“A ONE-TIME $300 donation will provide the seed money for a mother to grow her business and provide for her family throughout the program. Each KOFAEL member will have jumpstarted her business and savings account while receiving continuing education, and, best of all, HOPE! And then, that same $300 is rolled over into providing for another family and then another for years to come! But a child that ends up in an institution will need a minimum of $300 PER MONTH for one child care sponsorship. When I think about how many people and churches and hundreds of thousands of dollars it takes to support the same amount of kids spending their lives in institutions instead of with their family, I don’t for one second believe that this is “micro approach”! Can you see? Choosing to help families stay together is a better solution!”
–Elisabeth Ream
Where do donations go?
FUNDING THE INITIAL 25 LOANS AT EACH KOFAEL BRANCH – We raise donations for the initial loans to enroll twenty-five women at each location through the KOFAEL program. As of 2017 there are three separate KOFAEL branch locations throughout different areas of Haiti. Once the money is in the KOFAEL system it is replenished by the consistent repayment of loan cycles from the members. We only raise money for the first woman who receives a loan. A $300 one-time donation enables us to begin a new membership process.
“EXCEL STILL MORE” SPECIAL LOANS – A $500 one-time donation grants larger loans to the faithful women who excel still more and qualify beyond the basic three-step loan process. These women typically become valuable member-leaders.
HEALTH INSURANCE – Health insurance dues for each member are $10 for an individual and $30 for a family per month. KOFAEL raises money to pay 50% of these dues based on the individual preference and family need. We believe everyone should have access to health care and the health of the members is vital to their success. We also cover 100% of healthcare cost for all of our Haitian KOFAEL directors and their family members.
MEETING LOCATION RENT – Providing a safe, private location for the KOFAEL meetings to take place each month as well as additional classes for continuing education is another reason donations are needed. The cost to rent a safe location in some areas verses others varies. The average needed to fully fund all the KOFAEL meeting locations is $5,000 per year. This amounts to approximately $5 per KOFAEL member per month.
CONTINUING EDUCATION – Continuing education and encouragement for the hard working Haitian directors of KOFAEL is another aspect we are happy to try to cover through donations as opportunities arise. Local and international conferences and business trainings on micro-finance, orphan prevention and family preservation to name a few equip the leaders to serve even better. Quarterly traveling long distances across country to meetings so that the directors can work together is essential as well. Once a year we also host a special time of refreshment and future vision and planning they look forward to as a reward for their volunteer service.
HAITIAN DIRECTOR STIPENDS – The KOFAEL directors have never been paid a salary! Their hearts are to volunteer to help their people and to keep overhead as low as possible. Their personal sacrifice and investment is another HUGE part of KOFAEL’s success story! However, to help offset local travel expenses to and from meetings, regularly visiting the KOFAEL women at their homes and/or businesses, phone usage, as well as purchasing water and small snacks for the monthly member meetings, our goal is provide a stipend of $100 per month per director to help them cover those expenses.
EMERGENCY FUNDS – We occasionally need to raise emergency relief funds to cover losses in the case of natural disasters that have unfortunately wiped out homes and businesses of some members in the past.
