Our Work
Project Areas
Local decision-making and control, a lengthy and tailored engagement, an on-going practice of process improvement, and rigorous, post-project evaluation leads to sustainability over time. While three out of four development projects typically fail, over 80% of the more than 250 projects that Lambi Fund has sponsored in its 20 year history survive today.
Community Credit Funds
Affordable capital to launch small-business enterprises and to invest in more seeds and tools is hard to come by in Haiti. In partnership with Lambi Fund, members of community organizations are banding together to form community credit funds. Lambi Fund provides the much needed seed money to create the fund and trains organization members in credit fund management and bookkeeping. As a result, affordable loans are made to members at a rate of 1-5% and given flexible repayment options. The beauty of this model is that when the loans are repaid, the interest made grows the fund and allows the organization to make even more loans to members. The money stays in the community and these funds provide members with a much needed safety net and access to much needed capital to start self-sustaining community projects for years to come!
Reforestation
Trees protect the soil and produce food. Forests generate much-needed rainfall.
Between 1993 and 2012, Haiti experienced the third highest level of damage from climate change-related weather of any country in the world.
In 2004, Hurricane Jeanne struck Haiti with extraordinary force, killing more than 3,000 people and washing away more than 15,000 hectares of valuable topsoil. In response, the Lambi Fund asked each of its project partners to plant 20,000 tree seedlings with each project funded. Since then, the Lambi Fund, through its partners, has planted nearly 3,000,000 tree seedlings in Haiti.
Capacity Building
Instruction in project specific technologies, training on organizational development, instruction in the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, and education on the importance of gender equity ensures long-term project sustainability while equipping Haitians to become empowered citizens of a vibrant democracy.
Animal Husbandry
In rural Haiti, wealth is measured in pigs and goats. For years, as conditions worsened in Haiti, the number of pigs and goats dwindled. Thanks to the self-sufficient projects run by grassroots groups, pig and goat breeding is again on the rise and contributing to the economic development of rural communities.