Gidette lives in Hat, a community along the Artibonite River, just east of downtown Laskawobas. It is where she was born and raised, and she lives there with four of her five children. Her older lives off on her own now, but the younger woman’s daughter lives with Gidette so she can attend the school nearby.
Gidette and her husband have always worked together to earn the income they need. He fishes, and she takes the fish to market for sale as long as the catch is good enough to make the trip to downtown Laskawobas worthwhile. If it is not enough, he just sells it to the buyers who go to the river to meet fishermen there. “It’s best when I can go to the market. I can buy what we need while I’m there. It’s cheaper than buying from neighbors.”
The family was getting by. Gidette made weekly contributions to her sòl, a savings club common in Haiti. She used the sòl to save the money for the children’s school fees.
But her husband’s catches were getting small while prices were getting higher. So, the family was struggling.
After eighteen months in the CLM program, some things are the same for the family, but much has changed as well. Their main source of income for daily expenses is still his fishing. Gidette has not chosen to invest in other commerce.
She decided, however, to invest in livestock. She bought two goats with funds that the program provided, and now she has four. She also bought two turkeys, which have begun laying eggs, and a pair of ducks. “Animals are hope. You can sell them when you need the money, and when people see you have livestock, they will lend you money, too.”
She hopes that the goats will continue producing and that someday she will be able to buy a cow. It will be her second because since she joined the program, a cow she was keeping for a neighbor had a calf, which she received as payment.
But for Gidette, the most important change has been her home. She was living in her mother-in-law’s old house, and it was falling apart. She watched her fellow CLM members finish home repair one after another, but hers was going slowly. “Some built two-room houses. Some built three rooms. I wanted a home with four rooms.”
She says that as graduation began to approach and she wasn’t finished, her case manager started to really push. “I told her not to worry. I had the posts and the palm trees for the walls. I told her that one day she come by and ‘pop’ it would be finished. I had given my word.”
And now, in fact, she has the four-room home she hoped for. And she already has plans for further improvements. She is saving in the second cycle of the savings and loan association the CLM set up for her and her fellow members, and when the 12-month saving cycle ends, she will buy cement and put down a floor.
