Vendors crowd the livestock market, leading animals on ropes while hollering at customers. A group of 20 women arrive together and command the scene, deftly checking teeth, udders and fur as the hooves of a dozen rowdy goats kick up dust. This has become a familiar scene in Haiti’s Central Plateau region, where WE Charity’s alternative income program is helping families forge financial independence.

Dieuna Ira is a participant in the program. She, along with her comrades from Manac village, have come to launch the next phase of their micro-enterprise. Each will buy a goat that will save their families from stress and struggle.

“I’ve gotten so old from working the earth,” Ira says of her past work, “carrying heavy charcoal down the dusty road to the market to sell for my kids’ schooling.” Her four children, three girls and one boy, missed years of school when times were rough.

Now, as Ira nears completion of WE Charity’s 18-month alternative income program, called Granmoun Tet Nou—a phrase in Haitian Creole that loosely translates to “self-empowerment,” or “our best selves”—she feels relieved.

Ira is confident in her expertise. Her group meets weekly for lessons on market share, product quality, price, demand, security and visibility, as well as animal husbandry training and relationship coaching to foster solidarity. After this, each of the women receives a goat to start a breeding business.

Granmoun Tet Nou has also become a support network. The women work to build community more than market competition, offering advice on goat-rearing to fellow participants and neighbors. Even after graduation, the program is a shared learning opportunity.

At the goat market, graduates from Dos Palais village have come to act as mentors for their successors from Manac. Women from Dos Palais help Ira select a healthy goat, a four-legged “savings depot,” as she puts it.

“I’m looking to the future,” says Ira. “This is the goat that will make me my best self.”