“In just a few short minutes” Paul Carisma said his country’s way of life was destroyed.

“The Haiti earthquake was a horrible experience,” he said. Carisma came to Chicago after the 2010 Haiti earthquake to finish high school and now is a freshman at DePaul University. On April 1, he participated at “Taste for Zafén”, a benefit aimed to help the people of Haiti.

The benefit celebrated the one-year anniversary of Zafén, a micro loan project aimed to support sustainable economic development in Haiti. The organization does so by providing interest-free loans to entrepreneurs to start businesses.

“I got involved with Zafén because it is a really helpful organization,” Carisma said. “What makes them different is that their loans are interest-free. It is very beneficial for the overall community.”

The event raised more than $15,000, which was matched by the Vincentian family for a total donation of $30,000 to Haitian entrepreneurs. Much of this money will be used to buy an irrigation pump, enabling a village to farm additional land and improve local nutrition.

Since Zafén’s inception one year ago, the organization has raised more than $300,000. According to Laura Hartman, the DePaul-appointed representative of the project, $25 can put a child through school for a year or can buy a water filter that can help stop cholera.

“Imagine what $350,000 could do. It’s economic transformation,” she said.

The money will also be used for clean water filters for about 100 families and for tuition for schoolchildren.

According to Yasmine Cajusce, a member of the project’s board and DePaul graduate student, the project was designed in a model that can be easily done again.

“I hope that projects like Zafén can be repeated throughout the world,” she said. “This project lets people’s dreams come true.”

Marcus Saint Jaen, a Haitian who currently attends DePaul, said he became involved because he “really believed in it and its conception.”

“Sometimes it costs just as little as $10 to get started, but they don’t have the funds,” Jaen said. “Nobody Zafén helps is getting anything for free. It really is about helping others help themselves.”

Jaen said his favorite aspect of the program is seeing them succeed because so much of the country is in need. “This is absolutely beneficial for them,” he said. “It is not only helping Haitians, but helping the whole community.”

“If you go to certain areas of Haiti, you can see hope in people’s eyes. But in some areas you can’t,” Jaen said. “For the country as a whole, the only thing they have is hope; they don’t have any money, just hope.”