Tools to Clear the Rubble
CRWRC Newsroom | July 28, 2010
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Monsieur Doriscat plans demolition |
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| Madame Beauvais celebrates shelter from the rain |
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Madame Edner's children help with |
Monsieur Doriscat lives in the village of Macombe, near Leogane, in Haiti. A hard-working driver and a stone mason, he lived in one of the largest houses in the village.
“When the earthquake happened, I had gone to get my child from school. I brought him to my mother’s house and went out again. When I was on the street the earthquake happened. I was in my truck… it started to move, forwards and backwards. As I was trying to get back to my house, I found the road blocked. I stopped, got out, and stood in a nearby field. When the earth stopped shaking, I got back in my truck and went to my house. When I came, I stood in the field behind the house and looked; everything had fallen. Thankfully, God made it so that there were no people in the house when it fell.
“The house, when it was standing straight, is big. Very big. There were bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, balconies, bathrooms. But everything was destroyed. After the house collapsed, we stayed in Brache, near the river. All my family, we are all there together in a tent.
“CRWRC gave me tools to knock down the house myself and I have started to do it. I can’t say yet how long it will take to finish, to get rid of all the rubble.”
CRWRC’s earthquake response in Haiti, focused primarily on five communities in the Leogane area, began with an emergency phase response of food, funds, and tarps. Homes were assessed for damage, and in order to clear the way for transitional shelters to be erected, toolkits were shared among 1400 households. According to Toni Fernhout, International Relief Manager for CRWRC, “when we go into a community like Masson or Macombe, we don’t say we’ll only deal with a certain sector, that we’ll only interview certain [poor] people who have been affected. Instead we survey every single house, even the man with the very big house that totally collapsed in the earthquake. He was so grateful that we included him in the survey. I gave the example once of raining, like when it rains, God sends the rain on all people… we can show God’s love raining down on entire villages and work to help them all.” The kind of aid that is given, however, is dependent on the type of need and resources of the household.
1200 transitional shelters will be built in total; 103 have been built so far. Madame Edner Dekaye in Masson, together with her mother Madame Beauvais, celebrated the completion of their transitional shelter just as the skies opened up and drummed down rain in a tropical storm. Both of their homes were destroyed by the quake and they lived with their families in a tarp tent in the field across the road. Two months after the quake Madame Edner was admitted to hospital for abdominal surgery. She was away for 22 days. While she was away her children (who are grown) built a rough shelter for her to sleep in so that she wouldn’t have to return to the tarp tent. “The house [itself], when I came, was still rubble,” said Madame Edner. “I didn’t have enough money to break it down. All the children worked together, they knocked it down, they put on masks, they took shovels, they did everything for me. Girls and boys, they did everything for me. After the space was prepared, CRWRC came and built a transitional shelter.”
In addition to providing transitional shelters, CRWRC expects to repair 1200 homes, and build 500 new permanent homes. Income generation and livelihood projects are being planned to help create jobs, improve agriculture yields, and rebuild the economy.
As part of Sous Espwa (Source of Hope), the partnership entity of CRWRC, Christian Reformed World Missions, and Back to God Ministries International in Haiti, psychosocial support is being provided to school children, as well as counseling in IDP camps and support to Haitian churches and organizations.
Please continue to support CRWRC staff, partners, volunteers, and the country of Haiti with your prayers.
For more on CRWRC's Haiti earthquake response, including a 6 Month Video Update, click here.
Checks, marked "Haiti Earthquake 2010" can also be sent to:
CRWRC-US
2850 Kalamazoo Ave SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49560
Ph: 1-800-55-CRWRC
CRWRC-Canada
3475 Mainway|
P.O. Box 5070 STN LCD 1
Burlington, Ontario, L7R 3Y8
Ph: 1-800-730-3490
~ story & photos by Christina de Jong, CRWRC Communications