Hello All,
We wrote about Ruth, our Assistant Director, and our three teachers a few updates ago. The JRF also employs three people from the JRF community, our two cooks, Tanya and Moda and a supervisor, Antonio. Moda has had her children in the Foundation since we opened our doors back in October 2010 and the oldest, a 16 year old girl, is a total stud and God willing destined for great things. Tanya has been with us since 2012 or so, she has seven of her own kids and actually took on three kids of a friend who abandoned her children, so ten kids, two adults, two rooms in her household. Our supervisor, Antonio, started at the Foundation in early 2011, around age 13. He was living with an uncle at the time and had never even held a pencil. He can now read, write and do basic math and takes his JRF job very seriously. To be fair, he did get fired once for a few months but grew through the experience and has done a great job since coming back. We pay well above average for all of our positions as we expect more and want our employees to earn a living wage.
In our community all of the households support themselves by doing needlepoint. Even the JRF cooks do needlepoint in the afternoons and on the weekends. This year we switched to paying people via bank deposits instead of cash, thus forcing most of our people to get bank accounts, mostly for the first time in their lives. The data is pretty clear that opening a bank account leads to increased savings and investment. Some people get their earnings deposited into a neighbors account and then get cash from said neighbor, but the number of people that choose to do that continues to shrink.
Our people are almost all the wealthiest people in their extended families. Most of them have had some family member move in with them in the hopes of getting that person a needlepoint job. Even if they are not being handed work personally they can work on the belt with the JRF community member, one person on each side, thus finishing the belt quicker and upping their monthly income. As we have grown, these people have been able to consistently get their own work. So far, five have become full members of the community, brought their children from the North and moved into a JRF house that freed up, either due to others leaving or in one case dying.
Good Threads also employs anywhere from 20-100 women and a few men that live around the JRF. When we are having a slow production week or month it is the locals that get left without work. I will give the JRF people a bit less work during these times in order to give the outsiders something. Our JRF people get super prickly to the people from outside the JRF during these times, and a few of our more belligerent parents are not shy about voicing their thoughts on the matter to the outsiders. When we arrived in Jacmel, everyone was very adamant that nobody could bring a piece of stitching outside the community as they didn’t want the locals to know there were jobs available. Luckily people here have different standards, so any stresses or feuds that erupt during slow times are mostly forgotten once we get busy again.
The outsiders understand that if they are there when I give out belts they are more likely to get a belt. I will often tell people what day I am going to come give out work but not a time of day. Some people have actually had their kids play by the dirt road I take to get to the foundation. When the child sees me coming they run home to tell their moms who will then come running to the JRF. Most people just have someone in the JRF or a neighbor who will give them a call when they see me. People’s desire to work down here is truly impressive.
As always thank you all for your support. Together we are accomplishing our mission of providing impoverished children and families the opportunity to succeed.
