Offering homes and hope

Glenn Merritt almost missed his flight out of Haiti a few weeks ago as protesters blocked the road, upset with the disabled government and the limitations of relief agencies. It's been over three months since the quake and still millions of survivors are left without a semblance of normalcy-no homes, no jobs, no schools.

For Merritt, the director of disaster response for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) World Relief and Human Care, this was his fifth time back in Haiti since the quake, and he has seen firsthand how the lack of coordination amongst the aid organizations and the inactivity of the government have affected the Haitians' outlook on the future.

"Over the past three months I've seen the resilience of the people turn to despair," he said. "Before they thought, 'We can do this,' but now they're thinking, 'Is this even going to be possible?'"

The LCMS has been in Haiti since the quake, providing for the immediate needs of the survivors: food, water, medical supplies and temporary shelter. They realize, however, that they were not doing enough to help with the sense of hopelessness in the people. After speaking with the Rev. Marky Kessa, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti, the organization leaders realized that the best way to help rebuild the survivors' lives was to build permanent houses.

So with the help of the local church, the LCMS initiated its "Building Homes and Hope in Haiti" project by acquiring enough land to build three villages. Because of the confusion within the Haitian government, the group was unable to receive land grants, so the LCMS instead bought the land from its previous owners. The organization plans on building 300 houses, an orphanage, a school, a chapel, and a medical clinic in each of these villages.

In early April, a group of volunteers from Ohio and Missouri went to Haiti to build three model homes-one with a single room, a one-bedroom and a two-bedroom-to give the people in Haiti a chance to see what the houses will look like and to encourage donors at home to support the project.

The building process, which began this week, will take a three-pronged approach. First, local professional contractors will be hired to plan and direct the building, which will also help create jobs for local Haitians. Then there will be a call for volunteers from within the community. Finally, volunteers from the United States will be brought in to help build.

"The local people are really involved in their country and their lives," Merritt said. "They don't want mercy organizations coming in and taking over everything, they want a say in what happens, and are more than willing to volunteer and assist."

Each house takes six days to construct and cost between $4,000 and $8,000 for materials and manpower. The quake survivors will be able to apply for the houses, which will be assigned based on need and the ability to own a home. Once selected, each new homeowner will be able to buy the house through a low-interest loan program after undergoing training on how to become a homeowner.

Since the government has yet to put together new building regulations, the LCMS also is offering training for architects and engineers to build houses and buildings that will be able to withstand earthquakes. Merritt hopes that this program will help create houses that are less likely to collapse in the event of another catastrophe.

As a former missionary to Sierra Leone, Merritt describes working in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, as reminiscent of working in one of the poorest countries on the African continent.

"It makes me more reticent to the fact that we are so blessed. . . . We fall into apathy here in the U.S. and don't pay attention to neighbors nearby who live in such poverty. It also comes with a realization that there's a lot more we could be doing and it shouldn't take a disaster to realize that."

Update: At the time this article was published, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) assumed it would be purchasing property, but because the LCMS lacked non-governmental organization status, Haitian laws prevented the group from purchasing any property directly. The LCMS provided grants to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti and the Lutheran Church of Haiti to purchase the property used for rebuilding.

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