Our Story
“Since 1990, we’ve been supporting communities with the tools necessary so they can create a better tomorrow for themselves and their family.”
From Ipswich, MA to the world . . .
Partners In Development, Inc. (PID) was founded in 1990 by James and Gale Hull of Ipswich, Massachusetts as an organization committed to education and economic advancement in the developing world. Since the beginning, we have developed new programs to address the local needs of the communities we partner with. Over many decades, PID’s context-specific approach to addressing poverty and its multiple causes has evolved into what today is our Whole Life Transformation Model. For a more in-depth look into this model, let’s start with our first initiative - increasing access to education.
PID began sponsoring around a dozen children in 1987, in Haiti, and has since expanded to ensuring that many hundreds of children can go to school. As we worked closely with the local families of the sponsored children, we learned, first-hand, the lack of employment opportunities and access to formal banking many of the parents suffered when trying to generate an income to keep their households at survival level. This awareness inspired us to develop our micro-loan program.
Through the further urging of our national partners, our housing program was born. Now, struggling families with inadequate residential situations became proud owners of affordable, safe, efficient, and aesthetically pleasing homes.
The final piece of the model included primary and preventative care with health education. These four tools of education, income generation, housing and health care, form the foundation of PID’s Whole Life Transformation model. Such an approach has proven time and again that families living in the poorest of conditions can change their current economic situation and the future of the next generation.
PID has adapted the model to specific needs in each of our partnering locations: Haiti, Guatemala, The Mississippi Delta, and Peru.
Through three decades of field experience in these four partnering locations, we have learned mostly to LISTEN. Those born in extreme poverty know what they need to overcome the challenges of their circumstances. It gives us great joy to walk hand in hand with our national partners providing critical tools that support their goals and efforts.
If you’re interested in learning first-hand about our Whole Life Transformation model, consider joining us on a service trip to Haiti, Guatemala, The Mississippi Delta, or Peru.