Adult Education

Adult Education Services

Fonkoze adult education programs advance the livelihoods of participants

by building skills in a collaborative, empowering manner. Fonkoze’s adult education courses provide participants with the skills they need in order to respond to their basic needs. At the same time, courses develop qualities of leadership and solidarity among clients.

Over 40% of micro-credit clients are illiterate when they join Fonkoze.

Limited education negatively impacts their ability to develop sustainable livelihoods and to recover from shocks such as natural disasters and socio-political unrest. In 2021, Fonkoze developed its first digital learning platform, EdTek, created to deliver education sessions more efficiently through the use of tablets. Training modules include financial literacy, business skills training, reproductive health, and disaster preparedness.

Since 2000, over 185,000 clients have graduated from our Adult Education classes and 30,000 have learned to read. Over the years, Fonkoze has developed and taught members to read and write; to better manage their business; to protect the rights of their children; to advocate for their own rights as women; and to understand how to protect the environment and prepare for disaster. These women become leaders and agents of change in the communities in which they live. They also become much better at managing their business and thus can better provide for their families. Combined with Fonkoze’s micro-lending, the education program strengthens the capacity of Haitian market women to break the cycle of poverty and improve their lives and those of their children.

Ti Koze ("Little Chat") Classes

Ti Koze is a monthly life skills-oriented class that engages participants in discussion and interaction.

Picture storytelling is used to address real-life problems that Fonkoze clients face. Led by Loan Officers, the program offers discussion-based life skills instruction during the monthly Solidarity Center meetings.

The format not only empowers Loan Officers to provide additional support to their clients, it engages all members in discussion through “reflection circles” that follow from Haiti’s storytelling tradition.

Ti Koze is active in 46 branches, providing each of Fonkoze’s Solidarity borrowers with knowledge about how to protect their homes and businesses when faced with natural disasters, how to better invest their loan capital, and how to protect their children from illnesses.

Alfa (education) Classes

Alfa (education) classes offer Solidarity clients the opportunity to receive specialized instruction from trained peers who already know how to read and write. Rather than using a standard lecture style, our specially trained monitors lead students in an interactive process designed for adult learners.

Each four-month Alfa module covers critical material, including literacy, business development, reproductive health, children’s rights, environmental protection, and disaster preparedness and risk reduction. The more specialized modules build on clients’ literacy skills, enabling them to continue reading and writing practice while gaining new skills.

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