A House, A Hope, A New Beginning
Christene graduated from the Chemen Lavi Miyò (CLM) program in December 2025. She was selected as one of the speakers at the graduation ceremony; her testimony about repairing her home demonstrated two important parts of the program - creating a safe space for her family, and equally important, knowing you are strong enough to do it independent of a man.
When Christene entered the Chemen Lavi Miyò program, she was parenting two children in an old, dilapidated home. Recently abandoned by her husband, Christene took care of her children by working as a day laborer in her neighbors’ fields. She knew that repairing her house was important, but as she shared, “It never entered my head that I could do it without a man.”
With the guidance and support of her case manager, Rony, Christene progressed through the CLM program by starting a small business selling bread and sugar using savings from her weekly stipend (provided as part of the CLM program). The income from her business plus the stipend helped Christene manage the household, and she was also able to move forward with building a new home.
Christene recycled several support posts from her old house to help build the new one, harvested a tree in her yard for the roof’s lumber, and also bought trees from people in her community to create planks for the house’s walls.
It wasn’t easy, and required manual labor to carry sheets of metal roofing up the mountain from Laskawobas to Gwo Moulen, but she didn’t give up. She said that she carried the 34 sheets of metal roofing up the mountain seven at a time, and added with pride, “The skin of the shoulder I carried them on still hasn’t healed.” Bit by bit, with the help of her community and the support of her CLM case manager, Christene was able to build her new home!
She shares, “Now my children and I live in a new, three-room house, and I know that there is nothing man can do that a woman can’t do too.” Her stubborn resilience demonstrates a new belief in herself and her ability to accomplish goals. Christene is evidence that the CLM program doesn’t just lift a Haitian woman from ultra-poverty, but it transforms how they view themselves and restores their God-given dignity!
There are thousands of female-led families whose lives have been changed because of CLM. Throughout the 18-month program, women like Christene learn essential life skills, build homes, and create sustainable businesses so that they can grow and thrive. Their lives are transformed. Before CLM, they were overlooked, unseen, and unheard; with CLM, they become confident, independent leaders and pillars of their communities. With each step forward, they lift their families toward a brighter, more hopeful future.