CDF Grant Awards for Cooperative Recovery in Haiti

Citing the need to help the long-term recovery of the Haitian economy, the Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF) announced over $62,000 in grant awards from CDF's Co-op Emergency Fund for Haitian Earthquake Recovery.

"Fund-raising began within days of the earthquake and we are pleased to announce these first grant awards to three U.S. organizations that are helping to rebuild the Haitian cooperative community and assuring that cooperatives will be part of the rebuilt Haitian economy," said CDF Board Chair, Terry Lewis.

Grant awards were made on Wednesday, May 5th in Washington, DC, during the annual meeting of the National Cooperative Business Association (CDF's affiliated organization) to the following organizations:
o    World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) for their work to help rebuild the Haitian credit union community ($23,730).
o    NRECA International Foundation for their work to help rebuild the electric generation and distribution system, countrywide, but with an initial focus on the Port-au-Prince area ($24,250).
o    ACDI/VOCA for its work related to cooperative development in the rural, southeastern part of Haiti ($15,000).

In all three cases, the projects for which the funds will be used are major initiatives for which substantial additional public and private sector funds are being committed.  The CDF grant awards will primarily cover the costs of volunteers with special expertise to travel to Haiti and participate in the rebuilding.

"This is all about co-ops helping co-ops," said Lewis. "We're thrilled to know that CDF's Haiti fund can help make it possible for WOCCU to bring its experts to Haiti to help reopen sustainable credit unions. and for the NRECA International Foundation to bring volunteer line crews to Haiti to help bring reliable electricity back to the country and for ACDI/VOCA to provide skills training that will benefit cooperatives in rural areas of the country."

Lewis singled out the food cooperative community for special thanks for their response to the fundraising appeal.  "Every time there has been a major disaster, the food cooperative community has shown great compassion and generosity.  They always step up to the challenge and the Haiti response was no different -- 78% of the funds raised to date have come from food cooperatives and their individual members."

Contributions still are being accepted for the Co-op Emergency Fund for Haiti Earthquake Recovery (online at www.cdf.coop).  CDF collects no administrative fee for any of its costs associated with the Emergency Fund and, as a result, 100% of the funds raised is used for grant awards. The Cooperative Development Foundation is a nonprofit charitable organization that promotes community, economic and social development through cooperative enterprise.