by Melissa Alvarez - Africa, Events -

PRESS RELEASE: Katleen Felix, Project Director for Microfinance Institution Fonkoze Receives Leadership and Service Award At HABNET Toussaint L’Ouverture Symposium

Source: Fonkoze 

The original press release is not available online. 

NEW YORK, April 15 – Fonkoze USA today announced that Katleen Felix, Project Director – Haitian Diaspora Liaison for Fonkoze will be honored by HABNET, Borough President Marty Markowitz and Councilmember Mathieu Eugene on Thursday April 16th at 5:30 PM during the Toussaint L’Ouverture Symposium & Business Awards at Brooklyn Borough Hall located at 209 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn, NY.  Katleen will be honored for her tireless work in the Haitian Diaspora.  

“We are very pleased to honor Katleen with the Leadership and Service Award given the major outreach she has done on a subject which is close to our heart – Financial Literacy,” says Jackson Rockingster, President of HABNET.  “She has put so much energy into the community and we are always delighted to work with her.”

Katleen joined Fonkoze in May 2007 on the Remittance Enhancement Project funded by the Inter-American Development Bank. She is in charge of procurement of new technologies, relations with Haitian Diaspora, training and capacity building of Haitian Hometown Associations, developing financial literacy for new immigrants, project reporting, and donor relations. She has researched Haitian Hometown Associations (HHTAs) and has put together a database of almost 300 HHTAs and support groups in USA, Canada, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. Under the Fonkoze Remittance project she organized the building of capacity, as well as, informational and networking activities for the HHTAs in NY, Miami and Boston. She also identified best practice of development in the objectives for replication by the HHTAs.

“Katleen’s work with Fonkoze has been invaluable in connecting the diaspora with the work we are doing in Haiti” says Leigh Carter, Executive Director at Fonkoze USA. “Her energy and dedication to the Haitian community is exemplary.”

Katleen’s special interest in microfinance and economic development is not new. She was part of the 2004 Financial Women’s’ Association (FWA) International Conference on Microfinance in the Dominican Republic and participated in the 2006 Micro Credit Summit in Halifax. She was the 2008 Co-Chair of Women Advancing Microfinance (WAM) and an active member of the FWA Microfinance committee. She has over ten years of experience in corporate financial management, 15 years in leadership and volunteer roles in not-for-profit organizations and pro-bono financial consultation for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Canada and the USA.  On February 28th, 2009 Katleen was awarded twice for her accomplishments receiving the Young Professional of the Year award and the special People’s Choice award by the Young Chamber of Commerce in Montreal, Canada.

About Fonkoze:

Fonkoze is “Haiti’s Alternative Bank for the Organized Poor.” It is a family of three institutions working together shoulder-to-shoulder towards a single compelling mission: building the economic foundations for democracy in Haiti by providing the rural poor with the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty. Fonkoze is Haiti’s largest microfinance institution (MFI), serving more than 56,000 women borrowers, most of whom live and work in the countryside of Haiti, and more than 190,000 savers. With its network of 40 branches covering every region of Haiti, it is also the only MFI that is truly national in scope.

About Habnet:

HABNET-HAITIAN AMERICAN BUSINESS NETWORK developed from a Division of HAAPA, INC. It is dedicated to promoting higher business standards and better business methods, as well as fostering trade and commerce in the community. It provides business education and financial literacy to its members and the public. It promotes the general welfare and prosperity of the community by encouraging entrepreneurship and civic engagement. HAPNET is a business league, a chamber of commerce, performing a public service to empower, and champion the cause of, the Haitian-American business community and others. HABNET is a member of the Consortium for Haitian Empowerment (CHE).

 

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