About Us
Our Mission
Help women entrepreneurs in Haiti build stronger businesses that create lasting household stability.
We carry out this mission by partnering with women entrepreneurs to help them retain and reinvest more business income by lowering business costs, providing graduated growth financing, and delivering an enterprise growth platform that strengthens business performance, household stability, and long-term economic resilience.
Our Vision
We envision an equitable Haiti where equal opportunities are accessible to all. Our mission is to enhance the lives of marginalized groups through economic mobility, education, civic engagement, and self-empowerment. Recognizing historical and current inequalities, we prioritize the empowerment of women, girls, children, and youth, as poverty often affects them disproportionately. We believe in inclusive community building, giving every member of society a voice in shaping policies that impact their lives. Our two interconnected programs are voices of the community.
We actively listen, learn from past experiences, and understand the nuances of both successes and challenges. This invaluable knowledge informs our gender-and community-centered programs, aimed at creating lasting impact. To achieve this, marginalized groups must hold leadership positions, ensuring their interests are fully represented. Within Home Roots Foundation, women play pivotal leadership roles, reflecting our unwavering commitment to equality.
Founder's Story and Our History in Haiti
Growing up between Haiti and the United States gave our founder, Dr. Joseph Paul, a unique perspective on opportunity, inequality, and resilience. Joseph spent his early childhood in Haiti before moving to the United States at the age of eight. Raised just outside Boston, he became involved in community service and social activism as a teenager, developing a lifelong conviction that lasting change begins by addressing the root causes of injustice rather than its symptoms.
Following the devastating 2010 earthquake, Joseph returned to Haiti and witnessed both the extraordinary resilience of its people and the immense challenges they faced. The experience left a lasting impression. He realized that one day he would dedicate himself to helping create long-term opportunities in Haiti—not simply through charity, but by building sustainable solutions that empowered people to improve their own lives.
While pursuing a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Howard University, Joseph began laying the foundation for that vision. To maximize the resources he could invest in Haiti, he adopted an extraordinarily frugal lifestyle and directed much of his savings toward launching Home Roots Foundation. What began as a temporary sacrifice became a defining chapter of his journey, reinforcing his belief that meaningful change often requires persistence, patience, and a willingness to endure discomfort in pursuit of a greater purpose.
In 2018, Home Roots Foundation formally began its work in Haiti.
Learning From the Community
Our first programs focused on improving children’s access to education. We helped families pay school tuition, provided educational supplies, offered tutoring and English classes, and worked to create supportive learning environments for students.
As our work expanded, more parents began seeking assistance. Rather than assuming we already knew the answers, we spent time listening.
Again and again, mothers shared the same message.
They didn’t simply want financial assistance. They wanted the opportunity to build stable businesses, earn reliable incomes, and provide for their children with dignity.
Many were hardworking street vendors and small business owners who struggled despite working long hours. High inventory costs, limited access to affordable financing, and a lack of business support made it difficult to grow their businesses or build financial security.
Those conversations fundamentally changed how we understood poverty.
We realized that helping children remain in school required more than paying tuition. It required strengthening the economic foundation of the household.
From Charity to Economic Empowerment
That realization transformed Home Roots Foundation.
Rather than focusing primarily on addressing the symptoms of poverty, we shifted toward helping families build lasting economic resilience by empowering the women who so often serve as the financial backbone of their households.
Today, Home Roots Foundation helps women entrepreneurs retain and reinvest more business income by lowering business costs, expanding access to growth financing, and providing ongoing enterprise growth support. Our approach is designed to help women build stronger businesses, create more stable household incomes, and generate opportunities that benefit entire families.
Education remains central to our vision—not because we operate schools, but because we believe that when women build stronger businesses, children are more likely to remain in school, families become more financially secure, and communities are better positioned to thrive.
Everything we have built has been shaped by one guiding principle:
The people closest to a problem are often the ones best equipped to help solve it. By listening first, we can build solutions that create lasting change.