HAITI: Project Gonaives 60 Day Report
Our most exciting news is that we’re extending Project Gonaives through 28 February, 2009! Due to strong volunteer interest and great projects on the horizon, we’re happy to share this opportunity to come and join the 58 international and 25 local volunteers from 12 countries who have pitched in so far.
Without further ado, here is a look at our second month of Project Gonaives.
Still Digging
Residential mud clearing is and continues to be the backbone of our work in Gonaives. Over the past two months our teams have honed their technique and are now working more tightly, efficiently, and energetically than before. To date, we’ve cleaned 40 houses, enabling 60 families to return home. The one-on-one interaction and exchange between HODR volunteers and the families being restored to their homes marks the heart of the HODR model.
Sisters in Session!
Our largest ongoing job site at Project Gonaives approaches the finish line! 600 children are back in school at the École Emmaus Centre St. Joseph, one of the few free schools in Gonaives. We began by digging 3 foot high mud out from the classrooms, then the library, followed by the community center and medical clinic which serve an additional 200 community members. As the mud work tapered, HODR crews rehabilitated each room by washing furniture and walls, and painted interiors with a fresh coat of paint. Classes have been in session for 3 weeks now!
Smile
As in our other international projects, we’ve launched a community photo project to print and distribute some of the photos we take while working on our job sites. The photos replace some of the mementos that were lost in the flooding, and are often the only photo that each person has of themselves at this age.
As part of this project, we completed a school photo project for all the children at the Sisters’ school, École Emmaus Centre St. Joseph. Photographed and printed headshots for each of the 600 students, as well as class photos for the school. The transformation of faces – from guarded and shy in front of the camera lens, to mugging and smiling, to absolutely beaming as they shared their photos, was wonderful to behold.
Let’s play Twister!
HODR volunteers continue to make weekly trips to Ebenezer Camp, still home to 100 families displaced by this season’s hurricanes. The children receive the volunteers with endless energy. Volunteers are increasingly creative conducting group games and they now arrive at the camp armed with balls, frisbees, badminton sets and even Twister!
UN Shelter Surveys
As our profile grows amongst the international coordination effort, more partnership opportunities are opening to us. Recently we were invited to assist the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in conducting a survey of 250 families living in 3 tent camps, part of a comprehensive effort by all NGOs to canvas the 2500 families remaining in shelters. For 3 days 10 local and 2 international volunteers talked to displaced residents about the condition of their home and their needs.
IOM Shelter Kit Distributions
After compiling results from the UN Shelter Survey, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched a massive shelter kit distribution comprised of cleanup tools, building materials, kitchen sets and hygiene materials to assist families leaving camps and shelters and returning home. HODR volunteers have been busy bundling materials, managing the flow of recipients and kits, and supervising the on-site distribution.
Oxfam Intermon Tool Distribution
Our relationship with Oxfam Intermon (IO) continues to thrive. HODR headed up its first large scale distribution on 10 December of 70 household cleanup toolkits furnished by Oxfam Intermon. HODR volunteers managed the process from start to finish, beginning with door-to-door assessments of damaged homes in the Ka Soleil neighborhood, selecting the beneficiary families, finding a distribution site, staging and sorting the tools, and organizing security. We also helped at additional IO tool distributions in other neighborhoods around Gonaives.
Oxfam Intermon Well Assessments
The 2008 hurricanes disrupted municipal water service and contaminated household wells. As Oxfam Intermon works to cleanse and rehabilitate residential wells, we are supporting them by conducting assessments in their target neighborhoods. The assessments are a combination of measures (e.g. conductivity, turbidity, static water level) as well as social context (e.g. is the well shared amongst neighbors or is it private? Pre-hurricane usage level?). Our survey is the first step in Oxfam’s well rehabilitation program.
UN Volunteer Community Garden
HODR volunteer supported UN Volunteers and Terre des Jeunes to establish a community garden at a local high school. Volunteers from all three groups fenced, prepped, planted, and tended the land, which will be open to the general community and serve as an “outdoor classroom” for biology and science classes at the school. An on-site compost pile will also educate and benefit the local community. The completion of the project fell on 5 December 2008, International Volunteer Day.
CRS/UNICEF Backpacks
HODR is currently helping Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to store and distribute backpacks stuffed with school kits provided by UNICEF to children whose school materials were washed away during the hurricanes. The kits arrived in 3 big trucks, packed completely front to back, floor to ceiling. A swarm of HODR volunteers formed a fire chain and unloaded 15,000 backpacks in record time. As many schools in Gonaives have now resumed, these kits will facilitate a normal learning environment and ease the financial burden of replacing lost materials.
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The heart, muscle, and skill of our volunteers is at work as we push Project Gonaives into month number three. We are busy on new well, water, and plumbing projects, and of course, we’re always in the mud! We hope you’ll be able to join us in the months ahead or that you’ll be able to make a contribution to support our volunteers and the communities we work in. Happy holidays from all of the volunteers here in Haiti, to you and your family!
Stefanie Chang
Project Director
Hands On Disaster Response
HODR Holiday Cards
This holiday season support HODR and spread the word by sending HODR Holiday Cards!
Photo by Sabrina Benson, Volunteer, Project Gonaives
Front, Back
2 sizes available:
SMALL: 4.25″ x 5.5″ – Suggested donation $5/5 cards & envelopes, $10/10
LARGE: 5.5″ x 8.5″ – Suggested donation $7/5 cards & envelopes, $12/10
Additional suggested donation to help cover shipping costs: US shipping $4/30 cards, international shipping $12.50/30 cards.
Make an online donation through our Please Give page and designate how many packs of cards you would like in what size (Use the “In Memory Of” text box to left of “Country”).
Haiti: Project Gonaives Update – 23 Oct 2008
Project Gonaives has been open for almost 2 weeks! Our focus is removing mud from homes and public space and to date we have cleared 3 residential properties, allowing 5 families to return to home. HODR has also made strong progress with two ongoing community projects involving the rehabilitation of a school run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition and a street cleanup organized by a local radio station. In our first week alone, we shoveled, bucketed, picked, and wheelbarrowed over 20 tons of mud!
The community in Gonaives continues to be incredibly supportive of our work. We have a consistent turnout of dedicated Haitian volunteers who get as muddy, sweaty and excited as we are to help put Gonaives back on its feet.
We anticipate a steady increase in the volunteer numbers and variety of projects here in Gonaives. If you are interested in joining us in Haiti, please email info@hodr.org. We hope to see you soon!
HAITI: Announcing Project Gonaives!
Hands On Disaster Response is energized to help Gonaives, Haiti recover from the devastating effects of 4 successive tropical storms and hurricanes. One thing is for certain – there will be barrels and barrels of great dirty HODR work! We will begin accepting volunteers at our base on 10 October, 2008.
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