The NGO (aka: the art of networking, asking and begging)

Haiti ‘foreign aid’ is flooded with money. The BIG guys have billions of dollars allocated by governments and large global organizations to spend here. The problem is that the BIG guys are sometimes slow to respond, beaucratic and inefficient. We, on the other hand are tiny. There are at least a few hundred (but I suspect thousands) of small organizations / projects etc in Haiti. Buildling a single school somewhere doesn’t take much more than good will and some friends that want to help. Many of the schools are simply a tent in someone’s yard. Many are in a hut near a church etc. There are numerous organizations that are worrying about clean water, health, kids, micro financing, small businesses, infrastructure. There are even organizations that are focusing on animal rights in Haiti. Some organizations have a financial back. Some (like ours) rely on finding large donors, applying for grants and making partnerships with other initiatives that have resources and are looking for places to invest. For example:

Some NGO rep, any occasion, PaP: “I have an empowerment program for young women by teaching them karate”.

Any Prodev person happening to stand nearby: “We have a community center in a village. Did you ever think of the huge benefits of teaching village women karate?”

Of course most of the relationships are more serious than that. Both the UN and the CGI (Clinton Global Initiative), and probably others spend a lot of efforts on connecting people with joint interests and creating opportunities for people to meet. If you’re a small organization, and invited to the right places, and have the ability to understand how to make a puzzle from pieces that don’t really fit and how to convince people that you’re serious, you have a chance to get quite a lot of things done just from bringing in the right contacts.

For example, last week the following came to visit our school:

-         financed project for teaching young people life skills through construction (possible partnership: set up a construction training program in our vocational school)

-         financed project to run teen-aged girls social groups (possible: use our school / community center for this activity)

-         Farming Training initiative (early stage. Community activity, school activity, job creation opportunity, feeding opportunity all an option).

-         Financed initiative for short term infrastructure activities (possible: help us with the flooded school yard)

-         Community empowerment initiative (possible: join in running the community center / creating activities there)

-         Water filteration organization (will probably not happen as it is also not financed)

There may have been others. It’s sometimes hard to follow. But you get the point – our tiny NGO is busy getting as much help as possible from anyone that can give it with plans constantly adjusting to whatever is available. Somewhat unorganized – but gets things done.

This is going to be a kindergarten

Middle / Vocational School building

A basketball court