Empowering Haitian Communities to Empower Themselves

It’s been just about three years since Unlocking Communities was founded, but already their work in Haiti—which is based in part on the premise that community members know their own needs best—is helping Haitians to help themselves through access to clean water, clean-burning stoves, and training in hygiene and entrepreneurship.

By the end of 2022, the organization projects it will have impacted more than 135,000 people.

Learning how to help the needy

“I really see this fitting into mission work. It’s so much about accompanying communities,” said founder Josh Goralski, a Chicago native who was exposed to Haiti as a child through his parish’s twinning relationship with a church there. A Haitian priest stayed with his family when he was 8 years old, and Josh later went to Haiti on a high school mission trip.

“On that trip, I learned that the best thing we can do as foreigners is not do any kind of manual labor,” he said. “I learned that it’s being in the relationships that’s key. Those relationships are so powerful and lead to so many moments of solidarity and transformation and community.”

Now 29, Josh decided to pursue studies in social justice and nonprofit management, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees at Loyola University Chicago before returning to Haiti in 2012 to study economic empowerment “and make a difference,” he said. “I found a calling to make this a lifelong purpose.”

As one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is frequently the recipient of other nations’ largesse and is descended upon by NGOs and volunteers who mean well but don’t always leave things better than when they found them. Giving things to and doing things for communities—the white savior model— is often their operation model, but it’s not the missionary model.

Unlocking Communities –help is on the way to Haiti and beyond…

Unlocking Communities seeks to promote sustainable growth that is not reliant on outsiders to keep the work going. So it was key that the Haitians, themselves, identify their greatest needs, which turned out to be water filtration and clean-burning stoves.

The reasons for that are apparent:

• An estimated 5,600 Haitians die each year because they lack access to clean water.
• Clean water is inaccessible or unavailable in 45% of rural communities.
• Charcoal, which makes up 70% of the country’s energy use, contributes significantly to deforestation. Haiti is 98% deforested now.

The need is great for water filtration systems and stoves

Josh Goralski, a Chicago native and founder of Unlocking CommunitiesThe water filtration systems are made in Guatemala (plans are to ultimately make them in Haiti) and the stoves are made in Haiti.

Before the team establishes a relationship with a community, Josh said, they interview leaders such as pastors, priests, and heads of organizations, to determine if the community is a good fit. If it is, then 20 people are identified to participate in an entrepreneur training program that covers business, water, sanitation, and hygiene; a manager, assistant manager, and secretary are picked; and the community receives a loan of 50 water filtration systems which they sell for about $43 each on no-interest microloans. The loans must be paid back within six months.

A family with a water filtration system will save about $150 per year on bottled water (which reduces plastic waste) and visits to the doctor caused by water-borne illnesses. So far, Unlocking Communities has sold 1,500 water filtration systems and 500 stoves, and made over $20,000 in microloans for locals to start businesses, which have included fish farms and plantain farms.

Empowering Haitians to be more self-sufficient

Just as important, the people who have participated in the entrepreneur training program have gained transferrable skills, including learning to understand supply and demand, craft a business plan, and market a business. Ernso Sylvian, the Haitian country director, leads the trainings and is supported by four interns, all from the local communities.

“We work to empower Haitians with the business skills they need,” said Julia Holmertz, who started as a volunteer and is now the director of operations for Unlocking Communities.

Like Josh, she is based in Chicago. “Then they can make their own decisions. For instance, do they want to buy a goat? Or something that’s less of a long-term investment? Your sense of self comes from being able to make your own decisions. It’s very empowering.”

Josh said the group hopes to expand into India or East Africa in 2022 and is currently working with Deloitte to make sure their model — which he believes can help eliminate poverty — is replicable. “This is an opportunity to show through our business that we can spread Christian love,” he said. “’They will know we are Christians by our love’ is a phrase that has always stuck with me.”

(Republished with permission of U.S. Catholic Mission and Unlocking Communities)