January 24, 2011 – Port-au-Prince, Haiti….Libna Stevens/IAD
In the predawn darkness, Petit Homme Chantal and two friends are leaning against a 14-square-foot wooden shelter marked #35. She cannot move into #35 until daybreak, so for now she stands guard with her friends – and for good reason. Up until two months ago, Chantal, 42, and her children made their home on a roadway median in the Carrefour neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Now, one year after the devastating earthquake which crushed her original home, Chantal has an opportunity to begin life again.
Moving into her new home will be a dream come true for her family, she says. “I feel so happy and better now, it was not normal living in a tent,” Chantal said. The single mother of children ranging from 21 years to eight months-old, says she had to move her family abruptly from her tent after someone died of cholera a few tents from hers. She now hopes to settle her family and try to rebuild her life. She wants to go back to selling food items at the outdoor market to support her family just as she did before the earthquake.
Frenel Milo also stands by his wooden shelter. He was assigned to shelter #15, an aqua painted structure that will become home to his wife and his two small children, as well as two other relatives.
“I’m so happy and thankful to God that now I have a great place,” says Milo. Milo, 23, has been homeless since the earthquake. He recounts how he was feeling sick on Jan. 12 and went with a friend to the store when the earthquake struck. He returned to his home, only to find it destroyed.
“I lost many of my family members and have been living in a blue-tarp covered tent on the median since the night of the earthquake. Now I won’t have to worry about the rain pouring in and flooding the tent,” he said.
Chantal and Milo represent some 180 families that will move to Collectivite Marie de Carrefour, a new small village with an ocean view that was built thanks to the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and its partnership with donors.
“ADRA worked with the office of the mayor in Carrefour to provide this shelter community and move some of the families living in the median across the street,” said Paulo Lutke, Emergency ADRA Coordinator overseeing the temporary shelter project in Carrefour. Actually, this village was built from the left over shelter materials, according to Lutke, who supervised and coordinated efforts during the three weeks it took to erect the 180 shelters in Collectivite Marie de Carrefour.
To date, ADRA has provided 2,680 shelters to families all throughout Carrefour and Petit Goave-some of the worst hit regions by the earthquake.
Before each family member was called and given their shelter number, Yvone Jerome, the mayor of Carrefour, told the hundreds gathered at the shelter village as the sun went down, to be thankful.
“One person created the heavens and the sky and all things and we must first thank God for what He has done,” said Jerome. “We are not better than the person who died. Because you are safe doesn’t mean that you are better than the other person. Be thankful. Only some of you will receive a temporary shelter tonight and we thank ADRA for what they’ve done,” he added as he spoke to the crowd atop a 10-foot platform stage.
Speaking to the crowd was also Fritz Bissereth, ADRA Haiti director, who stated that ADRA is a friend to those in need. “We are looking to helping more of you. Be patient. We will never forget you. ADRA is here to help you…there is much more to do still,” he added. As Bissereth spoke to the hundreds gathered there, the crowd shouted ADRA, ADRA and all joined in a moment of prayer as to inaugurate the new village by the shore.
The new village includes solar-powered street lamps, a water station, and dozens of latrines.
The 180 families were not only given the wooden structure with a cement floor; with one-door and two-windows, but each family received a kitchen kit with pots and dishes, blankets, thin foam mattresses, and water purification containers, during a special all-day ceremony ADRA leaders organized with the Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders to celebrate life one year after the earthquake.
Hundreds of families attended the special program on the ADRA Haiti office grounds where they heard special messages of hope, musical presentations, testimonies from shelter beneficiaries, and heard reports of the work ADRA has been doing in Port-au-Prince and in the rest of Haiti.
“God is faithful to wipe the tears from our eyes and He’s faithful to help us to overcome the earthquake and today is a great opportunity to thank all the men and women who have come from all around the world to be partners with ADRA and help our communities,” said Theart Saint Pierre, president of the church in Haiti, as he spoke to the crowd.
“We don’t want to remember the trauma of the earthquake,” he continued, “We want to remember those who have spent days, weeks and months with us helping you and others and we want to recognize that it is Jesus who has preserved our lives,” Saint Pierre said.
ADRA’s ceremony took placed during a week filled with special programs at various churches, institutions and offices in the memorial services Jan. 8-15, 2011, which were held throughout the capital city.
Dozens of children also received uniforms and backpacks filled with school supplies from the hands of church leaders, the mayor and ADRA leaders, as part of one of its many projects to benefit the community. Reporters also gathered for a special press conference.
ADRA reported its completed projects in the country through the end of 2010 with the help of some 23 countries in its ADRA Network, including Canada, United States, Europe, Eastern Europe, Australia, Asia, and The United Kingdom. Other partner organizations joined ADRA in hundreds of projects, among these, the management of internally displaced persons (IDP) camp at the Haiti Adventist University, where more than 20,400 took shelter on the 42-acre campus of Haiti Adventist University after Jan. 12.
ADRA provided water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, security, fencing, waste management, medical clinics, food distribution, non-food items, mental health and psychosocial counseling, education, as well as child protection service to the thousands living on campus for nearly one year.
Left on the IDP camp are some 400 families that will be relocated outside of the Adventist University by next month, according to Bissereth. There is much yet for ADRA to do in Haiti, Bissereth goes on, “We are committed to being involved in helping people rebuild their lives.”
ADRA also provided purified water to dozens of affected communities in Port-au-Prince, distributed food purification tablets during the cholera outbreak, handed out hundreds of tents, and more.
To view more on what ADRA has done in Haiti, visit www.adra.organd www.adra-haiti.org
To view photos of ADRA’s memorial service, visit www.flickr.com/photos/interamerica
To know more on the Seventh-day Adventist Church inHaiti, one year after the earthquake, visit www.interamerica.org
