Report on April 10-13, 2011 Haiti Site Visit – Evan Keller
Highlights:

Jared Priest and Don Rilea tested and packed 16 laptops in two old hard shell suitcases.

Customs agents in Port-Au-Prince airport demanded $170 for the laptops; stalling and tag-team
negotiating alongside Daniel brought it down to $60. (All site visit expenses will be delineated in
a separate report.)

Samuel Sanon and his business partner Fradel Jendi had not completed the required business
plan, so we met with them for 45 minutes on Sunday evening, but only gave them one
computer. They’d prefer to sell them, but we had hoped to see an ongoing service to the
community (and revenue for them) through a leasing/repair program. After they submit a solid
plan to Daniel, they will receive the remaining 15 computers.

I met Nick/Nancy Tuit and Bernie/Carole Waltjer in the Fort Lauderdale airport and got
acquainted some there and more so at the Kinam Hotel (in Port-Au-Prince) that evening. There
was a tent city in a park across the street from this property which contained the only grassy
lawn and swimming pool I saw during this trip.

We heard chilling stories of entire cities wailing amidst giant dust clouds following the quake.
There is much reconstruction (including hundreds of homes built by a PW affiliated business),
yet piles of rubble are everywhere as well as partially and completely collapsed buildings. The
ever-resilient Haitian people have rebuilt a sense of “new normal” into their lives.

Monday and Tuesday consisted of meeting with roughly a dozen business owners in Leogane.

Tuesday evening we stayed at the Tatiana Hotel in Leogane with gorgeous mosaic sidewalks,
pleasant landscaping, and chalets which were quaint and attractive – at least from the outside.
Inside there were no doors on the bathroom and the toilet was under the sink! The a/c was
struggling, and worst of all, they jacked up the promised price to Daniel from $100 to $150 per
night. We stayed one night instead of two, returning to PAP early.
Let me describe the key players with whom I made these business visits:
1. Nick and Bernie have been volunteering with Partners Worldwide for about five years, making a
couple of trips from Michigan to Haiti each year, providing excellent engineering expertise to
business owners and helping them locate/ship needed equipment from the States. Their
technical know-how and understanding of business efficiency was evident; they will be available
to us as advisors going forward.
2. Daniel Jean-Louis has been PW’s Partnership Manager in Haiti for two years. Haitian-born into a
large family with a salt reclamation business, he was educated at Liberty University, speaks
frequently on the radio regarding economic development, and is building (alongside investors) a
guesthouse on his property overlooking the city (at which I stayed one night). He is single in his
mid-thirties and has: solid people skills, great connections in Haiti, and excellent translation
skills. Daniel is the driving force behind getting this program rolling, had arranged our
appointments, and transported us in his own vehicle and arranged for our housing.
3. Brunel (last name?) was recently hired by Daniel to coordinate the project in Leogane. His first
assignment is to find and recruit qualified businesses to be assessed for the 3-year mentoring
initiative. He was hired away from SozeBank, a large microfinance institution in Haiti, where he
was a loan officer for 100 accounts. While he is a gentle, good-natured young man, I have
doubts about his fitness for the job. He knows very little English, is not networked with Leogane
businesses, and seems to lack the requisite assessment skills and initiative. He will require quite
a bit of oversight from Daniel and will hopefully exceed our expectations of him.
4. Maxim (last name?) is big-hearted pastor of a house church and the franchisee of Le-Go-Go, a
small milking operation in Leogane which processes and sells milk from 19 small farmers. He’s
been in the PW network for years and really understands their philosophy of business as
mission. Daniel recently appointed him president of FEL – the Federation of Entrepreneurs of
Leogane, a local affiliate of PW (whose membership guidelines are attached). FEL is the local
organization with which Entrust will partner. They provide mutual support for businesses from a
Christian perspective in their monthly meetings, and are recently reorganizing after suffering
from poor leadership. Businesses are required to be members of FEL in order to participate in
the mentoring initiative.
5. Douco (last name?) is owner of Douco Chocolat. He produces peanut butter and has received
mentoring over a period of time from Daniel, Nick and Bernie. He has gumption in going after
new accounts, something sorely missing from several of the other business owners we met. This
courage and initiative recently landed him two new accounts, including the largest grocery store
in the area. We hope that he can tell his story for others to emulate when we conduct
sales/marketing training. Douco is the new treasurer of FEL and also “gets” the BAM model.
Unlike the others previously described, he did not join us in our meetings with potential
mentees.
6. Jeff (last name?) is a middle-aged Filipino who manages a large program for CRWRC in the
Leogane plain involving housing, microfinance, farming and business development – the last of
which is in partnership with PW in the program in which we are participating. We only met him
briefly at his office complex where Brunel will have a work station. CRWRC will be providing
funding to the project and limited oversight in partnership with Daniel.
I wholeheartedly enjoyed getting to know Daniel, Bernie and Nick and working alongside them.
Understandably, the trust Dave Genzink and I have developed over the past year had not automatically
transferred into these email-only relationships. As we learned about each other and each other’s
organizations, we forged friendships and honestly discussed what each will bring to the working
relationship going forward.
Business Assessments:
The purpose of our business visits was to be part of the assessment process for selecting businesses to
participate in the initiative. Since the assessment process is in its early stages and still be refined, we
asked lots of fairly random questions to gain insight into their business practices, discern which systems
they could improve, find out what capital needs they had, and gauge their receptiveness to trying new
ideas a mentor might suggest. (Daniel, Nick and Bernie hope to develop a more thorough assessment
tool, along with input from Jeff.) I had hoped relationship building would be a key component of our
visits with Leogane business owners, but given how slow everything goes (driving slowly on bumpy
roads and spending 2+ hours for each meal at a restaurant) in Haiti as well as the volume of businesses
we visited, we were only able to spend an average of 25 minutes at each business. I wonder if they felt
interrogated as a group of strangers probed into their business practices/finances and uncovered their
weaknesses. While this was the quickest way to get a read on the state of each business, I’m not sure
how much trust was built. I hope that we can integrate more of the asset-based approach (rather than
solely needs-based) when we begin our mentoring/training “alongside” them, not “to” them. Having
Maxim along provided some necessary local credibility, and Daniel’s presence revealed that they were
being invited into something larger, but still distinctly Haitian. Daniel and Maxim’s involvement was and
is essential.
We uncovered some excellent candidates for partnership with Entrust, but I’m hoping more business
can and will be found which are female-owned and Rotary member-owned in order to fully engage
those constituencies among our mentor pool. I’m also hoping for a wider variety of business types,
including some construction companies (to aid in the rebuilding effort) and restaurants (because we
have several restaurant owners in our mentor pool, and because Leogane’s restaurants are in dire need
of improving their service!).
We visited several bakeries, and a few tailors, some of which were more hobbies than real businesses or
were too small to maximize the leverage of this program. Here is a description of the businesses which
are strong possibilities for receiving Entrust mentors:
1. Immaculee Bakery – (owner’s name?). He started his bakery in 2006 and now operates in an
overhang outside his quake-damaged building. He has four employees and four propanepowered ovens producing two baked products which he sells in plastic bags to ten vendors who
come to him (no delivery). He uses 220 pounds of flour per day and 200 pounds of propane per
week. He doesn’t measure his costs or number of muffins produced and sold. He said he runs his
business exactly how he did back in 2006! He claims he could sell more, but couldn’t identify
why more vendors would choose him over the competition. Suggestions may include expanding
his product line and wrapping his ovens in fiberglass to save propane. He seems open to
coaching.
2. CESCAL – Romulus & Molene Robertson. These folks have a vision for both business and
community development, but haven’t found a way to integrate them or make their business
viable. The consensus is that they have relied on grants (from European Union) and don’t want
(or know how) to undergo the sacrifices necessary to launch and grow a real business. They
have an NGO mentality and just want another grant. Whenever Daniel visits, there is no
production underway. They have by far the largest collection of new, quality
milling/shelling/grinding/canning/tilling equipment, but it sits idle while other real businesses
hustle and make things happen with very little. Their volunteers (there are no employees) have
produced some well-labeled canned products which we saw for sale in a local store, but they
aren’t selling well. The grants have given them the opportunity to bring in a variety of experts on
agriculture and production, which has provided training to dozens of people (including 29
farmers) in the community. The following questions need answering before inviting them into
the program: Are they willing to learn, change and work hard to make their business viable? Are
they willing to take on a partner who already possesses entrepreneurial DNA and passion? Are
they open to making a business of allowing other businesses to come in and use their
machinery?
3. Le Gap Food. They produce a few varieties of specialized flour with good labeling and heat-seal
packaging, grinding all their dried banana and rice with a tiny hand grinder! Five employees
were hard at production during our visit, leaving us guessing that there was a fair amount of
demand for their products, which may be fairly unique. We don’t know much about whether
their market could be expanded, or whether their baby food products could be adapted for
adult use. They wanted to move to a powered grinder, but Bernie thought their bigger need was
to use a different type of plastic packaging which integrated the label within a single bag (rather
than slipping it between two separate bags). Their ability to do a lot with a little gives me the
impression that they have much more untapped entrepreneurial potential.
4. Merci l’Eternal Bakery. This large mother/son operation goes through eighteen 110 pound bags
of flour three times per week and employs several people in a large facility. The dough is hand
kneaded and they hope to buy a power mixer (approx $1000 used in the States). They use a
large (approx 18x18 foot) wood burning oven to cook all of their bread. In order to ease the
environmental burden (they even had mango firewood there!) and be ahead of future
regulation, they are interested in trying diesel or propane as an alternative. It is unknown
whether that would drive their operating costs higher or lower. The conversion methods and
costs are also unknown. This would take considerable engineering expertise and investigation,
and represents the highest capital costs among all the businesses currently being assessed.
Bernie suspected that the well water was stagnant, and it was suggested that they visit Joshua in
PAP who runs a large bakery using propane. They show interest in FEL, but it remains to be seen
whether they are willing to undergo considerable risks to take their successful business to the
next level. I’m not sure how Americans will do spending considerable time in this very hot
facility, which is also dark and soot-filled.
5. Leriche Miel Apiarian Enterprise – With four part-time employees, this apiary produces a barrel
of honey each year (harvested 3 times per year). With a powered honey extractor ($600-$1000),
he claims they could at least double their production. Their attached list of goals leads us to
think he has some entrepreneurial vision, or at least had some good coaching. We agreed that
there is excellent potential here.
6. MC Juc – Chenel Marc. After only two years in business, this young man has 11 employees
producing icy pops literally around the clock and 50 street vendors selling them! He has
excellent branding and a virtual monopoly in the immediate area. His production process seems
to be fairly efficient, but could be improved with a water treatment solution, and could be safer
with a covered breaker box! He makes over 5,000 icy pops per day, but his vendors want more.
He is debt-free, but his savings for future capital is inconsistent. Financial statements could help
him control his costs and plan wisely. Would coolers for his vendors allow him to extend his
target market? This business has excellent potential to quickly create many more jobs.
7. La Difference Tailor – Michelet Delice. He has been operating since 2003, has a spacious shop,
nine sewing machines, four active employees with five more available if demand required their
services. He seems discouraged with the lack of orders, but doesn’t seem to be actively seeking
new customers. He has no marketing or advertising, and is way out on the outskirts of town. He
says the quality of his product is what sets him apart. He has no clothing lines; rather all his work
is made-to-order. An older man, he seems resigned to struggling along with sparse orders, but
also seems hopeful that mentoring could help.
8. La Elegance Clothing Press – Jean Yves Adolph. In business for 25 years, he presses 175 garments
per day with four employees and an inefficient wood-burning furnace. He’s willing to try
converting to propane, which would be excellent for the environment. Customers can pick up
their clothes a week after drop off. He seems somewhat content with the current state of his
business, given that his central location and longevity seem to have brought him a solid
customer base. He says he could serve even more customers, but didn’t seem to have a plan to
expand his market share. He doesn’t seem to be considering expanding his service offerings.
9. Egg Farm – Robinson. This friend of Douco has 275 chickens in an impressive building which he
says could house up to 900 birds. Other than this unused capacity, his current challenge is
finding (and perhaps affording) enough feed in the proper mixture. Egg production could be
increased from 1 per day per hen to 3 if this challenge was overcome.
I will couple photos with each business in profiles for use in donor/mentor recruitment. Would anyone
like to help refining the graphics in these profiles?
Although the assessment process is not complete and is still somewhat cloudy, Daniel, Nick, Bernie and I
agreed that these nine businesses (with the possible exception of #2 – CESCAL) were ones we wanted to
work with. The goal was to identify ten and group them into an affiliate that would be paired with
Entrust for partnership. Jack Van Der Ploeg, a PW board member, will be visiting Leogane soon to meet
more business owners to develop a second affiliate of ten which he will supply mentors for. In discussing
logistics, Daniel and I believe that we should adjust the affiliate to either 9 or 12 businesses, with both of
us hoping for the increased leverage of 12. Here’s why: a rented car driven by a local Haitian
driver/translator can transport Americans in groups of three. Of course, you add more complexity and
cumbersomeness as a group of visiting Americans grows, so I seek the wisdom of Dave, Jeff and the
Entrust Board in this matter. For my part, I believe we should shoot for a team of 12 since the initiative
is ambitious (aims to impact 100 businesses), and it makes sense to maximize the considerable
effort/resources required to send a team. If it is agreed to shift to 12, we’d need to rely on Daniel to
recruit the remaining 3-4 businesses in our partner affiliate.
First Mentor Visit Schedule:
I told Daniel that Entrust was looking towards the end of the year to send our first group of mentors, but
he said he hoped we could make it a few months earlier. If that is to be done, we need to begin to
define what the trip will look like (as well as redouble our efforts to recruit and train mentors). So, I
want to outline for your input a potential schedule for an Entrust Venture (our term for a trip involving
International Mentors). I think seven days is an optimal timeframe, giving five full days in Leogane. In
talking to many potential mentors, a longer trip would be difficult to recruit for. If we make it Saturday
through Friday, it would give mentors the weekend after the trip to recover and reconnect with family
before going back to work on Monday. I see the overall structure of the week being bookended by travel
days, with the second day being a business training conference (at Dave Genzink’s suggestion) and the
last Leogane day being a variety of wrap-up/debrief elements, leaving three days of focused mentoring.
Although it makes sense to travel the long, slow, dusty roads of Leogane in groups of four
(driver/translator plus three mentors), how will we achieve a one-to-one mentor-mentee ratio with only
one translator for every three mentors? Also, I’d like our mentors to work in teams, but having three
mentors sharing ideas with one business owner could be overwhelming, one-sided and harmful to
relational depth. So, I suggest that each mentee be matched with a pair of mentors working as a team in
half-day mentoring sessions. The third mentor in the trio will either tag along to observe and take notes
or stay at the hotel to plan their next session. To clarify this convoluted arrangement, let me diagram a
potential week’s schedule using A,B,C to designate the three mentors in a trio and 1,2,3 to designate the
three mentees they are matched to:
Day One – Travel & Language Learning
Day Two – Business Training Conference (after church?)
Day Three – Morning: A&B with 1
Afternoon: B&C with 2
Evening: Optional Lab
Day Four – Morning: A&C with 3
Afternoon: A&B with 1
Evening: Optional Lab
Day Five – Morning: B&C with 2
Afternoon: A&C with 3
Evening: Local Mentor Training
Day Six – Morning: Flex Follow Up
Afternoon: Debrief
Evening: Party
Day Seven – Travel
Having mentoring sessions at more than two locations per day would waste too much time in the car,
and full day sessions would keep mentees from their businesses for too long. Having time in between
sessions will give both mentors and mentees time to process and plan. Notice that mentors will be “on”
for four of six mentoring slots, allowing them time to rest, plan or observe during their two “off” slots.
Mentors will have the opportunity to work alongside two different partners and to work with two
separate businesses. This will provide a varied experience and compensate for a potential dud partner
or mentee. While two mentoring sessions per mentee may not sound like enough, there will be
additional time for relationship building and informal coaching. For example, ABC123 will comprise a
table group during the conference where they’ll get acquainted and process the training together.
They’ll be encouraged to spend meals together when possible, and there’s the party of course. I hope
we can find a small meeting space that can serve as a lab where mentors can gather at any time
(including the optional evening labs) to brainstorm and plan for their mentoring sessions. The
conference could be held at a church, hotel or school. Bernie, Nick, Daniel and I agree that the biggest
initial training needs of the businesses we assessed are marketing/advertising and cost accounting. I
propose that the conference focus on only one of these two, whichever FEL would like us to focus on.
We should integrate stories and examples of FEL leaders into the curriculum. Biblical principles of
business will be integrated into the teaching. The teaching portions of the conference will be followed
up with table group (or smaller) discussions which apply the teaching to the actual businesses
represented. I envision the conference being open to all FEL members, not only those whose mentors
are visiting that week. This could multiply the impact of the training, be an identity-building event for
FEL, and help to recruit the remainder of the 100 businesses to be served by the 3-year initiative.
You can see that one evening session is devoted to local mentor training. The attached membership
criteria for FEL states that business owners commit to “devote time mentoring small local businesses”.
And Entrust’s Foundational Documents state: “What We Do: Local and international mentors work
together to develop cascades of mentoring relationships which release the entrepreneurial creativity of
entire communities.” Obviously, we multiply our efforts immeasurably as local mentors press the
mentoring vision/mission in their communities year round. Does PW have resources for local mentor
training or will they need to be created?
Any advice to improve this first stab at a schedule? Should we take the crew to a beach once – perhaps
day one evening or day six morning or for the party?
Open Questions:
There are many unknowns surrounding our first Entrust Venture to Leogane: Where will our meals be
served? Who will prepare them? What hotel will we use? (Daniel suggests staying in homes would be
too intrusive/demanding.) Where will the lab and training be held? How will Daniel/Jeff find cars and
driver-translators? What will everything cost? (my best guess per person per day: food=$30,
lodging=$50, transportation=$50) What mentoring processes will be practiced? How will leadership be
shared between Entrust, FEL, PW and CRWRC? Will we bring 9 or 12 mentors? When will the Venture
take place?
Logistics Notes:
Options for shipping equipment to Haiti:
1. Tommy Harriot of Gonaives affiliate can help find used equipment in Miami.
2. Dave Genzink has connections to commercial freight company in Miami.
3. Stephane (in PAP affiliate) has good shipping sources.
Potential housing option: I met this gentleman in the airport. Harry Whitt of Pathway Outreach
Ministries (from Alabama with church/school in Leogane which has a general contractor and an
electrical contractor possibly interested in FEL) told me about $50/night per person lodging (which
includes breakfast and dinner) at Sunnybel Beach (a hotel on main road/beach 15 minutes east of
Leogane) at 500 Route National #2 in town of Gressier. Andy (fluent in English) is the manager: 38473076