in Sojourners: Back in Business in Haiti

Article by Jacqueline Klamer of Partners Worldwide posted in the God's Politics blog:

So how have these few businesses survived? According to Wisconsin businessman Jack Van Der Ploeg, “Instead of getting our money from donors, buying things in our home country, then taking it to Haiti and giving it away, we take ourselves to business owners that produce the needed products in Haiti and stimulate the economy through local business, where you then see that money reused six or seven times.” As a retired CEO, Van Der Ploeg has traveled to Gonaïves and Port-au-Prince five times this year...

One of these innovative businesses is a cabinetry and casket production company in Port-au-Prince. “We’ve taken a crash course over the year,” says Evelien de Gier, co-owner of Maxima S.A. Her company ventured into transitional housing production within weeks following the earthquake. Starting with 59 employees, the company now employs 275 Haitians full-time in housing production, and in 2010 alone fulfilled contracts totaling 3,500 housing units....

“We prefer to have an order instead of a donation or loan,” says Jean-Ronel Noel, another business owner in the network since he first launched ENERSA in 2005. Manufacturing solar-powered streetlights in Port-au-Prince, most of his 30 employees reside in the shantytown nearby, Cité Soleil. “They work to support their own families,” he says. “If we have an order, we’re more comfortable with that. We want to show that even in this situation we can work and deliver something. It’s a matter of dignity.”

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