Hospitality workers, entrepreneurs, students, and teachers in Haiti are set to become empowered with much needed training when the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund disburses nearly US$1.5 million in new grants to organizations.
The Washington-based fund announced the three new grants recently for the Oasis Foundation, the Quisqueya University and EducaTech.
The Oasis Foundation is to benefit from a US$264,000 grant to revive l’École Hôtelière Haitienne (the Haiti Hotel School) destroyed by the massive 2010 earthquake. The school, an institution under Haiti’s Ministry of Tourism, was the only comprehensive hospitality training school of its kind in the country. With this funding, the school can now welcome hospitality students back to complete their training, and matriculate future hospitality students.
Earlier this year, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund made a US$2 million equity investment in the Oasis Hotel, a business-class hotel in Port-au-Prince whose construction was halted after the earthquake. The Oasis Foundation, a non-profit established by the hotel, is partnering with the Haitian Hotel School and Haiti’s Ministry of Tourism, with additional support from Occidental Hotels and the USAID/Haiti Recovery Initiative, to make the training program possible.
The Fund new grant also includes a US$914,000 grant to Quisqueya University to help enhance the recently established Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to develop both current and future business leaders of Haiti. The Centre will provide a range of business development services. It will offer training for local consultants and analysts, facilitate businesses transitioning from the informal to the formal economy, and provide advanced managerial training. From classroom training to hands-on case studies, the Center will give entrepreneurs the skills necessary for their businesses to succeed.
The Fund’s US$285,646 grant to the Haitian for-profit enterprise EducaTech will provide computer equipment, educational resources, and technology training for students and faculty at Haiti’s state university.
EducaTech will establish a digital library at Haiti’s Institute of Management and International Studies (INAGHEI), with computers and programs, digital boards, and electronic databases. Students, faculty, and staff will go through EducaTech’s training program on the use of this software and hardware, and then will go on to train even more students.
The vision of EducaTech is to give all Haitian young people access to books and electronics, and use it to create a competitive and productive workforce that will grow Haiti’s economy. “In Haiti,” EducaTech, co-founder Kesner Pharel explained, “we can live much better through technology.”
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund is a non-profit organization founded after Haiti’s January 12, 2010 earthquake, when President Barack Obama asked former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to lead a major fundraising effort to assist the Haitian people to “build back better.” The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund initially responded to the catastrophe with millions in humanitarian relief. By the time the Fund was officially formed in May 2010, it transitioned to primarily serving its longer-term mission of sustainable reconstruction efforts designed to promote jobs and economic opportunity, empowering Haiti to chart its own successful future.
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