ARTICLE - $3.3 MILLION FOR CHURCHES

$3.3 MILLION FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE STRUCTURES OF THE CHURCH IN HAITI
(Haiti Libre) -

The Episcopal Conference of the United States of America (USCCB) has announced the delivery of aid to the Church in Latin America for a total value of $5 million. 121 projects of various pastoral and reconstruction works in 20 countries of the Latin American region will be financed, with a strong focus on Haiti. The main voice is in fact devoted to the reconstruction of the structures of the Church in Haiti, with $3.3 million. After the January 12, 2010 earthquake, which destroyed much of the country, the Church is committed to a meticulous process of reconstruction in accordance with the standards of safety and effective prevention.

According to our information, major projects include the construction of a multipurpose building at the Diocese of Jacmel, and the reinforcement of the structure of the Cathedral of Miragoâne (Diocese of Anse-à-Veau et Miragoâne). Mgr. Thomas Gerard Wenski, Archbishop of Miami, a member of the Advisory Group for Haiti of the USCCB, said about this project, that "the strengthening of the Cathedral are realized with the latest technology, not only to prevent deaths in a possible future earthquake, but also to help save the historic Cathedral."

The support for priestly and religious vocations is another point of emphasis for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: for the formation of the clergy, seminarians, men and women religious of which $650,000 were allocated.

ARTICLE - CITE SOLEIL IS NOT RED

CITE SOLEIL IS NOT RED
(Haiti Libre) -

In the name of the people of Cite Soleil, the Konbit Soley Leve movement, Pax Christi-SAKALA Ayiti, HOCWOS and other community based organizations and individuals working together for positive change in Cite Soleil, we celebrate the decision of several members of the International Community to recognize our mutual success by reclassifying Cite Soleil as a "yellow zone".

This is a momentous step towards our common vision to see Cite Soleil change from a "red zone", cut off from the rest of Haiti because of security restrictions, to a "green zone" (an example of cooperation, innovation and sustainability for the rest of the country).

We have united across 34 neighborhoods to promote peace, clean our streets, plant trees and gardens, rally in remembrance of Haitian heroes and the earthquake anniversary, rescue neighborhoods in trouble, send young people to school, and hundreds of other positive actions that show the beautiful side of Cite Soleil.

Organizations such as Pax Christi-SAKALA Ayiti, La Difference, HOCWOS, KONOKS, and other community groups have led civic education events for children, peaceful parades, agroartisanal festivals, intra-city soccer matches, and dozens of other positive activities- all in the spirit of Konbit Soley Leve, the konbit of the rising sun, in the hopes that Cite Soleil would rise from its dark past into a brighter future.

We thank all of individuals and organizations, big and small, who have helped to make this positive change a reality. We thank those people from outside of Cite Soleil who never accepted it as simply "red". We thank them for financial support, but especially for visiting our community gardens, teaching English classes, attending community activities, or even joining a soccer game. You have inspired youth to work hard and make a difference, and to build a better future for Cite Soleil and for Haiti. The visits also helped make it clear that Cite Soleil is not "red".

Thank you to Cite Soleil’s police, community and religious leaders, school directors, children, young people, and everyone who made this transformation possible. Thank you to influential voices like Belo, Carel Pedre, Jean-Jean Roosevelt, Wanito and Wyclef for offering support, inspiration, and a shared wish that Cite Soleil take the path to peace.

This Monday, June 25th, 2012 at 4p.m at the Place Fièrte, the people of Cite Soleil will celebrate all that is positive. We invite all friends and supporters to share in this grand day of reflection, action, music and celebration of the "sunny side" of this City of Sun. Please join the community in wearing any item of green clothing to affirm our common vision of Cite Soleil to become a "green zone".

ARTICLE - DEMANDING MONEY TO MOVE

HILLSIDE SLUM RESIDENTS OFFERED MONEY, HOMES, BUT DEMANDING MORE TO MOVE
(Defend Haiti) -

PORT-AU-PRINCE - "We demand 1 million gourdes ($24,000 [US]) for each home, if not, we cut heads and burn houses," said a protest leader on Monday, demanding more compensation from the government for families to move out of shanties built on Haiti's metropolitan hillside.

Hundreds of residents of the hillside shantytown in Port-au-Prince made news this week with a street protest. 1 million HTG ($24,000 US) a piece to leave their shanties they demand, an amount the Haitian government is not prepared to pay.

"They must repair us normally. They must give 1 million gourde so that the people can leave..."

"For every home, 1 million gourdes, if not, cut heads, burn homes. We're not playing with anyone."

"You see the mayor of the commune is supporting the movement with the Minustah. He says he is indifferent, he has washed his hands."

"For us, we say to the Mayor of Petionville, we are going to burn city hall, we will burn Martelly's house. It's me who have said this."

"Me, here are my eyes, you know them, I am not scared of anything... **** in the ***." - Speaker at Protest

The government says it is incapable of meeting those demands.

"Impossible", said the Secretary of State of the Environment, Pierre Andre Gedeon speaking on Magik Radio 9 on Tuesday morning.

"Only 250 million HTG ($6 million [US]) are planned for this project. Money is available in an account at the BNC (National Credit Bank)" Gedeon explained.

Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe confirmed that the construction of drainage channels on the hillside, where the slum is located, is part of the 16-6 Neighborhood Creation and Revitalization Project that began in 2011 with the aim of creating 6 new residential areas, and rehabilitating 16 others.

The families, 450 of them, affected by the project taking place on Morne l'Hopital, will receive a years worth of rent in neighborhoods already designated for them to move to, said Lamothe.

The amount of $50/month coincides with the subsidized housing that the program creates. The homes will be available in the towns of Bercy and Gressier, south of Port-au-Prince.

Government Holds to Safety as the Priority

Pierre Andre Gedeon, who first announced the measures against homes and construction on Morne l'Hopital said the hillside is where drainage channels will be constructed.

Gedeon said that the hills are the source of dangerous floods throughout Port-au-Prince when it rains. In the case of severe showers, floods have become mudslides, destroyed homes and carried vehicles away.

Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe added a clarification to his government's actions, saying that homes on the hillside were illegally built, without construction papers, in an area that was already restricted.

Lamothe said "we are taking some measures to protect lives, and ultimately Port-au-Prince from a major catastrophe." He said the tenants in the area, who are without proper documents, put themselves and other city residents in danger.

"We can't allow people to endanger their lives in slums that can collapse at any moment," said the Minister of Human Rights and Fight Against Extreme Poverty, Rose-Anne Auguste, who, too, believes there is a problem of housing, but a more fatal risk for residents on the hillsides.

"We realize there is a dire problem posed by housing in our country. We are going to offer new homes to the displaced families," Minister Auguste said, also noting that the government had long banned these constructions.

The hillsides have become home to many of the 3 million residents of Port-au-Prince.

Constructed in concrete, these homes offer no structural soundness against large earthquakes, mudslides and other natural disasters, the hillsides have been the scene of tragedies after severe weather.

ARTICLE - LAND POLICIES - OWNERSHIP

DURANDIS: WHY HAITI MUST ADDRESS ITS POLICIES ON PRIVATE LAND OWNERSHIP
(Caribbean Journal) - By Ilio Durandis

What was a crisis before the earthquake in Haiti is shaping up to be an omnipotent disaster for the reconstruction effort. Establishing legal land ownership anywhere in the world can be a difficult task, but in Haiti, not only is it a very agonizing process, but, at times, it can even be deadly.

Using the lessons of Haitian history, for many politicians, land reform policies are not be considered. It is suicidal for the career of most politicians to talk about agrarian reform.

The affinity of the Haitian population to their land remains one of the few traits inherited from colonial era. For the peasants, the land is their savings account. For those in big cities, land ownership is a sign of prestige and wealth. However, not everyone who claims to be a land owner can legally prove their ownership.

A stalemate is slowly brewing, as countless volumes of documents were lost at the land title registrar building in Haiti right after the earthquake in January 2010. At present, it is a very complicated matter to prove rightful ownership to a piece of land in Haiti.

It is even more problematic to do so with squatters and trespassers living and building on one’s property.

In one case, a family had to spend lots of money and time in a dispute with some squatters who, at first, had built a home, then another one on their property post-quake. The situation started as a Haitian Diaspora family bought a piece of land many years ago. Without their knowledge, a former guardian of a relative of the family, but whom they did not give permission decided to squatter on their property.

This individual lived on the property for an extended period with his family, and refused to leave when asked by the rightful owner of the land.

At first, the land owner did not say anything because of the urgent need for people to have a safe place to stay after the seism. As time went by, and the land owner wanted the property vacated, the situation quickly became chaotic and nightmarish.

To resolve this specific situation, the owner had to hire a lawyer and bring the case to a court magistrate. Instead of a lengthy trial, the owner and the trespassers settled on the matter. The owner had to pay the squatters approximately $500 dollars each to vacate the property.

This is just one simple example out of many such cases as far as private land ownership is concerned in Haiti. As one senior adviser to the president has noted, it is a huge dilemma for the state to deal with land title issues. It is not uncommon to find multiple individuals claiming legitimate ownership for a specific piece of land.

This current administration is working hard to refocus the image of the country. For too long, in the international mainstream media, Haiti has been synonymous with the poorest nation of its hemisphere; however, the focus is now being put on Haiti as a country that is open for business and wants to welcome foreign tourists on its soil.

The success of this rebranding of the nation will hinge a great deal on its ability to enforce, among other things, private property laws, transform the land title registry into an office that people can trust and simplify the laws that regulate the purchase and sale of private property.

Besides the use of land for housing construction, when it comes to agricultural use of the land, lack of legal papers to assign proper ownership has made improvement in agriculture almost impossible.

Haitian’s inheritance laws have created a mess in the way land is currently being divided from one generation to the next.

Three generations ago, a piece of land that had just a handful of people who could inherit it, now has more than triple the number due to the large extension of the average Haitian family.

Not only do people have little faith in the system, but the ways records are being kept have not improved with time.

A major investment is needed to switch from a paper-based record-keeping to an electronic format. This will not only make the system more efficient, but it will limit multiple ownership of the same piece of land at any given time. An electronic format can rid the system of a lot of wrongs, and make it more trustworthy to the people.

The proper and sustainable reconstruction of Haiti cannot be successful without a serious revision of how land is allocated to the country’s citizens. Agrarian reform is a must. Respect for legitimate private property is non-negotiable.

Currently, there are people living in transitional shelters built by NGOs on other people’s private land. There still exist camps on private properties, and the state inventory of public land is not well-known to the population.

In order to speed up the reconstruction process and send a strong signal to potential investors that Haiti is indeed open for business, addressing the private land issue should be one of the major priorities for the government.

Haiti can no longer afford to live by the land reform policy of two centuries ago. More land is needed for agriculture, public infrastructure, protection of the environment, and, most certainly, contemporary homes.

To prevent the creation of new “Bidonvil” ghettos, a modern land title system is needed, and new land policies need to be enacted.

Ilio Durandis, a Caribbean Journal contributor, is the founder of Haiti 2015, a social movement for a just and prosperous Haiti. He is also a columnist with The Haitian Times.

ARTICLE - DEBATE - HOW TO FIX HAITI

AN OLD DEBATE OVER 'HOW TO FIX HAITI' RENEWED
(Miami Herald) - By Anthony P. Maingot

The debate over the proper way of “fixing” Haiti is once again in full swing.

The protagonists have been here before: those who believe that even an underdeveloped country like Haiti can benefit from lowering its tariffs and opening up its economy, and those who call this a “Neoliberal” abomination. The anti-Neoliberals — many living abroad — now have a specific new target: the South Korean-funded project to build a garment industry in Caracol, a village on Haiti’s north coast.

So, if the South Koreans are building the factory, the European Union the roads that will access it, the Inter-American Development Bank the generators that will provide the electricity and the U.S. Congress has voted duty-free access to the U.S. market, what is there to object to?

Horrors, they bought 600 acres from 357 local peasants to set up the factory and support structures. Beyond the fact that this was not an expropriation but a well-compensated deal, a simple bit of math is revealing: 357 farmers on 600 acres is 1.628 acres per farmer. This is in fact the norm for Haitian peasant holdings, hardly enough to feed a family, much less to advance in any way.

Can any reasonable person want this desperate poverty to persist? Well, to the anti-Neoliberal such calculations are little more than a vulgar materialist and capitalist ploy since it leaves out the critical fact that what was involved was a frontal attack on the peasants’ “way of life.” Framed in these terms, their arguments augur images of that ever-present theme of Haitian history, the heroic peasant rising to destroy not merely an unjust colonial system but the very industry which sustained it: the plantation.

The emotional charge of this true history cannot be underestimated. The prize for the ex-slave was not just an independent black nation but ownership of a piece of land to cultivate, to build a house on and in which to bury their loved ones. The result was a subsistence agriculture so romanticized by anti-Neoliberals.

Arguably the sharpest arrow in the anti-Neoliberal’s philosophical quiver is the charge that it was Neoliberal reforms which encouraged the importation of cheaper U.S. rice, which in turn destroyed the self-sufficiency provided by the native rice industry. Even former President Bill Clinton believed their arguments and publicly regretted U.S. actions. But, is the story true?

After admitting that few countries can compete with the production and price of the U.S. agro-industry, there is much more to tell. As early as 1886, the British Ambassador to Haiti, Sir Spenser St. John, reported that the peasants “produce some rice and Indian corn, but they do not do so in sufficient quantities to supply the market.” In 1931, Arthur C. Millspaugh of the World Peace Foundation, after commenting that the farming techniques of the peasants had “not greatly changed since 1804,” noted that the importation of rice went from an average of 675,744 kilos in the period 1916-1921 to 6,894,258 in 1928-1929.

In 1980, Haitians consumed 60,000 metric tons of rice; in 2010 they consumed 400,000 but native production had remained stagnant at 60,000 metric tons.

Haiti, like all the islands in the Caribbean, cannot escape the cruel march of changing man-land relations, urbanization and increasing urban tastes. While population grows exponentially, agricultural land is less than fixed — it is in fact shrinking because of deforestation and erosion. In 1938 Haiti had 540,000 hectares of arable land; by 1980 it had 225,750.

It is an extraordinary fact that the density of population per square mile in Haiti is greater than it is in either India or China. Nothing reveals this dramatic situation more poignantly than the growth of Port-au-Prince. In 1950, the city’s inhabitants numbered 152,000; in 1980, 720,000; and today, perhaps four million. Like all urban residents, they demonstrate a growing appetite for that staple: rice

The ideal would be a peasantry that is educated and knows how to increase production. Since this is clearly not the case, it is ridiculous for anti-Neoliberals to continue opposing projects such as that of the South Koreans.

Anthony P. Maingot is professor emeritus of sociology at Florida International University.

ARTICLE - EVICTION PROTESTS

EVICTION PITS HAITI POLICE AGAINST PROTESTORS
(AFP) –

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Clashes broke out in Haiti Monday between police and protestors against government plans to evict them from homes precariously perched on the hills above the capital Port-au-Prince.

At least one person was wounded when groups of young people from the hill-based neighborhoods erected flaming barricades and brawled with police, who used teargas to disperse the crowd.

Targeted by the eviction are nearly 400 families, living in small dwellings the government has determined to be unsafe. Their homes cover a large part of the dreary Haitian hill town of Jalousie, near a ravine and situated above the Haitian capital.

"We can't allow people to endanger their lives in slums that can collapse at any moment," the Haitian minister charged with human rights and the battle against poverty, Rose-Anne Auguste, told AFP.

But one protestor, who asked not to be identified, said: "These decisions are always made against the most poor. The rich have huge homes that aren't affected. They want to chase us away, but where to?"

"We realize there is a dire problem posed by housing in our country. We are going to offer new homes to the displaced families," Auguste said, noting that the government has banned these new constructions.

Since the earthquake of January 2010 that ravaged the Haitian capital, hundreds of thousands of people -- 400,000, according to the International Organization for Migration -- have continued to live in tents.

The government recently launched a program promoting the return of earthquake victims to their original neighborhoods, with a subsidy of around $500.

ARTICLE - HOME DESTRUCTION PROTEST

HUNDREDS PROTEST HAITI GOV'T PLAN TO DESTROY HOMES
(Sacramento Bee) By Evens Sanon, AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — More than 1,000 Haitians marched through the Caribbean nation's capital Monday to protest a reported plan to destroy their hillside shanties for a flood-control project before they find better, more permanent dwellings in the wake of a devastating earthquake. Police fired tear gas in an attempt to control the protesters, some of whom threw rocks.

The demonstrators snaked through the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area chanting threats to burn down the relatively affluent district where the shanties sit if the authorities flatten their homes.

The No. 2 official at the Environment Ministry, Pierre Andre Gedeon, said on a local radio broadcast last week that officials want to demolish several hundred homes to build channels and reforest the hillsides in an effort to curb the deadly floods that come with the annual rainy season. Officials have made no other public reference to the plan. Calls to the ministry on Monday were not answered.

Many of the threatened homes are in Jalousie, a cinderblock shantytown that spreads across a mountainside alongside the affluent city of Petionville that makes up the Port-au-Prince metro area.

The protesters said President Michel Martelly fell short on his promise to build homes destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. The disaster destroyed tens of thousands of houses in the capital and other cities in the south, and officials said 314,000 people died.

"Martelly didn't build any houses. How can he destroy our homes?" said 22-year-old Joel Jean-Pierre. "If he comes to destroy our homes we're going to burn down Petionville."

The government is building hundreds of homes north of the capital, but too few to house the more than 400,000 people still living in the precarious settlements that emerged in the aftermath of the quake.

In an effort to move people out of the camps, the Haitian government, foreign aid groups and governments gave displaced people yearlong rental subsidies. Residents of six highly visible camps moved into hillside shanty areas such as Jalouise. Others have moved there because they were evicted by land owners.

Port-au-Prince, a city of some 3 million, has seen concrete houses and hovels sprawl across its hills because governments past and present have failed to provide affordable housing. Many of those homes crash down the hills every year during the country's rainy seasons and people often die.

The march on Monday began peacefully but some protesters threw rocks at a towering hotel financed in part by the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, a nonprofit set up after the earthquake by former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The demonstrators were angry to see the opulent hotel under construction amid fears that they will lose their homes.

When the protesters reached downtown Port-au-Prince, riot police carrying shields tried to break up the crowds by firing tear gas canisters. Some people threw rocks at the police and also at passing motorists, some of whom had their windows broken.

Associated Press reporters saw one woman injured in the head after being hit in the head with a rock.

ARTICLE - DISASTER PLANNING

HAITI'S MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR AND UNDP SR. PROGRAM DIRECTOR CONFER ON DISASTER PLANNING
(Sacramento Bee) - By Ministry of the Interior of Haiti

Unveiling of Katye Pam Poze, Haiti's proprietary, community-based decentralization initiative and civil preparedness programs discussed

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Focusing on Haiti's natural disaster planning and creation of strong community-based civil defense programs, Haiti's Minister of the Interior, Thierry Mayard-Paul, accompanying President Michel Martelly, met with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Senior Director, Jessica Faieta to discuss progress and next steps. The meeting, which took place March 21 in Port-au-Prince, comes within the framework of strengthening the existing, long-term partnership between the UNPD and the Government of Haiti.

Recognizing the role played by the UNDP within Haiti, including fortifying the Department of Civil Protection (DPC), Minister Mayard-Paul underscored the importance of ongoing dialogue to demonstrate that both the Haitian government and the UNDP are committed to completing what was begun.

"The UNDP has been instrumental in strengthening the DPC's institutional capacity, improving infrastructure and access to equipment that will help Haiti reduce risks and be better prepared to manage and respond to emergency situations," said Mr. Mayard-Paul. He added that the UNDP and Haiti have been committed partners, saying: "We will demonstrate how working together we accomplish remarkable things," referring to the validation ceremony for Haiti's precedent-setting "Seismic Risk Reduction Plan."

The Minister and Ms. Faieta also discussed the unveiling of Haiti's new community-based decentralization program, Katye Pam Poze, which took place the previous week in a meeting between Mr. Mayard-Paul and Margareta Wahlstrom, the UN's Assistant Secretary General for Disaster and Risk Reduction. Katye Pam Poze (KPP) forms the cornerstone for President Martelly's National Agenda for Decentralization.

"Katye Pam Poze is a program developed by Haitians for Haitians that seeks to bring decision-making closer to the people," said Mr. Mayard-Paul. "Our goal is to promote good governance, boost economic development and achieve our goals for job creation. We also aim to ensure the efficient delivery of public services and safety for our citizens."

At the core of Katye Pam Poze is a plan to mobilize local governments for disaster risk prevention and emergency response, which is a top priority for the Martelly administration. Both Katye Pam Poze and the new risk reduction initiative are aligned with the UNDP view that in a national emergency, the immediate priority is to ensure people receive help as quickly as possible, ideally within the first few hours. "This can only be accomplished through community-based programs, where everyone knows their roles," said the Minister. To this end, the Minister of the Interior has several initiatives underway, including a widespread national first aid training program. "Our comprehensive disaster preparedness strategy includes building a network of emergency operations centers, warehouses, disaster and fire stations throughout Haiti in order to help make all parts of the country safer," said Mr. Mayard-Paul. "Complementing and bolstering the efforts of the Haitian Red Cross, first aid training will be provided to schoolchildren, workers, professionals, representatives of the informal sector, and the population-at large."

In January 2012, Haiti's Civil Protection network received a generous gift of SUVs, trucks, boats, canoes, 11,000 solar radios, tents and other disaster-response equipment from the U.S. Department of Defense further bolstering Haiti's institutional capacity with modern emergency equipment.

"Civil Protection is a top priority for my department," said the Minister. "As a next phase we will be creating a commission to define the five most critical concerns for civil protection and with the collaboration of everyone at the local and central government level we will implement our new initiative. We will keep you informed about the outcome of this commission, and we hope that UNDP will continue to be our partner as it has proven to be throughout all these years."

Also present at the meeting were Nigel Fisher, Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator of the UN System, UNDP Resident Representative; UNDP Administrator, Helen Clark and Haiti's Minister of Planning Herve Day.

ARTICLE - ELECTRICITY - 200,000 HOUSES

AMBITIOUS ELECTRIFICATION PROGRAM OF 200,000 HOUSES IN LESS THAN TWO YEARS
(Haiti Libre) -

President Michel Martelly, presented yesterday, Monday, January 23, during a press conference at the Hotel Le Plaza, the program "Ban m limyè, ban m lavi" which aims to electrify in the long term, all communes and communal section of the country.

Initially, in less than two years, the Government aims to enable the electrification of 200,000 homes. The Grand Anse and the Northwest will be the first departments to be targeted; an initiative supported by the Senators Northwest and of the Grande-Anse, Maxime Roumer and Lucas Saint-vil.

"...I must tell you that the power company of Haiti (EDH) which has 40 years of existence, has 200,000 subscribers. We have a program to provide electricity to 200,000 homes over 2 years. It is a very ambitious project. In the long term, we want to provide electricity throughout the country, to help create jobs, help people create wealth through businesses, help to strengthen safety and allow them to enter definitely onto the path of development [...]" said President Martelly.

Through this program, fast and sustainable [estimated at $45 million], to be implemented by the Ministry of Public Works, Transport, Energy and Communications, in partnership with private sector companies, the opportunity is available to households in rural areas for lighting using solar energy [the solar kits each cost between 250 and 350 U.S. dollars] through a $30 million loan. This credit approach, will be developed with banks, credit unions and all institutions that grant credit in rural areas.

Several representatives of companies producing electric power and institutions working in the field of credit (SOGESOL, BPH, SOFIDHES, ANACAPH, E Power, T Energy, Eco Energy Plus Energy Group, etc...), present at the launch, applauded the approach of the Martelly/Conille administration and expressed their willingness to support the Haitian government in the success of this extensive partnership program.

The whole country should be electrified, according to the desires of President Martelly. To this end, $15 million in credit will be granted to local governments to light 375 km of streets in 3 years, repayable over 7 years at a maximum rate of 7% per annum. In the neighborhoods, electricity will be restored with the repair of streetlights. To begin with, 10 neighborhoods of 400 households each, will be served with a budget of $300,000 dollars from the Treasury. To encourage investment and facilitate the smooth operation of businesses, EDH will make available, in less than two months, 15MW of reliable electricity in some industrial areas.

ARTICLE - 1,050 TRANSITIONAL SHELTERS

1,050 TRANSITIONAL SHELTERS BUILT IN PETIT-GOAVE AND GRAND-GOAVE
(Haiti Libre) -

1,050 transitional shelters have been built for the inhabitants of Petit-Goâve and Grand-Goâve, through the hard work of 18 months, of 214 Haitians and 18 expatriates of the NGO, Handicap International. 4,799 people, among the most vulnerable, have been relocated after having lost their homes in January 2010.

To celebrate this, a ceremony was held, highlighting the great solidarity of the affected population, and the team that worked on this project with it, but also beyond, with the municipalities and partner organizations.

These homes were designed, taking into account the specific needs of the people that will use them. Many of them are equipped with ramps to allow wheelchair users to enter. They also take into account major natural hazards affecting the region regularly.

In addition to the 1,050 shelters, latrines and 16 classrooms in seven surrounding communities were built.

"According to me, the main interest of this project lies in the interaction with the local population, and the involvement of the beneficiaries of the project," declared Flavio Bado, a civil and hydraulic engineer involved in shelter construction.

"The model for this shelter is suitable; whether from the cultural, technical and contextual point of view[...] There are several sizes to fit the needs of the beneficiaries families, and especially it is accessible to people with disabilities..." highlighted Panosetti Pascal, Head of the components construction and production.

"The design of the shelter values ​​the model of rural building, including by taking the traditional system of clissades (Kay Klisé), typically haitian. This promotes ownership by the beneficiary families," explained Marie Estella Joseph, assistant hygiene promotor.

ARTICLE - 5,000 FAMILIES WILL REPAIR HOMES

5,000 FAMILIES WILL REPAIR THEIR HOMES THROUGH CARMEN
(Haiti Libre) -

On Friday (Dec.9), Jean Yves Jason, the Mayor of Port-au-Prince, launched the program CARMEN (Support Centre for Strengthening of damaged houses). This program of a duration of 6 months is funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to the tune of USD$1.3 million, which aims to repair 5,000 houses [classified yellow] in the metropolitan area.

Mayor Jean Yves Jason explained that this program only concerns "...houses that were marked yellow by the Ministry of Public Works. We invite these people to visit one of the three offices CARMEN (Fort National, Carrefour Feuilles and Canapé Vert) to register and that they understand the purpose of the project.

The essence of the project, is firstly : to assist in the repair and strengthening of these homes ; secondly : train people at the level of best practices, so that they do not enter enter in homes that present dangers; thirdly: put at their disposal a little funding so that they can make repairs.

We give guidance. It is necessary that purchases of materials are made at hardware stores which we have given a label, indicating that the products and equipment that are sold, are approved products and that they will not give the same issues that there were before January 2010 [...]"

Marc-Andre Franche, UNDP Deputy Director of Haiti, clarified that the funds made ​​available by his organization,... $500,000, will be used as a direct subsidy to citizens for the works and that the rest will serve as technical support: trainers and guidance to citizens in the repair work. "This program will show that the Haitians are able to repair their own home," added Mr. Franche.

ARTICLE - 10,000 SHELTERS - IOM

10,000 FAMILIES RECEIVE TEMPORARY SHELTERS FROM NGO - IOM
(Defend Hati) -

PORT-AU-PRINCE - The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has provided new temporary shelters to nearly 10,000 displaced families in Haiti through its housing program. Approximately 500,000 people are still in tents and many of them are threatened with eviction.

"Reaching those 10,000 was part of a cumulative effort by the international community to build over 100,000 shelters in Haiti," said in a press release, Dall'Oglio Luca, head of the IOM mission in Haiti.

Luca Dall'Oglio affirms that there has been a major effort to help families who lost their homes to leave the tents and makeshift structures and find decent and safe places to live.

According to IOM, shelter designed to withstand rain and hurricanes have a lifespan of at least three years and probably longer.

However, IOM admits that all the shelters do not provide a permanent solution as part of the overall strategy pursued by the humanitarian community.

Twenty two months after the earthquake of January 12, 2010, about 500,000 people still live in tents, according to figures released last September by the international organization. Homeless and displaced people also face the threat of expulsion.

ARTICLE - GERMAN SAWMILL - 1,182 HOMES

GERMAN SAWMILLER DELIVERS 1,182 HOMES TO HAITI
(TTJ) -

German sawmiller Klenk Holz AG has supplied 1,182 timber houses to the Haiti earthquake rebuilding programme.

Klenk pre-fabricated the pine homes at its Brandenburg plant, using more than 2,000m³ of lumber and 1,000m³ of OSB. Corrugated iron sheets were used for the roof covering.

Some 600 single and 582 detached houses were loaded in 153 containers and shipped out to Haiti, before being trucked to mountain villages in the country.

Klenk project manager Otto Beer said he was “shocked” by the misery of Haitians in the earthquake-hit zone but also impressed by the friendliness and gratitude of the people the company helped.

Klenk is currently in discussions to deliver additional accommodation. Its client is the German Agency for Technical Co-operation.