Help for Haiti

[JHablinski]

It has been a while since I have been online here. I have been busy, however, with not much to show for my efforts. A few weeks after the earthquake in Haiti a thought began buzzing around my head. It was a thought I had had before, I guess at least since I first took up a hook. Really longer ago than that, I just didn’t have a vehicle to use to facilitate the thoughts.

For some years, and I really can’t even begin to guess how long ago it was, when I first heard about the marvelous success the concept of the microloan has achieved in Bangladesh, India and other places of dire poverty. I had always hoped I might be able to help my fellow man.

If microfinance is a new term to you, let me give you a brief synopsis of its recent history. In the 1970s Muhammad Yunus founded Grameen Bank. His idea was to lend small amounts of money, around $20.00 to start, to poverty stricken WOMEN. His reasoning, and I’m sorry to say he is right, was money leant to women would have a better chance of being put to use as small entrepreneurial ventures with which these desperately poor women might be able to pull themselves out of poverty. His reasoning for helping women, rather than men was simple. Women would use the money to help feed their families through their labor. Men on the other hand were more likely to drink up the money and then be unable to pay the loan back. See, I told you I was sorry to say he was right. The concept was very successful, and the loan payback ratio was in the high 90s%.

Other endeavors were born out of the fair price arrangements. In these cases the actual growers of things such as coffee and cotton, the small plot farmers who were at the mercy of unscrupulous buyers and consolidators who would pay the growers a pittance and then sell the commodities for very high profits. Several end-users decided to visit these small producers, and buy their yields at prices they were already paying for the items to begin with. Not only did the growers prosper, but with the communication between the end users and the producers, suddenly the farmers were not only being paid a fair price for their efforts, but they learned steps to take to make their products more marketable by raising the quality of their farms. For instance, the coffee growers learned how to properly dry the coffee beans in the sun and turn the bean frequently. Before their yields had been diminished by mold etc. caused by poor storage and handling, and so literally each bean was worth more. Everyone benefitted. The coffee buyers got a better quality coffee and the farmers were able to not only make a living for their families and still make a profit over and above subsistence.

The idea that I might come up with something that could raise people out of poverty was very appealing. I long ago learned that the only thing that truly makes us happy is helping someone else.

Amy was the first person I wrote. She is one of the founders of Crochetville, along with Donna and so had been successful with crochet and building an organization, and I trusted her opinion. Her thoughts were, yeah John that’s a great idea BUT, she wasn’t sure crochet was the correct vehicle, because it can only be done by hand, while knitting could be mechanized using small handlooms. As much as it hurt for me to hear that anything about the “K” word could be better than crochet, I’m sure it hurt her more. I had to concede the point, the purpose here was to help people and not promote crochet. She suggested a group doing work in Africa using handlooms and donated yarns. Like several other groups doing similar things, I got no response. In fact I think my biggest surprise so far, has been the folks who didn’t bother to reply. I did receive a very kind response from a group doing some wonderful work in Eastern Europe and they were using Crochet. She told me the reason they used crochet was because there was a long history of crochet work in the area and so the skill level of the people was already fairly high. She also offered the information that her group marketed the work through churches, and while I had always thought the efforts on this end of any organization would be non-profit, the church marketing hadn’t occurred to me. Another contact who has successfully organized another crochet group, also told me her day job was in the area of international and intercultural work, and again, she is someone whose opinions I trust. She suggested managing to actually get something like this up and running in Haiti would be a nearly impossible to do without $Billions, to grease the palms of government officials. Government has always been the biggest problem for the people of Haiti. Among the bits of information I have managed to acquire is this rather startling stat. Depending on who one wishes to believe, the average income for the people of Haiti is somewhere between $250.00 and $650.00 a YEAR. Most of the sources I found tended to the lower figure. How bleak. To my way of thinking a couple of $2.00 potholders a day could almost double someone’s income.

My purpose here today is to just toss this out to the crochet community as a whole, which was my idea in the beginning. Our community is a caring and giving group of people. I don’t know if this is something that can be accomplished. And if it can, I’m not sure I have the skill sets necessary to get this done. I would love to hear your thoughts. John Hablinski Corpus Christi, Texas,USA

[Amy]

John, I'm not exactly sure what you're asking Crochetville members to do. Do you just want input on your thoughts? Can you give us a little more clarification on what you're looking for?

 

It's very admirable that you want to come up with a plan that could improve the economic situation of the people in Haiti. From what I understand, their government has indeed been very corrupt in the past, which has made it very difficult to work with the people to give them a hand up.

[FrLopLady]

you will need to partner with a group or mission effort already established in Haiti. A friends son was just there and was working on arranging trips for his church to possibly make in helping rebuild. We talked around the table about the idea of trying to teach the people how to properly build a house or building. Hard to do, again with the problems of corruption and then lack of proper building materials often again because of corruption and lack of standards. Getting them to NOT take shortcuts.

[JHablinski]

Once again, Amy’s right. I gave you all a lengthy and probably boring blow by blow description of my recent activities, and then wasn’t very plain concerning what I hoped to learn from our community. I’m doing a brief soul-searching as I write this and I think the reason for my vagaries is I don’t really know how to proceed, and I am unsure if that which we love is in any way a route out of poverty for enough people in Haiti to make any real difference. Frankly I just don’t know but I begin to doubt.

I think, perhaps, I was hoping some villager might offer to lend me their copy of How to Magically Pull Haiti Out of Poverty for Dummies. Absent a book like that, I’m asking for suggestions about how and IF to continue. Does anyone know of an existing group or organization which might be receptive to including crochet as a way to further their existing work, or just shoot me and put me out of my misery? One of the first lessons I learned when I became a villager was there are an abundance of folk here much smarter than I. I’m generally not one to give up on things, but I’ve spent some time messing with this and nothing concrete to show for it. John Hablinski Corpus Christi, TX, USA

[FrLopLady]

John try this link. Ray and Sandra are listed there...Ray is my cousin and they have been missionaries to Haiti for years. http://upcmissiongroups.org/html/haiti.html They may be able to give you some direction? I dunno, but thought you could try

[magiccrochetfan]

John, Do you want to go to Haiti and teach people to crochet? then import their products into the US and offer them for sale? I've seen info re some projects more or less like that in Africa and South America. I imagine it takes massive amounts of organization and significant financial donations to get that kind of thing going. Are things stable and organized enough in Haiti for any kind of crochet project to be feasible, I wonder?

[JHablinski]

I have decided I need to re-asses my intentions, aspirations and abilities where the plight that is Haiti is concerned. Magiccrochetfan’s question about whether I wanted to go to Haiti to teach people to crochet. The simple answer to that question is no. It isn’t due to a lack of desire to do something for the Haitians; it is due to my health. One of the reasons I took up crochet was because I wanted to do something productive within the realistic scope of physical restrictions which must be recognized and dealt with. I am not in the throes of complete decrepitude, but a brisk walk down to the corner would involve several rest periods. I certainly don’t have the $$$ needed to accomplish such a project. I only buy yarns when they are at deep discounts, and some of the yarns I see online are way beyond my means, so I’ll just have to keep looking at and drooling over those cashmeres and silks and I’ll continue my letter writing to those who might have the ability to implement something to help those folks, and praying. Sometimes I have to remind myself of the fact that praying for someone is often the very best any of us can do. John Hablinski, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

[FrLopLady]

Sometimes I have to remind myself of the fact that praying for someone is often the very best any of us can do. John Hablinski, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

 

How often I find myself saying "well all we can do is pray" I always catch myself...like that is all? and isn't that a lot? but to move mountains only takes faith and prayer.

 

keep praying for them bro..it is a LOT!