MPower Updates

Allison Huggins (middle) shakes hands with a participant of Mercy Corps' Women's Empowerment Programme on the outskirts of Bangui, Central African Republic. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

My name is Allison Huggins and I manage Mercy Corps’ women’s rights programmes in the Central African Republic. I came here after working with women’s groups in Rwanda and Eastern Congo for three years. After my first year working with Mercy Corps, I developed our women’s legal support project after the baseline study that we completed on women’s rights violations showed the extent of violence that women across the country face.

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I came to Haiti as someone who believes in seeing challenges — such as a conflict or natural disaster — as opportunities to identify and leverage large-scale social transformation.

John, age 16, documents life in a seaside village near Monrovia, Liberia during a Peace in Focus photo workshop.
Photo: Kyle Dietrich/Mercy Corps

Up until the earthquake, I had been running my own non-profit in Boston, which trains youth from post-conflict communities to be peacebuilders and leaders using photography and new media tools. Similar to that programme, our Youth Leadership project in Haiti — supported by our MPower initiative — aims to enable young people to engage in a creative process that is both therapeutic and empowering. Through photography and storytelling, youth will learn to understand and nurture their own voice and vision for change, and then develop a unique skill set to share that vision with their community and the world.

This work builds off my several years supporting international development and peacebuilding programmes with UN Peacekeeping Operations, USAID and the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan, Burundi, Liberia and Washington, D.C. Throughout my career, I have been eager to see more innovative programmes for youth to engage in the revitalisation and rebuilding of their communities.

By putting youth in leadership roles you enable them at a young age to begin taking ownership of the issues facing their communities. By integrating the arts, you give them an opportunity to develop creative and non-violent strategies for understanding and addressing those issues. This signals to the community that youth are not merely the future generation of leaders, but the present generation as well.

For Haiti to truly transform, there must be a profound re-imagination of what is possible here. This programme supports the idea that that re-imagination can be led by youth. It allows young people to be agents of change rather than mere beneficiaries of programmes. It supports the belief that, in order to be successful long-term, development programmes must address the emotional and social needs of children and youth, alongside their physical and material needs.

With my position with the UN, I helped organise youth groups like this one in northeastern Burundi to use community theater to raise awareness about sexual violence and other issues.
Photo: Kyle Dietrich/Mercy Corps

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Although I've sort of always known that one day I would come to work in Haiti, January 12 made me realize that the time was now.

I lost a dear friend of mine in the earthquake, to whom I had promised to come to Haiti. I had no choice but to keep my word and change the course of my life.

Nothing had ever made more sense to me than on March 4, when I moved to Haiti to take the position of Mercy Corps' Economic Recovery Programme Manager. I wanted to come to Haiti to have an impact, not just be another aid worker. Equipped with a Master's degree in Chinese and Business and strong international experience in both the humanitarian and private sectors, I was looking for a role that would best suit my skills set. The need to do things differently and think outside the box attracted me to Mercy Corps, which has such a strong reputation for innovation.

Less than one percent of Haiti's small business owners are formally trained in their areas of operation. Photo: Karl Grobl for NetAid

Today, my work in Haiti touches many areas. The support of small and medium enterprises (SME) is particularly fascinating. Mercy Corps Haiti is in the process of developing a range of solutions to support this as-yet highly informal growth sector, which is nonetheless engine of Haiti's economy.

Because less than one percent of SME owners are formally trained in their areas of operation, we are planning vocational training support. Because access to credit is a strong impediment to growth, we are planning to set up an investment facility. Because the provision of business development services is lacking, we are planning to bring MicroMentor to Haiti. Because SME start-ups are highly neglected, we are planning partnering with other programmes to set up business plan competitions, as well as training on writing and pitching skills.

But SME — which includes the Job creation programme supported by our MPower initiative — is only one of the areas Mercy Corps is working on for Haiti's economic recovery and development. My team will keep you updated on our progress.

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 was an average day — or so I thought. As I sat drinking my afternoon coffee, a catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti, more than three thousand miles away from where I was in Washington state.

The news didn’t sink in until the following day. I was one of millions of people around the world who tuned in to the aftermath, saddened and horrified by the state of unthinkable disaster. For many of us, it brought to mind Hurricane Katrina and the mega-tsunami of 2004, among other tragedies from our collective past. These disasters had all touched me in some way, but the earthquake in Haiti truly broke my heart.

Holly Wolfe with children she met during her work in Haiti. Photo: courtesy of Holly Wolfe

Just six months before the earthquake hit, I'd spent time in Haiti and the Dominican Republic studying Environmental Justice, Health and Human Rights. I experienced firsthand the daily hardships the people on that island were facing: polluted slums, deteriorating natural resources and a lack of access to medical care, fair education and clean water. I knew the earthquake had hit an already incredibly-impoverished nation, bringing the devastation and desperation to a whole new level.

The day after the earthquake, I called my sister, a former employee with Mercy Corps. I trust my sister more than anyone in the world, so I believed her when she assured me that a donation to Mercy Corps would be used quickly, efficiently and with steadfast integrity to help Haiti. I went online and donated £30 to Mercy Corps. But I wondered — would my small donation make a difference in such an overwhelming disaster? Surely there had to be something more I could do.

I didn’t want my time abroad and my passion for Haiti to be in vain, so I made a quick decision: I created a Personal Fundraising Page through Mercy Corps’ website. It only took a few minutes to get up and running and I was even able to add a photo from my time in Haiti and a personalized note to encourage giving. I linked my page to my Facebook account, as well as emailing it to 150 of my friends, family and co-workers.

“Please give!” I wrote. “Your gift, however small, could save a life! Please donate to Mercy Corps to help Haitians in need!”

I set a goal to raise £300 in seven days. We blew past that goal in just one day! It was incredible to track the progress on my page. Mercy Corps even sent me an email every time a donation came in so I would know who to thank. People I hadn’t talked to in months — gave! People I never expected to — gave! People I’d never even met — gave (apparently my link on Facebook spread further than I knew). Many of those who donated also wrote notes of support on my page. I was so touched, I was speechless.

In just two weeks, my friends and family helped me raise nearly £2,400! In those same two weeks, everyday Americans across the country raised £317 million. Looking back, I am struck by the force and speed of modern-day technology and the power of selfless giving. My £30 couldn’t undo what happened in Haiti — but millions of small donations like mine collectively made a difference in the lives of so many Haitians.

I see all this generosity as a beacon of hope on the edge of a disaster, helping groups like Mercy Corps light the way for others when their worlds go dark. Alone, we are but flickers in the wind; but together, we can blaze a trail toward hope.

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This may seem a little whacked but I swear it's true. I was able to come up with £72 and make an online gift to Mercy Corps last week. How? Haircut money. Let me explain.

I have been a Mercy Corps donor since we first began raising funds for Cambodian refugees in 1980. Why shouldn't I do what I ask everyone else to do? Back in the good old days — with no kids and book royalties coming in — I could whip out a £600 check without too much pain. But in recent years, with three kids in college and student loans piling up at a sobering rate (not to mention church and charities commitments we've made), my donations have admittedly been a relative pittance. But I'm working on that.

I've been inspired by the highly creative strategies that our marketing and web teams have dreamed up to generate funds for our global programmes. Things like personal fundraising pages (my daughter Kevyn raised £3,000 for Haiti on hers), Mercy Kits, honor gifts, memorial gifts, Partners in Mercy, corporate matches — the list goes on — including our new launch of MPower (you've gotta check this out).

My other daughter, Casey, organised a talent show at her high school called "Variety Pack" and raised £660 for Mercy Corps for "where it's needed most." Additionally, I've been amazed at all the cool things our supporters have done as fundraising events: bake sales, garage sales, car washes, motorcycle rides, marathons —even a long distance car rally through treacherous terrain to raise funding for our programmes in Mongolia. The imagination has no limits!

£72 worth of long hair. Photo: Kylie O'Neill

So back to the haircut money. With no haircuts since February, I'd saved £72 Someone told me, well, if that's all you've saved, then you ain't paying enough for haircuts. But £24 a cut still seems like a lot to me. Fortunately, Nancy — who owns Salon 74 — loves Mercy Corps and hasn't punished me for not showing up. In a backwards kind of way, I guess I've forced her into being a donor too. Don't worry, Nancy, I'm coming back for trims!

But, anyway, I kinda like the new look: Jeff Bridges meets Mick Jagger. What's your vote?

Put your thinking caps on and join me in some creative fundraising of your own.

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Need help getting your MPower fundraiser off the ground? Here are some tips to help you maximize your fundraising potential.

• Personalize your page. Your page started like every other, with a generic page title, personal message and photo — but those fields are for you to personalize. Tell your friends why you care about this cause! A fundraising goal and a suggested giving amount are also motivating to potential donors.
• Spread the word. Click the email, Facebook and Twitter logos on your fundraising page to share the news with your networks.
• Manage your comments. Click the "Fundraising results" tab to manage the comments people make on your page. You can delete any comment at any time, or choose not to display gift amounts.
• Hold an offline event Bake sales, benefit concerts, ice-cream socials...all these have successfully raised money for Mercy Corps. We can help promote your public event online, and you can add to your total any money you've raised offline by filling in the "Additional Amount" field on your page. (Be sure to click "save" before leaving the edit tab.)

Please note: Offline donations should be mailed promptly to Mercy Corps, Attn: Minda Seibert, 45 SW Ankeny St., Portland, OR 97204. Make sure we can tell whose fundraising page to attribute them to. Mercy Corps will mail receipts to donors for whom we have name and addresses. If you need ideas or support for your offline event, check out our community fundraising page.

More questions? Check out the MPower Projects FAQ and Personal Fundraising FAQ pages. If you can't find the answer there, please email accounthelp@mercycorps.org.

Thanks again for all you're doing. Keep up the good work!

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