Hands On Disaster Response is now All Hands Volunteers

On 28 March 2009 HODR’s five-and-a-half-month project in Gonaives, Haiti drew to a close. Over the course of this project we expanded our technical skills, built new partnerships, and continued to shape the direction and spirit of this organization. Project Gonaives drew 151 volunteers from 14 nations to join hands and dig in. These volunteers contributed 32142 hours of work and directly benefited 5490 families. We estimate that we indirectly served 15000 families through our partnerships and the technology that we developed and transferred to other organizations. Here is a summary of our last month of work.

Mud Buddies
HODR was the only organized group that worked alongside individuals to clean out their homes. Without any machines, we moved more mud than anyone would have thought humanly possible. A simple task, humble work, but absolutely necessary. We helped people take a first step towards restarting their lives. We even created a mud taxonomy and whether it was marpet, slud, memud, meese, or highly desirable clud, it all ended up out on the street one bucket or one wheel barrow at a time. During our last month, local volunteers led almost all of the work crews, with almost everyone taking a turn at least once. In total, HODR volunteers completed 110 sites, allowing 310 families to return home.

CRS CFW (Catholic Relief Services Cash-for-Work)
Following a successful month-long cash-for-work program collaboration in February, CRS invited us to continue our work on a second program in March. Our team of field coordinators (HODR local alumni volunteers hired by CRS) and David E. assessed, hired, and managed 220 local residents in a cleanup program that re-established road access and drainage canals in the neighborhood of Assifa. This program, benefiting 440 families in total, also capped off months of successful collaboration between CRS and HODR, starting with our assessment back in September 2008. We are proud of our partnership with CRS and the work we did together to help the people of Gonaives.

International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) Latrine Slabs
This project was a HODR partnership with the IFRC to install 300 latrines in the village of Badjo, a rural community whose sanitation facilities were damaged in the hurricanes and subsequent flooding. HODR volunteers and local residents, lead by Aaron S., poured 330 latrine slabs over two weeks as the first step of a multi-phase project. We also prototyped and made design recommendations for the wood and tin privacy cabin, which sits on top of the slab to complete the latrine. As part of this program, we trained local workers to produce the slabs on their own. The challenges of operating in this rural community was offset by the warm people, beautiful scenery, and tasty food prepared by a local resident.

Well Masonry
In March we continued to implement the contamination-mitigating well masonry that we prototyped with UNICEF. In addition to 40 masonry installations for Oxfam Great Britain and 20 for Action Again Hunger, we closed out this program by installing on 21 wells for the families of our local volunteers. It was with great pride that volunteers worked on the wells of their peers. The skills gained over months of work were on display in our final weeks, as almost all volunteers worked on or led a well crew during this time.

Out with a Bang
In HODR tradition, we closed our project with a party to say thank you and goodbye to our friends. Our local volunteers and staff and their friends and family joined us to reflect on our collective work as well as the friendship and community that grew around us. We had amazing musical performances by creative HODR volunteers – who will ever forget Djemson’s karaoke? Neil, Keely, and Charise also performed a medley in tribute to all of our local volunteers. Kirsty put together a HODR photo slideshow, which was a bit hit. There were clearly two stars up on the screen – the volunteers, and the mud. We capped off the evening with a feast prepared by Norma and dancing to live music.

Giving it Away
The other half of HODR closedown tradition is to give the tools and materials that we’ve accrued to the community that has hosted us and taken care of us. We held a raffle in 3 stages, one each for local volunteers, staff, and then the general community. The grand prize of the raffle was the HODR generator that was won by long-term local volunteer Gilbert. Always fun is the actual give-away day, when the recipients come to our base to carry away their winnings. We saw fans carried away on the knees of motorbike drivers, beds carried away atop heads (the generator left in a wheelbarrow), and smiles, smiles, smiles.

HODR? No… IFRC
Although HODR no longer inhabits the former Hotel Sterling, we are happy to report our base continues to nurture and facilitate productive work. In recognition of the challenges of finding and establishing a base of operation, the IFRC decided to take over our facility upon our exit. We negotiated an agreement and turned over our base to the IFRC, equipping them with basic work tools and household infrastructure to continue their work in the area. IFRC plans to work through August 2009 on shelter and distribution programs, continuing the long and gradual process of recovery.

*****

Project Gonaives was the most collaborative effort to date for the international operations of HODR. It is in part because of these relationships that we (and they) were able to help so many survivors of the 2008 hurricane season. We are thankful for our partnerships with the wonderful people of CRS, UNICEF, Oxfam Intermon, Oxfam Great Britain, IFRC, UN OCHA, OIM, and Action Against Hunger.

We would also like to thank our staff for their steady support throughout our project. Thanks to Jacob for his unflappable guidance and impeccable translation. Thank you Norma, Anata, Oranitte for keeping our bellies full with the best of Haitian cuisine and taking care of us at the base. Thanks to Michelet and Cadem for their watchful presence in our yard. Thanks to Raoul, Noel, Gerard, and Sylvain for keeping our teams moving around town. Finally, thanks to Gedeon for shuttling our volunteers to and from Gonaives.

We owe tremendous thanks to all of our volunteers. An early turning point of Project Gonaives was when a young man, a local resident by the name of Luckner, asked if he could help. He was the first of what would grow to a 30-person local volunteer program, contributing 7112 hours of volunteer service. In the past we actively engaged the beneficiary community to participate in our programs. We have had hundreds of community members do everything from cut down trees to help us build schools, but this time was different. This group of local volunteers worked with us every day, all over the city on all of our projects. Their strength helped us move mountains of mud, their cultural knowledge helped us navigate complex societal norms, and their language skills helped us daily on the worksites. Finally their passion, desire, and drive won our hearts. It was through their efforts that we came to understand and love Haiti. Mesi ampil! We were also joined by 120 foreign volunteers from 14 different countries. It is the energy, creativity, and willingness to help of all our volunteers that moved this project from its beginning to its ultimate success. It is because of you that we exist, it is because of you that people receive help, and it is because of you that we will continue our work.

I’d also like to give a special thanks to John Hancock, Project Gonaives project coordinator who worked with me from assessment to closedown. John’s valuable insight and experience were critical in establishing partnerships, shaping the local volunteer program, and ultimately in ensuring the success of Project Gonaives.

In five and a half months, we shoveled mud , cleaned a school, played games with children, managed distributions, assessed homes, wells, and families, trained NGO staff on GPS, built latrines, and installed well masonry and much, much more. We worked, laughed, ate, hurt, shared, grew, loved, sweated, and when it was over, I cried. Thank you to all of our volunteers, donors, and HODR family for your support throughout Project Gonaives.

Until we meet again,
Stefanie Chang
Project Director
Project Gonaives – Haiti