Haiti Business Center

Total Goal: $40,000

We have already raised $25,000! We need your help to get this amazing project finished!


The Project

The funds from this project will be used to build a Business Center in Galette Chambon (Ganthier), Haiti.  The Business Center will serve as the focal point of efforts by business students and professionals in The United States, specifically Alabama, to build and support the fledgling Haitian small business economy.

The Business Center will house technological and office equipment to support start-up ventures of individual Haitians.  The Haitians will have access to the tools they need to make their ventures viable, including Skype accounts to receive free on-line consulting services and server access to encapsulated business course modules.  The Center will also serve as a place for Haitian entrepreneurs to provide bookkeeping and other support services for the new business.

Summer 2015 Haiti Visits

A group of two faculty and ten students from The University of Alabama College of Commerce traveled to Galette Chambon (Ganthier), Haiti in May 2015. The group worked for one week with 19 Haitian small business entrepreneurs to develop business skills.   Emphasizing the socio-economic environment of Haiti, the team taught concepts and skills in the areas of accounting, finance, computer applications, marketing, operations management, and entrepreneurship.   

Throughout the week, the team focused on critical thinking and problem-solving skills and ultimately developed many personal relationships with the Haitian entrepreneurs.  These relationships, unharnessed in focus groups and interactive discussions, revealed serious unmet needs in the rural community.  Specifically, the financial literacy and money management training revealed the difficulties resource-less Haitians face to start small businesses.  The Haitians crave a capital investment of both money and knowledge, and most particularly access to business education and consulting services.

The Need

It is true that substantial financial aid was sent to Haiti following the earthquake of 2011.  However, there currently is a very pressing need for business education and the encouragement and nurturing of sustainable business ventures in the sustainable communities being developed in rural Haiti.

The Business Center is being financed in part by donations raised by But God Ministries, Inc., a faith-based organization that has created a sustainable community in Galette Chambon.  The organization has built a community with a church, medical and dental facilities, orphanage, and housing.  Food and water problems have been addressed.  The missing component in the sustainable community is the economic development piece.

The Future Plan

A group of individuals, including students, University faculty, and professionals have formed an initiative to provide the needed support.  The components of this initiative include:

- Visits in May and December each year to teach business classes on site in Haiti in computer, financial, accounting, entrepreneurship/managerial, marketing/social media subjects.

- Student-professional advisory team to provide free consulting services and support to small start-up ventures in Haiti.

- Development of free on-line business courses for Haitians in the community.