Kledèv

nutshell: support economic development in Haiti. We're in start-up mode. Have papers from IRS for 501(c)(3), long before expected! Time to become what we will become!

Proposed Word representing who we are to the world:

In Haiti, people struggle each day to get free from conditions of extreme lack of access to resources and opportunities. Young and old search for ways to change their circumstances, but go to sleep each night powerless and worried that a better life is impossible. Kledèv empowers people in Haiti to realize their true potential to create a brighter, more prosperous and inclusive future for Haiti – beyond the struggle.

What Kledèv is Creating with the Haitian People

Kledèv is a new, growing group of Haitians and Americans working together to develop programs that fit the lives Haitians need to live and want to live. We’re building an expansive, supportive network to jump start the transformation of Haiti’s struggle into a social and economic reality that will have people’s lives flourish. We're empowering Haitians to empower themselves where they are right now, by working together to discover hidden opportunities and finding out what’s needed most. Were building partnerships that will put Haitians at the source of generating the power to design and implement the future of their country.

It starts with a simple question — "What's missing?" So far, the answer is to create programs that combine providing much-needed basic human services NOW with a future vision for creating new infrastructures that support life and attract commerce. By putting in place supportive structures that build from the future, Haitians can breakthrough their current circumstances of hardship. By bringing these visions to life, opportunities are exposed for people to create their own livelihoods, making a real, lasting difference for their communities and future of their country.

And by providing for the future of the most vulnerable – children and young people growing up with little or no guidance on how to survive – we are committed to causing the turn-around of a definite trend toward crime and insecurity as a way of life.

By growing our programs to include people currently left out, and by fostering creative partnerships with organizations that have projects that are already working in specific areas, our promise is to expose access to a life beyond struggle for people in Haiti, now and in the future.

Haiti’s history is rich with stories of things going wrong, and an impression is left that the future will naturally be more of the same. There’s an image projected by the media, as well as by well-meaning charities and people who talk about Haiti that keeps it a desperate, helpless, third world country full of insurmountable problems with little or no hope of ever changing. The Haitian people are not that. Changing that image is one of our main objectives.

Life in Haiti can work, but we’re interested in creating much more than simple workability. Haiti can become a unique and desirable tourist destination, a viable resource for the global economy, a homeland to return to. Haiti can be a country where people can choose to live prosperous lives – a place where a better life is possible.