By Sheldon C. Good for Meetinghouse

Two years ago this week—Jan. 12, 2010—a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti and devastated Port-au-Prince. Although the exact number has been difficult to determine, the highest reliable death count is estimated at 220,000 although Haitian government estimates are higher. The Presidential palace, Parliament and many other important structures were destroyed, along with countless homes and businesses, leaving 1.5 million to 1.8 million homeless. The country has yet to recover from the 2010 earthquake (and subsequent incidents) due, largely, to both the severity of the damage Haiti endured in 2010, as well as to public reliance on a government that was volatile well before the 2010 earthquake. United States aid organizations have donated $2 billion.

Meetinghouse, an association of North American Mennonite magazine editors, asked Sheldon C. Good is assistant editor and web editor for Mennonite Weekly Review to travel to Haiti under the sponsorship of Mennonite Central Committee to report on MCC's rebuilding work and its efforts to encourage Haitians.—Editors

Nearly two years after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, about $9 million of Mennonite Central Committee’s $16 million disaster response funds have been spent and allocated on projects to revitalize Haitians’ lives. The remaining $8 million, including two matching grants from the Canadian government, will be dispersed over the next three years.

Susanne Brown, MCC Haiti disaster response team coordinator, says the initial country-wide response focused on material relief and stimulating the economy through cash transfers, cash-for-work programs and recapitalization of small businesses.

“In the very beginning, we spent about $1.6 million on food, water and material aid, more than almost anything else, but now have shifted to projects that are more sustainable,” she says. “Underlying our entire response, though, has been advocacy for the Haitian people.”

About half of MCC’s 50 initial disaster response projects are completed. Only 8 percent of total expenses have been for local operations.

“We’re always trying to think about how we can serve as many people as possible,” Brown says.

MCC’s long-term disaster response includes business training, housing repairs and education.

MCC, along with a Haitian partner and with encouragement from Ten Thousand Villages, helped develop marketing materials for artisans.

“These are businesses that people already have, and we were helping them to employ more people,” Brown says. “We worked with small-business models.”

After repairing more than 200 houses for people with disabilities living in tent camps, MCC is opening up the housing repairs to a broader group of participants.

Now, MCC is shifting to owner-driven housing. In this model, MCC enters an agreement with a homeowner to evaluate what the homeowner currently has and wants to do to improve safe living conditions.

“Going forward, most of these homes will be built in stages, over time, as people have the ability to expand their homes,” Brown says.

Education projects benefit street children, restavec (unpaid worker) children, university students and agricultural and construction trades participants.

“This is probably the most widely expressed need we hear, to have education opportunities that are connected to livelihood opportunities,” Brown says.

As the disaster response continues, MCC continues to work with Haitian partners, Haitian and international policymakers, and global constituents.

“The needs of Haitian civil society cannot be forgotten,” Brown says.

• $16 million earthquake response budget, including $9 million committed to projects so far
• $3.6 million for shelter; $1.6 for food; $1.2 million for education; $435,000 for human rights; $204,000 for trauma healing; $1.15 million for emergency response; $265,000 for health initiatives
• 500 homes being repaired or constructed, including 233 for people with disabilities living in tent camps
• 600 buildings such as schools, medical clinics, churches, orphanages and some homes inspected by teams of MCC structural engineers
• 68 short-term workers have served seven days to three months in Haiti
• 1,000 water filters distributed to prevent illness
• 130 masons, 60 engineers and 516 business people received training
• 12 students supported for their university education
• One community center built for youth engaged in peacebuilding
• 1,000 youth helped to get their working papers
• Thousands of people participated in trauma healing programs
• Hundreds of latrines are being built
• 31,680 relief kits, 29,741 comforters/sheets, 14,896 school kits, 4,017 tarps distributed
• Two meals a day distributed to neighborhood tent communities for three months; 1,029 people received food for eight weeks.

PHOTO: 

First: MCC photo soon after the earthquake in 2010. 

Second: MCC photo of rebuilding efforts. 

Third: Claudens Noél Jumé, 12, works with his teacher, Johnny Louis, at the chalkboard during school under a temporary classroom structure at Institution Chretienne de la Grace, a school of Assemblee de la Grace, a network of 23 Anabapitst congregations. MCC is supporting the reconstruction of three classrooms in response to the school, in Croix-des-Bouquets, collapsing in the earthquake. (MCC Photo/Ben Depp)

By Sheldon C. Good

With dignified humility, Edouarnus Estivil (left) calls himself a direct victim of the January 2010 earthquake. It destroyed his Port-au-Prince home. It paralyzed his sister, and it killed his mother, the head of his household.
The earthquake, it seems, altered his life forever. A year later, his life was altered once again — by a trauma-healing training.

“After the earthquake, I didn’t know how I was going to face life. I wasn’t sure how I could go on,” says Estivil, 30. “The trauma training allowed me to give another direction to my life and set some goals.”

The training helped him begin to process trauma stemming from various aspects of his life, not just from the earthquake.

“Before I took the training, I didn’t know the level of sickness inside of me,” he says. “Now I know.”

Wozo, the organization that runs the trauma-healing program, began in October 2010 with funds from six denominations and organizations, including Mennonite Central Committee and the Church of the Brethren.

The Haitian program is an adaptation of Eastern Mennonite University’s Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience program, which began after the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. The program also addresses the broader topics of conflict, justice and peace.

Wozo, which has secured funding until 2013, is the first trauma healing program spawned by EMU that has workers in-country. And it’s growing quickly, partly thanks to Estivil.

After conducting research in southeast Haiti with Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, or CRWRC, he learned that while some people had received lots of material support from multiple organizations, none of them received trauma healing.

So Estivil got to work. He wrote a proposal to CRWRC to replicate the Wozo program for those he works among.

Estivil then led six Haitians — three men and three women — through the five-day training. In turn, these six people have each reached 350 people. That’s 2,100 people in less than nine months.

“People have responded very positively,” says Estivil, who works for the Christian Reformed Church of Haiti, a CRWRC partner. “Participants often ask the trainers for their phone numbers so they can keep in contact.”

The trainings, Estivil says, help people address all aspects of trauma: physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual.

“People sometimes think that a person is only [traumatized] physically, but there are issues inside that may not come out,” he says. “This trauma program allows us to address all types of problems.”

Wozo offers two trauma-healing trainings. The first is led by Haitians; the second, more advanced workshop, by EMU staff. Estivil took both in early 2011.

Resilience and restoration

In Haitian culture, the wozo tree is a well-known symbol of resilience and restoration. If the tree gets knocked over, it can straighten up again after a few days and continue growing. There is no better Creole word for resilience, according to executive director Michel Garly (left in picture below). 

Garly, 34, was an MCC Haiti national staff worker for three years. In August 2010 he participated in the first trauma-healing training in Haiti.

In January 2011, Michel led the first public training for Haitians. Since then, 248 people have participated in 10 trainings.

In turn, he said, these people have gone on to train thousands more across the country, as exemplified by Estivil.
“The idea is not only for [Wozo staff] to lead trainings but for people who have been trained at level two to help train people at level one,” Garly says.

Gary Auguste, who took the level-one training, noted that trauma healing is not just for earthquake victims. “We live in a society where everyone has a bitterness about something, and we are not normally able to share it,” he says. “We may have headaches and nightmares and not even know we are traumatized.”

Auguste, 33, says he will always remember how the training gave people the freedom to cry. “It’s one thing we need to let people do,” he says.

Harry Thelusmai, Wozo program officer, says all the trainings follow the same format, regardless of whether participants have earthquake trauma.

“An earthquake is a type of violence, and if a person is a victim of any type of violence, they can find tools to help them,” he says.

The training discusses the cycle of violence, including how victims can become aggressors.

“If you want to be healed from violence, you need to break the cycle of violence,” Thelusmai says. “If you can break that cycle, you can benefit yourself and all of society.

Trauma is universal, he said, and even those not already affected by trauma may be at some point in the future.
“This program is one of the best things Haiti has received after the earthquake,” Thelusmai says.

Though he praises the organizations that fund Wozo — and his job — he wishes the Haiti government would fund a program like it.

“It is a blessing for us to run this program,” he says. “People are able to face the reality of life because of this program. Our vision is to have a resilient country, a country that can face the issues we have.”

Sheldon C. Good is assistant editor and web editor for Mennonite Weekly Review. These stories were written for Meetinghouse, a Mennonite editors group.

PHOTO: Michel Garly (left to right), executive director; Carmide Desrosiers, administrator; and Harry Thelusma, program officer, make up the administrative team of Wozo, an MCC partner that teaches healing techniques for those suffering trauma from the earthquake and other events. (MCC Photo/Silas Crews)

By Sheldon C. Good

Before the magnitude-7 earthquake struck here almost two years ago, Ronald Sadou Zami (left) struggled to find work. Like many Haitians, he had discovered multiple ways to earn minimal income — he wrote poems for schools, was a sewing machine mechanic and sometimes did masonry work.

Now, after participating in a masonry seminar led by Mennonite Central Committee, he has more consistent employment and earns more money for his family.

“I know things other masons don’t know,” said Zami, now 25. “There are things I knew before but was never abe to put into practice.”

James Mwangi, an associate professor of architectural engineering at California Polytechnic State University who worked with MCC during his sabbatical, taught the masonry seminar in June 2010. About 40 students took the two-day class on how to build safe, disaster-resistant homes.

The Ecumenical Foundation for Peace and Justice, or FOPJ, an MCC partner for more than 13 years, hosted the seminar.

Zami, who also graduated from FOPJ’s masonry trade school in December 2010, is working on building a cluster of multiple-purpose, expandable classrooms at a small university.

He now knows disaster-resistant masonry practices such as how to properly tie rebar, select sand and secure buildings.

“After six rows of blocks, you need a beam to support the walls,” he said. “Now I respect the amount of support we need to have to make it stable.”

Much of Port-au-Prince’s post-earthquake rubble has been removed, and construction sites plaster the city. Open space is hard to come by, so working conditions like Zami’s are often cramped.

Zami’s cousin, Samuel Zami, 27, also participated in the masonry program and masonry seminar. He is now leading the construction of a three-story building, unusually high for this city.

“I went to [FOPJ’s masonry school] to improve my knowledge,” Samuel Zami said.

MCC also supports the school with canned meat for students’ meals and through the Global Families program.

Zami not only understands good masonry techniques but how to manage other workers. He leads a team of 13 masons and 17 handymen — two of whom are FOPJ graduates — and helps with masonry work as needed.
“My FOPJ training helped me secure this job,” he said. “I recommend people to go to FOPJ.”

The building’s owner, Ms. Francois, lived in a small, wooden house at the same location before the January 2010 earthquake. She plans to rent space in her new, mostly concrete building to multiple families and businesses.
“We have to give jobs to the [FOPJ] students,” Francois said.

The building has been under construction for more than two years and sustained minimal damage — “a few cracks” — from the earthquake, she said.

Astrude Mercier, 30, graduated from a professional training school in 2003. She is now a FOPJ masonry instructor who participated in the masonry seminar.

“I learned how to build homes that can withstand earthquakes,” Mercier said.

Most buildings in Port-au-Prince are built with brittle concrete that can crumble easily from natural disasters. In the past, Mercier said, they used a basic white sand for mortar.

“But we now use river sand because it withstands weather and rust from rebar better,” she said.

‘I saw darkness’
FOPJ also leads professional trade programs in electrical construction, plumbing, cooking, tailoring and cosmetology. Additionally, FOPJ teaches primary education to restavec children — unpaid workers living with families other than their own.

Marie Sony, who owns a market near her home (right), has one of these children, 11-year-old Berline Joseph. The girl works at home in the morning and attends FOPJ’s primary school in the afternoon.

There are about 300,000 unpaid child workers in Haiti. They typically cook, clean, fetch water and do other household chores.

“Because of the justice issues related to the trauma of unpaid child workers, MCC has been partnering with FOPJ on this project,” says Susanne Brown, MCC Haiti disaster response team coordinator.

MCC is developing a media piece to use throughout the department of Grande Anse, where most of these young children are sent from.

“The campaign for conscious-raising begins in November and will last three months,” Brown says. “It will include visits to various church leaders, heads of schools and communities throughout the mountains. We’re hoping to reverse the unpaid child worker situation.”

MCC also funded FOPJ’s post-earthquake initiative to help women who sell goods along the road or in small markets.

Polycarp Joseph, FOPJ founder and director, says more than 200 market ladies victimized from the earthquake went through FOPJ’s recapitalization program.

“We taught them how to manage their business, how to resupply their stock, and we resupplied their finances,” he said.

Sony, whose restavec child attends school at FOPJ, used to sell cosmetology goods in a market. During the earthquake, she lost everything.

“I saw darkness,” she says, recalling how she struggled to feed her family.

Sony now has a small roadside shop near her home in which she sells goods purchased with FOPJ’s help.
“I sit here from eight to five every day but Sunday,” she said.

The road in front of her often jams with car and foot traffic, so the potential for patronage is high. Though business is slow, she has faith in the customer- service strategies she learned from the FOPJ training.
“I talk to people in a nice way even if they’re not interested,” she says.

Sheldon C. Good is assistant editor and web editor for Mennonite Weekly Review. These stories were written for Meetinghouse, a Mennonite editors group.

PHOTOS

First: Former masonry student Samuel Zami, 27, stands outside a three-story building where he supervises masonry work in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Zami graduated from a masonry professional program at MCC partner Ecumenical Foundation for Peace and Justice. He also attended a hazard reduction engineering seminar sponsored by MCC as part of its ongoing earthquake relief. (MCC Photo/Silas Crews) 

Middle: Masonry instructor Astrude Mercier gives a homework assignment to students, including La Croix Mihacson, at Ecumenical Foundation for Peace and Justice(FOPJ) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Masonry training is one of the trades that at-risk students can learn at the professional school run by FOPJ.  In June 2010, MCC and FOPJ held a hazard reduction engineering seminar for 40 participants as part of MCC's on-going earthquake response effort. Half of the participants were masonry students from FOPJ, an MCC partner. (MCC Photo/Silas Crews)

Last: In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Marie Sony sits by her new market stand. Her previous one was lost in the earthquake, making it very difficult to help support her family. Sony took part in a recapitalization program run by MCC partner Ecumenical Foundation for Peace and Justice to resupply products and train vendors how to manage money and provide customer service. (MCC Photo/Silas Crews)

By Sheldon C. Good

In a matter of seconds, the January 2010 earthquake turned Elumene Charles’ modest, concrete home to rubble. She lost everything.

Until recently, Charles was one of more than a million Haitians who over the past two years have been living in transitional housing, often in tent camps. About 600,000 people still live in crowded tent camps or temporary homes not made to last more than a few months.

Thanks to a housing repair project led by ACCESS, a Mennonite Central Committee partner, Charles and her six-member family have a new home.

Charles praised the improvements to her modest house.

“I feel safer now,” she says. “I thank MCC because they repaired my home in which I lost everything.”

ACCESS workers fixed her roof, reinforced the basement and added two upstairs rooms, which they’re still finishing.

MCC offers "solid structural repairs"

In total, MCC funds allowed seven masons and 30 handymen to repair 45 homes and build five latrines since early summer. The $180,000 project benefited about 250 people.

Rubble remains scattered along the unpaved roads by Charles’ home in the Boulard neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Multiple non-governmental organizations are working nearby.

According to Patrick Pierre, ACCESS coordinator, the Charleses live in one of the hardest hit areas of the capital city.

“We are almost finished with most of the repairs, and people are always asking if there will be another project so they can add their name to the list,” he says.

Before the MCC-funded project began, MCC also trained the masons on safe building techniques.

James Mwangi, an associate professor of architectural engineering at California Polytechnic State University who worked with MCC during his sabbatical, inspected the homes that would be repaired. He also led a seminar for the seven ACCESS masons in October 2010.

“This made us very happy because that way people won’t build homes the way we had done before,” Pierre says.

After the earthquake, the Hai­tian government visited the Boulard neighborhood to determine which houses could be salvaged. ACCESS chose housing repair recipients based on this information.

As the masons began working, he said, people across the neighborhood noticed how their work was different — and better.

“Other organizations just repaired cracks, but MCC [helped us] make good repairs, solid structural repairs,” Pierre says.

Pierre works two days a week with ACCESS and has a full-time job with FONZOKE credit union, another MCC partner.

ACCESS began in 2004 and is an organization of mostly young people who want to support the neighborhood.
ACCESS members can participate in trainings on topics such as human rights, civic rights and environmental stewardship. They often work on cleaning up the neighborhood.

“We exchange knowledge and get to know each other,” Pierre says. “What keeps me in ACCESS is our dream of having an impact on this neighborhood and on Haiti.”

Working with MCC has helped him realize this dream.

“Not only did we invest ourselves, from beginning to end of this project, we wanted to make sure we put every penny into the community,” he says.

Importance of intimacy

MCC’s partnership with ACCESS isn’t limited to housing repairs. From February to April 2010, MCC distributed food for people in the area.

This year, two MCC Work and Learn teams cleared rubble in the Boulard neighborhood. Both teams came from Mennonite churches — one each in Canada and the U.S. From August to October 2011, ACCESS built five latrines with MCC funding.

These bathroom-like structures are essential for “safe intimacy,” Pierre says. “They need a space that is their own.”

Mariebelaine Sanon Buteau (right) and her family agree. They used a local church’s latrine before ACCESS volunteers built them one.

Cholera is an issue near the family’s cramped cluster of temporary homes that likely won’t withstand weather and inhabitation for more than three months. The American Red Cross comes by regularly to distribute water purification aids.

Nonetheless, Buteau is thankful her family now has private bathroom facilities.

“Now we have our own,” Buteau said of her new latrine. “You can’t live without it.”

Sheldon C. Good is assistant editor and web editor for Mennonite Weekly Review. These stories were written for Meetinghouse, a Mennonite editors group.

PHOTO: 

First: Elumene Charles stands in her newly repaired home made possible by MCC partner ACCESS with funding from MCC's earthquake response effort. The $180,000 project allowed ACCESS to repair 45 homes and build five new latrines in the Boulard neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. At least five people live in each home. (MCC Photo/Silas Crews)

Second: Mariebelaine Sanon Buteau stands in front of a new latrine, the entryway covered by a curtain, built for her by MCC partner ACCESS with funding from MCC's earthquake response effort. A $180,000 project allowed ACCESS to repair 45 homes and build five new latrines in the Boulard neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. At least five people live in each home. (MCC Photo/Silas Crews)

Meetinghouse, an association of North American Mennonite magazine editors, asked Sheldon C. Good is assistant editor and web editor for Mennonite Weekly Review to travel to Haiti under the sponsorship of Mennonite Central Committee to report on MCC's rebuilding work and its efforts to encourage Haitians.—Editors