Wellesley Institute

Wellesley Institute works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the GTA through action on the social determinants of health.

Home Blog Building Healthy Communities Helping Haiti's people – and its community sector – through micro-finance

Helping Haiti's people – and its community sector – through micro-finance

As the people of Haiti struggle in the aftermath of the terrible earthquake, the community sector has a vital role in meeting the incredible challenges. A strong and vibrant third sector is critical to the health of Haiti (as in all other countries). In addition to the emergency relief being offered by many organizations, the people in Haiti need practical help to re-build their lives, their communities and a truly healthy economy. A number of micro-finance organizations have already been working in Haiti. Here are four that are making a difference: Accion microfinance; FINCA serving the poorest of the working poor; Freedom From Hunger self-help programs; Grameen Foundation moving the poor out of poverty.

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Michael Shapcott

About Michael Shapcott

Michael Shapcott is Director, Affordable Housing and Social Innovation at Wellesley Institute. Michael has worked extensively in Toronto, in many parts of Canada, nationally and internationally on social innovation, the non-profit sector, civic engagement, housing and housing rights, poverty, social exclusion, urban health and health equity. He is recognized as one of Canada’s leading community-based housing and homelessness experts. He is currently on secondment to the Princes' Charities Canada.

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We would like to acknowledge this sacred land on which the Wellesley Institute operates. It has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes.

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