The Wheel Barrel Men of Haiti and Small Business Loans

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This update will be about a small business gifting program we took on this year with the help of a specific donor who gave for this program.  Working in Development and living in Haiti I have given a tremendous amount of thought to the most effective way to help impoverished people and nations. Haiti is in many ways the ideal place for this thought as Aid has failed so spectacularly in Haiti. To me the answer is clear that the best way to help people in impoverished nations is with a bottom up approach. Most Aid takes a top to bottom approach, where you take a local “leader” or government body and try to empower them to help the nation. The issue is that you do not become a successful, long lived “leader” in a place like Haiti by being a trustworthy, upstanding citizen. You generally become a leader, in the developing nations I have lived in, by being ruthless and selfish. When you try to co-opt these individuals to help the nation or people, you are set up for failure. Some organizations bring in large groups of Western staff’s which is also seemingly ineffective. The employees are expensive, not in touch with the needs and desires of the locals, often have a language barrier and generally no experience operating in Haiti.  I could go into examples of failed Aid organizations or initiatives in Haiti but would rather to get the positive part of this update.

You can drive around any Haitian city on any day of the week and find a massive amount of Haitians grinding away at their own small businesses to try and make ends meet. If you put me in charge of hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, I would give it to these people. You could structure it back where they pay some portion back each year and get to choose who that gets loaned out to or you could just give it to them and tell them to pay it forward and if they don’t that’s between them and god.
These individuals prove, every day, that they are hardworking, they clearly know the value of a dollar, they have proven their ability to save and invest and they are of the people, so as they prosper other poor and middle class Haitian will prosper. My favorite of these small business workers are the wheel barrel guys.  These men either rent or buy a wheel barrel and then spend their day moving furniture and other heavy stuff miles and miles for a few dollars. Most bust their butts for years to save up to buy the wheel barrel. Once they have the wheel barrel, they navigate filthy, dangerous streets in the blistering sun to try and make a few dollars to feed their families.  The hustle and hardiness that their lives require leaves me in awe. Many of these guys don’t even have properly functioning wheel barrels, they will have a flat tire or other issue but they can still be found in the streets, straight hustling. As they advance in the world some upgrade from a standard wheel barrel to the cart pictured above without much in it and below empty. They put thousands of pounds of cement, iron, furniture and other stuff on these carts and then put a guy in the font and one or two in the back and navigate them miles and miles.  When people as industrious as these get cash, they put back to work in the economy, providing jobs and income to their networks. To go find 50, 100 or 1000 of these men and give them a grand or few grand each would change their lives and put capital into the hands of people who will allocate it in a way that helps the Haitian economy and people.
For the JRF program I had about 3,000 dollars to give away.  I made a few wheel barrel guys and other people who were hustling very happy with part of the money and then also gave some loans to people who were connected to core people at the JRF.  Here are some of their stories. First up is Janette, the mother of Moda, the other JRF cook.  She is about 62 and still walks up into the mountains to weed other people’s land all day, generally with a hoe.  She had 12 children, 6 have died at various stages in their lives. 2 of her grandchildren have been in the JRF since it opened, another two joined within the first few months and another daughter and grandchild of hers have also joined us. Her family is 5 star, honest, smart, hardworking and all physically gifted. We gave her about 300 dollars so that she could buy pistachios to sell.  She was very happy to not have to weed as much and is still running her pistachio resale business.
Next up is Chichi, not her birth name, she is the sister of the JRF cook, Tania.  Chichi is 32, has 2 kids and is the primary caretaker of Tania’s father, Tania sends money to help out. She ran her own business for several years and had almost 850 USD of capital that she would buy stuff with and then resell. In 2014 she got into a motorcycle accident and had to spend all of her business capital on surgery for a messed up leg. Since then she has not been able to get the capital together to get her business back up and running.  We gave her 400 dollars to buy stuff at the Haitian/Dominican border, which she is now selling in her hometown.
Lastly we have a few women whose names I did not write down in a good spot.  Women are not physically strong enough to get into the wheel barrel game but you will find hundreds of women, some into their 70’s with these tubs on their head, pictured below. They will put up to 75 pounds of fruit into these tubs, have someone help hoist the tub onto their head and then walk around all day selling.  These women are often old and not strong looking and the first time I helped one put the tub onto her head I pulled a muscle as I was so shocked and unprepared for how heavy it was.  There is no doubt in my mind that I would not be strong enough to walk around all day with that tub on my head as a 33 year old male and yet these 60 and 70 something year old women manage it, again for a few dollars of profit. I have no idea what this lady did with the money but I gave her a few hundred dollars.
The lady below had also previously run a resale business until she had to spend the working capital on her household and broke the business.  Our old director Ruth knew her and chose her when I asked her who she knew that deserved and would properly use a small business loan.  She chose to sell ribbons and extensions for hair, big business in Haiti as people prioritize their hair here.
I again want to reiterate that none of the money given out was general foundation funds. I think our approach to development is great but it is super labor intensive and requires long term operations, which makes it difficult to scale. If an Aid organization, government or wealthy individual wanted to help the most people, with the least chance of backfire or work, I think giving tons of relatively small injections of capital into the businesses of street hustlers is the answer. By giving capital to hard working, regular people you are indirectly paying for food, schooling and medical care while also stimulating the economy and creating jobs. By choosing people who are already out hustling you ensure that your pool of individuals are at least somewhat hard working, responsible and capable allocators of the capital.  You are also rewarding individuals who deserve it and giving them the opportunity to improve their own situation. As always thank you all for your continued support, none of this would be possible without your generosity and kindness and we are truly grateful.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
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