Haiti
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Haiti has long been the poorest country in the western hemisphere. In a country with few building inspectors and poor construction techniques, it was only a matter of time before tragedy struck.
When that tragedy appeared in the form of the January 2010 earthquake, the results were devastating. Thousands of buildings collapsed, killing 200,000 people and leaving well over a million people living in tent camps. The quake impacted some 3 million people in a country of 9 million.
Today, hundreds of thousands are still living in tents and permanent housing is Haiti's greatest need. Our volunteers are helping Haitians get back on their feet by building highly earthquake- and hurricane-resistant houses.
Find out more:
- How you can join or lead a Haiti Global Builders team going to Haiti
- How you can provide jobs in Haiti by sponsoring Haitian labor
- HAITI BLOG: Updates from volunteers and staff in the field
- Fuller Center challenge: Sponsor a home in Haiti
- View our Master Plan for our Lambi site (near Leogane) or see a sketch of the houses we are building.
We are currently working in two locations:
Gressier - Located near the epicenter of the earthquake and not far from Port-au-Prince, we have partnered with Grace International to form a Covenant Partner called Grace Fuller Center for Housing. The initial site in this partnership is several miles east of Leogane at a site named Lambi, where we have 7 acres of land and plans to build 30 duplexes. In addition to housing, we are helping to provide water, sanitation, and civic space.
Balan - The Fuller Center is partnering with a Jesuit education ministry known as Foi et Joie in Haiti and Fe y Alegria throughout the rest of Latin America, which translated means "Faith and Joy." The area is located along a large salt-water lake called Etang Saumatre, which forms part of the eastern border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Following the earthquake, many families and individuals left the large-scale devastation in Port-au-Prince to live with family members in rural areas such as Balan.
We are helping to build with those families on land owned by their family members. We hope to build 50-100 houses, or more as funding allows. In addition to the ongoing building projects, the Jesuits are helping coordinate education, job training, and clean water supply.
"We are now building and we're among the first organizations to be providing permanent shelter," Fuller Center President David Snell said. "We are moving forward with the important work of making decent housing a reality for the Haitian families who have suffered so much."
The Fuller Center is committed to providing as many families as possible with solid houses to replace those that were lost. Sponsorship of a house in Haiti is currently $3,000.
"It is a sad truth that tragedy too often strikes those least able to cope with it," Snell said. "This is surely the case with the earthquake in Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries. Thousands upon thousands of families have lost their homes.
"This is a time for people of faith to come forward and lend a hand. The Fuller Center for Housing is raising funds to help rebuild the destroyed houses and we ask for your help," Snell said.
