HAITI: Project Gonaives 30 Day Report

After just one month in Gonaives, there has been a transformation. The roads, once blocked by mountains of sludge and flooded with chocolate brown soup, are now lined with dump trucks and loaders. Businesses are back, tap taps are resuming their routes, and schools are set to reopen. The former hotel at #1A National Road, Gonaives, Haiti is now the busy, bustling headquarters of HODR’s Project Gonaives.

Here’s a look at what we’ve accomplished in our first month of operation!

Labou Partout (Residential Mud Clearing)
The recent hurricanes left the city of Gonaives buried in mud. People have been living on the roofs of their homes or in informal shelters (schools, community spaces, with friends/family). The core work of Project Gonaives is, and will continue to be clearing mud from peoples’ homes, allowing families to return and take the first steps toward normalcy.

To date, our volunteer teams have removed over 100 tons of mud from 15 properties, allowing 28 families to return home. The work is difficult and slow – in many neighborhoods wheelbarrow access is limited, so homes must be emptied of mud by hand. Our bucket brigades of local and international volunteers snake through these communities, restoring hope and home one inverted bucket at a time.

Back to School
The colorful pressed shirts, hair ribbons, and shined shoes of schoolchildren have been conspicuously absent in Gonaives. Until now! Our first major rehabilitation project is at the École Emmaus Centre St. Joseph, known to us simply as “The Sisters.” For the past three weeks, we have been busy mudding out, scrubbing, and painting this school run by nuns. This week, classes resumed thanks to the efforts of HODR volunteers, community members, a CRS (Catholic Relief Services) cash-for-work program and equipment rental, and heavy machinery contributed by the UN. This is truly a partnership that works – together, we’re putting 700 children back in school.

(Sidenote – can you even recognize the school from this video, shot one and a half months ago?)

Let’s coordinate! (GPS with CRS)
Building on our early relationship with CRS, we provided GPS training sessions to their staff followed by exercises in the field. The United Nations coordination effort uses GPS data from each organization to create a comprehensive mapping of response efforts. Our training gives CRS a valuable tool for future assessments and program management, while maintaining recognition for their current programs on the UN stage.

Taking it to the Streets
As the mud piles higher and drier, residents are blitzed by dust clouds. A local radio station organized a grassroots project to clean the streets of our neighborhood, and we provided tools and a volunteer labor force to work alongside community members. After some detail work on the national highway, we moved in to side streets. HODR volunteers were also featured on a live radio broadcast to promote the cleanup and talk about our work in Gonaives.

Trick or Treat
While Halloween isn’t traditionally celebrated in Haiti, everyone loves a good scare! We hosted a Halloween party for 30 local children, complete with a haunted house. After games like Bobbing-for-Oranges (no apples here) and Ring Toss, brave groups of kids and parents set off for trick-or-treating on the haunted house tour. All tricks were thoroughly tested on Michelet, our watchman, and all treats on Norma, our cook. We’ve already heard feedback from the community – “great party, when’s the next one?”

Play Time
Ebenezer Camp sits on the outskirts of town, near a newly formed lake. The homes of the 112 families living in tents here are still flooded from the August/September storms. Each Saturday, a cheerful band of volunteers leads a “safe space play” program for the benefit of the camp’s children. With a simple supply of energy, creativity, and modest materials, our volunteers engage and entertain the kids. These activities encourage cooperation, imagination, and provide a respite from the realities of life after the hurricanes.

IOM Distribution
The families of Ebenezer Camp are faced with the challenge of creating a home from nothing; the site has no preexisting water, sanitation, or shelter. HODR requested 240 safe water storage containers from IOM (International Organization for Migration) for distribution at the camp. Our first self-managed international distribution went off without a hitch! With help from the camp managing committee, ADSEC, we identified the beneficiary families, distributed tickets, managed the crowd, registered each person as they picked up their container, and improved the lives of these families in a modest, but tangible way.

A Toolkit and a HODR Hand
Oxfam International launched a household cleanup program in the neighborhood next to ours. Last Saturday, HODR volunteers helped to mark and assemble the cleanup tool kits and distribute them to the first 50 families in the program. Our volunteers continue to consult with Oxfam field workers, supporting them with site monitoring, tool maintenance, participant motivation, and program management.

Hurricane Talks
This past Sunday, HODR volunteers were invited to the Ebenezer Camp youth group to give a talk on hurricanes. The inquisitive audience ranged in age from 15 to 65 (maybe it’s a youth-at-heart group), and asked questions about how hurricanes form, early warning systems, environmental risk factors, and mitigation strategies. We are looking to expand this program into a weekly series around Gonaives.

Community Water Pump
Our neighbors across the street have a community well that provided us with water during the first days at our base. The low volume, direct-lift pump required a bizarre technique that was a combination of stamina and rhythm that confounded almost all of the volunteers, but none of the 7 year old neighborhood girls. Although the completion of our new water system made trips to the community well purely for leisure, we wanted to thank the family and community for their kindness and generosity. We replaced broken pipes and installed a lift and push pump; now anyone can pump water easily from the well (even Marc).

Local Volunteers
We are proud to announce the participation of 17 (so far) local volunteers in Project Gonaives! We were told that we should not expect “local volunteers” in Haiti. We were told that “it is not part of their culture,” that with 70% unemployment “no one will give their time for free.” That has not been the case! Each day our local volunteers turn out to work side-by-side with our volunteers from around the world. Their presence gives us a boost of muscle and laughter on the jobsite, greater empathy in our work, and a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by their fellow Haitians.

***

On behalf of all the volunteers who have worked at Project Gonaives so far, thank you to everyone in the HODR family for your energy and support!

There is much work left to do and if you’re interested in volunteering at our project in Haiti, please email info@hodr.org. While there are plenty of spots open in our mud bucket brigade, our shuttle seats are limited so please email now! We also encourage you to make a contribution through our secure website. Your financial donation will make a direct difference in the lives of the people of Gonaives, delivered through the hands of a volunteer.

Stefanie Chang
Project Director
Hands On Disaster Response