90% of Grand Groave was destroyed in the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Not one public building survived the catastrophe. Not city hall, not the police stations, not the schools. A mudslide created a natural dam above the town. If the dam gives way during the rainy season, it has the potential to completely wash away what little was left behind.
Frandy was left behind. 21 years old and just a year shy of an engineering certificate, Frandy has lived his whole life in Grand Groave. The town is one of Haiti’s oldest settlements and lies only a few miles from the epicenter. It is little more than a tent city now.
There is hope in Grand Groave. Un Techo Para Mi Pais (A Roof for My Country) is slowly turning the tent city into a collection of temporary wooden homes prefabricated and then assembled by volunteers from around the globe. It’s not a school system or a reconstruction of the municipal administration, but it’s a start, and it’s a meaningful step in the process to recovery.
But the work may have the deepest impact on the volunteers wielding the hammers. Well meaning citizens of the world spend hundreds of dollars and travel many miles and days for the opportunity to be a part of Haiti’s reconstruction. It is a powerful symbol of our basic connections as human beings. Those that offer up their time and resources for the people of Haiti leave with a deeper understanding of their own humanity. Many return to do this type of work again and again.
Still, is this the best way to help our Haitian neighbors?
Not every resident of Grand Groave is likely to receive a house through Un Techo’s efforts. Although Frandy was trained as an engineer he was not offered a position constructing these homes. He watched while relatively wealthy outsiders did the work his neighbors would have been willing to do for just a few dollars a day. Many of the volunteers had paid the equivalent of a year’s salary in Haiti for this opportunity to help for just two days.
Haiti is a country where foreign aid and development has constituted an increasing proportion of the local economy for generations. It is now the primary industry in Haiti.
What is the effect on a culture invaded by 10,000 NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations)? Income
for the average Haitian has dropped to half of what it was fifty years ago (This American Life: Island Time). All of this existed before the massive 7.0 earthquake, a circumstance that increases the relationship of dependency between Haitians and their non-Haitian benefactors.
How many more Haitians could have a roof over their heads for the price of a plane ticket? In Grand Groave many
residents expressed gratitude at the great effort the Un Techo volunteers have gone to in order to help, but no one stepped forward to ask why all of this money was used transporting foreigners to their
country when it could have been spent building more houses.
It’s not exactly a fair question. That plane ticket only exists because of the generous efforts and intent of very well-meaning people who have gone way out of their way to help people they have never met and will probably never see again. And many of these volunteers leave with a deeper understanding of the world around them. These people have the power to go home and change the politics and policies of their countries. It is not wasted money.
But it is not the building a home for a stranger that achieves the goal of changing the world.
Frandy is the reason that change is possible. Understanding the humanity in the world will help guide our good intentions and turn them into real solutions for the people of Grand Groave.
Perhaps it is in our nature to help those who need it. Frandy volunteered at his school teaching English to younger classes. He hopes to return to school and finish his studies (and his teaching), but there is no school. He explains that English was part of the curriculum at his school. Everybody learns English. The older students teach the younger students. There is no work even for engineers in Haiti and he thinks the ability to communicate to Americans and the rest of the world may be the way to a better life.
It’s the way to tell the NGOs where to put your house.
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