Haiti Earthquake: 19 months later...

What is Habitat for Humanity International doing to help piece Haiti back together? 

More than just bricks and mortar...

On Jan. 12, 2010, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti just 10 miles west of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

 The earthquake damaged nearly 190,000 houses, of which 105,000 were completely destroyed. Of the more than two million affected survivors, 600,000 are still displaced today. That’s more than twice the population of Buffalo, living in temporary shelters and with little infrastructure in an area not much larger than Western New York.

This summer, Habitat for Humanity will break ground on a permanent housing development in the Santo community of Léogâne. Léogâne is close to the epicenter of the earthquake, where nearly 80 to 90 percent of buildings were damaged or destroyed. The development will provide housing for up to 500 homeless families, or approximately 2,500 individuals.

The Carter Work Project in November will complete 100 homes in one week, toward that goal of 500 homes. The Global Village Program, which organizes volunteer teams to perform short-term assignments at builds all over the world, has put together three week-long trips before the CWP to assist in preparing the foundations for our build.

In light of the number of displaced persons, housing 2,500 people may not seem to make a dent. While Habitat measures their progress by the number of families and individuals served, the impact of their work can be seen in the transformation not only of lives but entire communities. They call it their Urban Development Approach, which is based on empowering and strengthening communities in defined geographic areas. By working closely with communities, Habitat helps them to build self-confidence to take action, identify and prioritize their needs. Habitat also helps them develop community action plans and leverage their collective capacity to advocate for change.

While Habitat has set a goal of serving 50,000 families in the five years after the earthquake, the scope of their services to date goes well beyond building permanent structures:

• more that 24,000 emergency shelter kits have been distributed to those in greatest needs, while 3,000 more have been stockpiled for distribution in the event of a future disaster

• more than 2,500 families have received upgradable shelters (a timber-frame skeleton with pressure-treated plywood walls, a tin roof, and permanent concrete foundation, to which concrete blocks can be added later when the family can afford to upgrade), including the families who will move out of them to occupy the CWP-built homes

• Habitat has assessed housing damage on over 5,000 units, to determine which can be made safe, and launched a repair/rehab program that completed 500 projects by the end of this June

• more than 3,000 Haitians have been trained in construction or construction business practices

• 1,200 Haitians have been trained in financial literacy

• more than 700 Haitians have found job opportunities through Habitat Haiti and Habitat Resource Centers (with unemployment at 60%, rebuilding cannot take place without employment opportunities)

To help in funding these desperately-needed projects in Haiti, all participants in the 2011 Carter Work Project are asked to raise $5000 apiece. Please help rebuild Haiti and allow me to do the same by donating here!