti’s peasant communities need more. They need to be given the 
opportunity to apply their own solutions to existing problems.


Leonie M. Hermantin
Deputy Director
Lambi Fund of Haiti
www.lambifund.org
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