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HAITI: Local Volunteer Spotlight: Shooby

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Shooby instructing local teachers as part of HODR's Disaster Risk Reduction program

Shooby Leroy Jean-Pierre is a HODR local volunteer. As a translator, educator, and general go-to guy, Shooby serves as a crucial liaison between the international volunteer team and the local community. He also represents another bridge between cultures: he lived in Miami for most of his life, returning to Haiti to a few years ago to take care of his family in Leogane. Here, he reflects on his experience with HODR and his life before and after the January 12 earthquake.

HODR: It’s pretty rare to see Haitians like you getting involved in volunteer organizations like this one. What attracted you to HODR?

Shooby: One of the things that I always kept in mind when I was growing up was not to have a closed perception or impression about life, or the way that you’re leading your own life. So I always try to keep an open mind about everything, just for me to be able to interact in different positions and with different people. So it’s another experience my life is going through, basically.

HODR Local Volunteer Shooby

HODR Local Volunteer Shooby

Tell us how you came back to Haiti.

When I was one I left Haiti. My auntie, she got me out of Haiti, and I grew up in the United States in Miami. I graduated high school in 2002 and my mom died in 2005, so I had to come back because I wanted to participate in her funeral, so I came back…. By me coming back, I eventually stayed, that’s about it…. My mother was taking care of my brother and one of my cousins, so when she died, I basically replaced her in some ways.

Do you feel like you’re more American or more Haitian?

Because of my personal background, I feel that I’m just me, going through life. Because this is not the first incident [of] someone to leave their home country and growing up somewhere else and coming back to their home country but with a different mind-state and a different mentality and a different view on life, so I’m still the same person if I grew up anywhere in the world. My view on life and the way that I try to make certain decisions, that comes from the way that I grew up, and the way that I just have my own personal view on life.

What have you found most rewarding about your work with HODR?

The most rewarding thing is that HODR is here. And that’s something that a lot of people are grateful for, because of so many different reasons. One of those reasons are: until HODR came to Haiti, where we were at in Leogane, we were just struggling. I was trying to find a job. A lot of my friends were trying to find a job, and we were basically unsuccessful in doing that because of the different criteria, different positions and just being able to get a job was kinda rough. So we was going through that for a while until we just touched down with HODR, just seeing how it is. Realizing that it’s a nonprofit organization, and just understanding why HODR is the way that it is, what benefits that it has, how can it help us in the future, how can it help us in the present time, how can they help us sort out any short-term or even long-term goals that we may have. HODR is basically what you’re hearing. It’s hands on. They’re giving us a hand, in any way that they can, to create possibilities for us in the future to have a better life.

What’s next for you?

Personally, I want to get into the fire academy in Canada, or I want to get a student grant anywhere so I could go back to school, and just see what’s out there. I want to keep my options open, to see what would be the best thing for me right now. And just to work on that to see if I’ll be able to achieve some of those goals that I have.

Do you think HODR has helped you find some of those opportunities to do things that are more international?

Yeah, I have a very good friend, TC, he always backs me up… He always try to give me a lot of confidence, try to give me a lot of push, try to sort things out between my situation and the way that that can work out so I can do better further down the line. So HODR actually creates a lot of advantages and gives you a lot of options, and you just have to be willing to go for it and try to make everything work out so you can be successful.

What do you hope to bring back to your community in Haiti? Do you see yourself coming back to Haiti someday?

It’s been an open option for a long time. I never thought about it. I see that Haiti is a lot of people enjoy, a lot of people would like to see it. Even though it may not come to something that they thought about in the past or even in the present time but for me personally, I would like to come back. And just be able to see what’s new, what’s changed, if there’s a particular position or something that needs an extra hand… I’m always willing to work with people to see what can I do, how can I participate, how can I put my hand in the pot, too? So what’s working can go on and, you know, get done.

How does HODR fit into your future and Haiti’s future?

Once we [the volunteers and staff] get together and sit down and we talk about the different situations that we’ve been going through and the problems that we have, HODR is here to give us a comfort, give us a safety blanket. And the Haitians need that, because Haiti is not done developing. There’s so much to be done in Haiti. The Haitians have so much to do, and HODR is one of the special kinds of organizations that gets personal with you, one on one… They find out what you can do, what you want to do… how you want to make certain things happen in your life. And they can either lead you in the right direction or they can prepare you for it. And it’s something that you don’t find every day in Haiti. So that’s why for me, it’s been real far out.

Are you hopeful for Haiti?

I’m very hopeful for Haiti, and I know that the population that’s in Haiti, too, they’re on hope and on like basically a new life, so a lot of people want a lot of things to change. A lot of people would like so many different options to open up for the people in Haiti. And we’ll just be waiting to see how that goes about.

Michelle Chen is a HODR alumni based in New York. This interview was conducted on-location in Leogane, Haiti.

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Bringing Composting Toilets to Haiti

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

LEOGANE, HAITI – Last week volunteers threw a slightly unusual party, to celebrate the grand opening of ‘The Gladiator’: Hands On Disaster Response’s (HODR’s) first composting toilet! A team of HODR volunteers designed and constructed two sustainable dry toilets with the goal of tackling poor sanitation education and provisions in schools and communities around Leogane.

As the team continues to dig out the city of Leogane, HODR has turned attention to a crucial problem in the city: a widespread lack of proper sanitation. With no municipal wastewater service and open defecation a common practice, HODR has the spent the past couple of months researching and evaluating sustainable sanitation solutions.

With valuable input from Sustainable Organic Integrated Living (SOIL, www.oursoil.org), an NGO working on sanitation in Port-au-Prince and through on the ground research, HODR’s Project Leogane team is moving forward with a dry sanitation toilet design. More commonly referred to as “composting toilets”, the dry toilet system converts waste into reusable resources, such as fertilizer, while preventing the spread of fecal-borne diseases through water contamination.

Critical to HODR’s efforts will be the education component for proper sanitation and hygiene practices.  This knowledge will be passed from our international and local volunteers into the community of Leogane along with every toilet installed.  The toilets can be easily managed by communities and school groups, so the benefits of HODR’s work can continue after Project Leogane closes.

The next two toilet units (each unit has 2 toilets and 1 urinal) are being constructed for the use of other NGO’s local employees who work daily in the HODR Joint Logistics Base. Each unit is made with materials that can be reused elsewhere once there is no longer a need for the toilet.

Despite the challenges of discussing one of the most culturally taboo issues in Haiti, both HODR’s local volunteers and  their neighbors have been very engaged in the program. HODR has high hopes that this program will continue to be embraced by other communities.

If you would like to support the composting toilet project and help HODR provide sustainable sanitation in schools in Leogane, please donate.

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HAITI: Transitional School Program

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

After 1,261 schools were destroyed and 2,530 were badly damaged in the 12 January 2010 earthquake, schools in Leogane were unable to operate for three months, depriving children not only of the opportunity for education but also of a sense of normalcy and structured routine. Over the past few months NGOs have worked together to supply tents and tarps for emergency classrooms, but the need still far exceeds current materials and plans.

Recognizing the importance of getting children back in class, HODR designed and has started building its first transitional school for the community of Leogane. The site was once home to a school for 75 students and doubled as a church on Sundays. It completely collapsed during the earthquake and HODR sent a team in last month to clear the rubble. Construction started three weeks ago at our base with a team of volunteers prefabricating all of the walls, windows and trusses for the school while members of the community prepared the foundation. With a three-classroom school ready to be erected, the Sri Lankan MINUSTAH peacekeeping force helped to transport the prefabricated materials to the site.

The school design draws on the transitional shelter design implemented by HODR in Sumatra, Indonesia earlier this year. The classrooms are framed with pressure-treated wood, clad in metal mesh, and plastered to create a finished masonry look without the risk of collapse of block masonry construction in a future earthquake. We have added hurricane roof strapping, donated by volunteer engineers, to further protect the building against the oncoming hurricane season.

Within a week of starting work on the school site, volunteers had the walls and trusses fully installed. One team installed the corrugated metal roofing sheets while a ground crew worked on getting the walls ready for the plastering team. As all this was going on, a crew back at base built classroom furniture. We are now into the 4th week of work on our first school and estimate its completion in next few days. We imagine that before the school is ready to be painted (in about two weeks), classes will be in full swing!

As the pilot school draws to a close our carpentry team is already preparing for the second build. This school will be run as a community build/satellite project, with HODR volunteers overseeing the work while sharing building and carpentry skills with people in the community whose children attend the school. During the four weeks of building volunteers will be staying at the school and living amongst the families there, offering both
the community and the volunteers the opportunity to live, work, and learn together.

To support our transitional school program and be part of the next build please click here.

Sinead Clear
Project Coordinator
Project Leogane

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HAITI: Project Director’s Update – 12 May 2010

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Today marks the 4-month anniversary of the Haiti earthquake that permanently changed the lives of so many on 12 January, 2010. Life quietly, proudly, adamantly goes on. Here at Project Leogane we are surrounded by the pulse of progress amidst the ruins – there is heavy equipment on the roads, construction at schools, and bustle in the markets. There may seem to be rubble mountains beyond rubble mountains, but together the tenacious people of Leogane and our volunteers embody incredible heart, resilience, generosity, and solidarity. For that, may we all be profoundly touched and changed.

Extension!
Project Leogane has achieved remarkable progress in our first 12 weeks of operation. Due to the incredible scale of the needs and what we feel we are still capable to help with, Project Leogane will now run until 15 January 2011! While we expect our programs to gradually transition from early recovery and cleanup to rehabilitation and sustainable development, we will remain committed to our dual goals of benefiting the local community while providing worthwhile, enriching volunteer experiences.

If you’re interested in volunteering , please click over to our Project Leogane Volunteer Information page. The project is full through August but we anticipate some openings in May and June due to rescheduling; we expect to be able to accommodate 60 volunteers at a time on our base through January.

Rubble
Our crews have earned a reputation around town as being an incredibly hard-working, productive force! We’ve cleared 75 homes and 3 schools so far, and have begun doing technical demolition of structures that are dangerously damaged and on the verge of collapse. Often these homes are built in areas too tight for machines to maneuver, so manual work is the only way to get this done. We’ve especially been targeting “vulnerable” families – households with single-parents, female-headed households, expectant mothers, elderly, very young children, etc.

Also, thanks to a very generous donation, we now have 2 Bobcats sitting in our yard! Now we’ll be able to take our demolition and rubble clean-up work to the next level!

School Build
Getting children back in school is one of the most effective ways to re-establish routine and normalcy to the lives of youth affected by the earthquake. Two weeks ago, HODR started work on our first transitional school build. The design features a wood frame clad in metal mesh that is plastered to create a finished, masonry look without the collapse risk of block masonry construction. The structures feature earthquake-resistant bracing and hurricane strapping. They’re designed and prefabricated in a way that allows for easy installation, thus ensuring the quality of production and maximizing the opportunity for community participation in the building process. If this all sounds familiar, that’s because this is the same earthquake-resistant design that we used to build homes in West Sumatra, Indonesia earlier this year!

Local Volunteer Program
Our Local Volunteer Program in Leogane has officially launched! Community participation is a hallmark of HODR programs around the world. Initially community members started informally helping on our jobsites, and they’ve naturally transitioned into our more structured program. Three weeks in, an average of about 15 young men and women per day actively participate in the cleanup and rebuilding of their own homes, schools, and community spaces alongside our brigade of volunteers from around the world. This program is a unique opportunity for cultural exchange and professional development on all sides!

ShelterBox
ShelterBox is a Rotary project, providing families with a kit that includes all of the non-food material items that they need to survive the immediate months after a natural disaster. Due to the incredible scale and impact of this event, they’ve returned to Leogane to continue distribution and determine how they can continue to support the community in the months to come. Following a quick training on ShelterBox tent assembly, HODR volunteers registered beneficiary families, ran a tent assembly training, and distributed tents to 190 tents in the rural community of Merger.

Joint Logistics Base
Ground preparation has finally begun on our Joint Logistics Base, the multi-agency warehouse and workshop space hosted in our rear field. Working directly with a number of partner NGOs included CHF International and Canadian Red Cross, we’ll build up the space into a hub of transitional shelter prefabrication and assembly in Leogane.

Plaza Playtime
Dancing, laughing, singing, playing with children – there’s no better way to spend a day! Volunteers continue to run weekly activities for local children, adding Tuesdays and Thursdays at a local orphanage to our Saturday community program. We’ve also expanded our games and activities selected by the children to include art therapy in the program. Whether it’s using crayons, construction paper, markers, leaves, or twigs, the children have demonstrated beautiful creativity, hopes, fears, and dreams through their artwork.

Structural Evaluations
Specialized volunteers play a special role on this project, bringing their structural engineering and architecture expertise to the community through HODR. We continue to complete ATC-20 evaluations for public buildings and private residences (800 in the last week alone!), as well as talk with homeowners about repairs, identifying safe evacuation routes, and how to build back better. These evaluations clarify the true state of damaged structures and offer psychological closure to families grappling with whether to continue living in fear of a home or demolish it. All of our evaluations will be included in the national database of structural evaluations being developed by the United Nations.

ShelterQuest
ShelterQuest! We’ve finally settled on a name for the trio of New York entrepreneurs who brought their simple, cost-effective temporary shelter idea to Leogane and who have now sheltered thousands. Using lightweight PVC piping and heat-shrink boat plastic wrap, ShelterQuest creates family-sized tents for those still living in camps. Every day, volunteers help to unload materials, prefabricate tent parts, and troubleshoot aspects of the design. To date, we’ve prefabricated 1000 tents, installed 200 in camps, and have produced 80 larger units for use as classrooms.

Water System Mapping
Natural disasters often underscore the underdeveloped and poorly maintained infrastructure of vulnerable communities. Leogane is currently receiving potable water from trucks which fill large “bladders” around town – the municipal system has not been operating for years. With the goal of re-establishing long-term, sustainable water service to the town, HODR has partnered with the WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) Cluster and the municipal water authority to map the water system. Teams traced the reservoirs, pipes, and valves in the field, marking them with GPS to create a map that will help to plan current repairs and also document the system for posterity.

Field Hospital
We continue to supply volunteer “runners” who help with the logistics of day-to-day operations at our local field hospital. From finding supplies, transporting patients, and building shelves to fixing cots, repairing electrical equipment, and inventorying medications, HODR volunteers are filling the gaps and supporting the hospital in providing the highest quality of care to the residents of Leogane.

And the work goes on…
Every day, HODR volunteers find new ways to plug in and support the recovery work in Leogane, as well as to develop our base and volunteer community. Earthquake safety training continues, with over teachers trained to date in how to prepare and respond to earthquakes in the classroom and at home. Following our landlord’s announcement that he was closing the camp in our front yard, we organized and managed a distribution of shelter materials to those 70 families. We’ve prototyped furniture for school classrooms, started a composting system to handle our organic waste, helped UN OCHA to map NGO activities and divide Leogane into zones of activity, and have started working in the mayor’s office to support their operations and information management.

The Volunteers
To date 365 volunteers have joined Project Leogane from 17 different countries. Hundreds more are in the pipeline, and we’re eager to put their skills, talents, creativity, and energy to use here at Project Leogane.

Visitors and Guests
The HODR base is a lively meeting point for the NGO community in Leogane! In addition to Tuesday Night (Salsa Night) at Joe’s Bar, we’ve also hosted NGO staff from ShelterBox, stART International, CHF, and GOAL. HODR board members Pete Kirkwood and Mike McQueeney have volunteered with their families, and we were even joined by the Haiti Lonely Planet author for a week of service. Check out his experience here!

***

HODR is also active around the world, raising awareness and sustaining the relationships from our international programs. Congratulations to all of our volunteers and donors for the successful conclusion of our 6-month earthquake response program in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Thank you to everyone who attended our Haiti awareness event in London in April! We have a number of upcoming events in the US as well:

If you have other events planned, please let us know so we can spread the word!

We’re three months in to our work, but it feels like we’ve just scratched the surface of what we can achieve with the community of Leogane. Thank you to all of our volunteers, donors, and followers for your hard work, love, and support.

Stefanie Chang
Project Director
Project Leogane
Hands On Disaster Response

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HAITI: Project Leogane 30 Day Report

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

It’s been 30 days of Project Leogane, and we’re off to a running start! Check out this brief video recapping our first month of programs, as well as our Haiti photo collection on flickr.

Here’s a quick look at what we’ve been working on and how we’ve ramped up.

Rubble
In one month, we’ve cleared over 30 slabs! Land is extremely limited in the urban/semi-urban areas most affected by the earthquake, so each home that we clear is a chance at a fresh beginning, a jumpstart to the rebuilding process. Our volunteers have thrown themselves into the work, sledge hammering concrete roofs and columns, hack sawing twisted rebar, and pushing loaded wheelbarrows. Also emerging from the rubble are the stories of each family who lived there; they’ve worked alongside us to clean up, salvage what they can, and begin rebuilding.

Special thanks to the kids of Leogane who work cheerfully and energetically with our teams each day! Their attention to safety is rewarded with a wheelbarrow ride through the neighborhood. The Canadian army has also been a tremendous asset to the city of Leogane with their heavy equipment and can-do attitude. Once HODR teams fill the streets with rubble, they arrive to truck the debris away.

Wilner’s House
At one potential rubble site we noticed that the homeowner, Mr. Wilner, had a sizeable quantity of salvageable materials that could be converted into a self-built temporary shelter. Some kind of built shelter is preferable to a tent because it can be designed to have a larger floor area, higher clearance (you can stand up inside it), it can be partitioned for privacy, and it can be expanded and modified as needed. Mr. Wilner asked if we could work with him to demolish, salvage, and then rebuild. Four days later, he and his family moved in to their new shelter. The wood frame/corrugated iron roof and wall structure will keep them dry and means that they no longer need to live in a camp.

Infrastructure
One of our biggest programs has been building our own infrastructure so we can house the hundreds of volunteers scheduled to come lend a hand. We started with an enclosed basketball court/defunct nightclub and have spent the last four weeks wiring electricity, installing plumbing, outfitting a kitchen, building shelves, bunk beds, showers, and connecting the internet. Our setup is still a rustic work in progress, but it allows us to get our work done each day and enjoy a (cold bucket) shower each night! The intensive (and ongoing) infrastructure process has also allowed us to hone our skills and support other organizations with their infrastructure needs.

Hopital St. Croix Field Hospital
Next door to our base is a field hospital which will transition into the permanent medical facility for Leogane, the Hopital St. Croix. Teams of Haitian and international doctors are working together to provide a full range of clinical and hospital services at no charge to the community. HODR is supporting the hospital with both infrastructure build-out and operations/administration.

We started with a fencing project around the perimeter of the hospital; now we’ve expanded and are framing and building triage and clinic buildings. On the admin/operations front, we have a crew organizing the extensive supply/pharmacy inventory at the hospital and developing an inventory system that can be transferred to the local staff. Volunteers are also slotting in as “runners,” helping the doctors to move patients, run tests, take vitals, get supplies, and whatever else is needed to keep the hospital moving.

Ayuda Haiti Field Hospital
Another clinic/hospital in town is the Ayuda Haiti facility, which hosts a variety of medical groups. We’re working with their logistics people to build showers, hand washing stations, shelves, and more. Helping these other organizations with their infrastructure is a way for us to share our skills and support the work that these groups are doing in the community.

JLB
The HODR base may be different than you’ve ever seen it. In addition to our building, we also have a 5 acre field as a backyard. We plan to develop the field into a joint logistics base (JLB), where we’ll provide storage, prefabrication, and staging facilities to a number of partner NGOs working in the area. These NGOs are launching significant transitional shelter programs, and our combination of volunteers and space will allow us to help them in their efforts to help our neighbors here in Leogane.

To begin with, a team of Canadian Army engineers and heavy equipment operators spent 5 days building a gravel road and platform for us. Then the World Food Program (WFP) donated 2 Wiikhalls (30’x100’ tents) and a team of their engineers erected both tents in about 1 ½ days! Next is a perimeter security fence and then we hope to have multiple NGOs sharing space with us.

Team Tarp
HODR volunteers are great at exceeding expectations to the point of ridiculousness. Oxfam America contacted us because they’re cutting rolls of UV-resistant tarp into large pieces for distribution to families in camps. However, after a couple weeks of work, they weren’t processing the tarp fast enough. In 3 days, our team cranked through 120 rolls, cutting and packaging 1200 tarps and ropes for distribution. This morning, a truck picked them up, and they’re on their way into communities that need them.

Plaza Playtime
Another HODR tradition is to facilitate “safe space” play for children in the local community. Each weekend, volunteers put down their shovels and pick up soccer balls, jump ropes, and markers, for an exuberant afternoon of laughter and play. We’ve taken this program to various camps in our area, and children of all ages (adults too!) join in the games.

Hosting
With the lack of accommodation options in Leogane, we’ve been able to host multiple groups of architects and structural engineers who came as volunteers to inspect the buildings in our community.  We had special guests from the Mentor Initiative pass through our base as they strive to control mosquito born diseases in our area. Last weekend we had a team from Acupuncturists without Borders provide a group therapy session. The stress reduction treatment was needed and appreciated by the volunteers and some of the community members alike.

Thanks to our volunteers, donors, and followers for your tremendous support through this event. The momentum from those initial 3000 volunteer inquiries continues and powers us as we work, live, and learn with our neighbors in Leogane.

I’d also like to thank a few key volunteers who helped International Operations Director Marc Young, Project Director Jeremey Horan, and myself to set up and launch this program. Sinead Clear, Chris Turner, Lenka Blanarova, Gilbert Fortil, and Richardson Pierre all arrived during our setup period and have worked tirelessly to get HODR Project Leogane operational. Because of their help and that of the first wave of volunteers we are up and running!

Stefanie Chang
Project Director
Project Leogane
Hands On Disaster Response

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INDONESIA: Project Sungai Geringging Update – Week 18

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

The numbers
We’ve just passed our 100th day in the field! In that time we’ve completed deconstruction work on 95 homes and 4 school buildings – that’s almost one structure made safe for every day of project! We’ve also framed 7 transitional shelters (t-shelters), delivered Earthquake Safety workshops in 15 schools, installed 6 latrines and 10 water catchment systems, and put in over 25,000 volunteer hours!

T (shelter and transfer)
The t-shelter program has been providing transitional homes now for 6 weeks. Thanks to the hard work of volunteers Sinead and Aaron, prefabrication is completed at the HODR base and the wooden frames are going up seamlessly. An integral part of the t-shelter program is sharing the simple construction techniques with our beneficiaries while on site. To help strengthen this transfer of knowledge CARE has welcomed our beneficiaries to attend a community workshop they are hosting, in which safe permanent building techniques are demonstrated. The first workshop was held at the start of February in one of the few undamaged mosques in town, and everyone was eager to get involved in the “hands-on” session.

Rendering
We have 2 t-shelter rendering crews led by Michelle and Suzi doing some high quality work. The teams come in after the wooden frame is up to coat the mesh covered walls inside and out, resulting in a finished masonry look for the shelters. It took a few tries to find the perfect technique, but thanks to local volunteer and mason Arman, the rendering teams are making great time and are never far behind the framing team.

Ice Cream Fun
Painting crews are now putting the final colorful touches on the completed t-shelters. Most of the homeowners have chosen ice cream pink. Keep an eye on Flickr for updated photos of all the t-shelter work and especially the fun, new finished result.

Also, it’s great to see that less than three weeks after completion of her shelter, Zanibar and her husband Pa’i have built significant additions to their new home. Read the ReliefWeb report by TC to see what steps the family has already taken towards recovery using their HODR transitional shelter.

Decon 100
It is now five months after the 30 September 2009 earthquake and many families have worked hard to rebuild. It’s amazing to see that some of those we helped early in the project have already used the materials we salvaged during deconstruction to rebuild, with simple shelters and even new foundations popping up all around town.

So far we’ve worked on 95 homes and with six weeks remaining we’re pushing hard to top one hundred. Deconstruction jobs are led by Clare and Sean, the transatlantic super-duo that left the project and then returned to continue their work. Their skills along with their team members continue to impress our neighbors – there’s usually a curious crowd gathered for the final moment, where we safely pull the structure down by hand! Click here to see the decon team in action!

Earthquake Safety Training (+ first aid)
In January volunteers Neil and Laura started a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) program, training school groups on earthquake safety and evacuation. The program was inspired by observations of children’s behavior during a tremor and has helped increase the awareness of proper safety procedures on the part of both teachers and students. Within days of leaving Project Sungai Geringging, Neil joined HODR in Haiti and has joined a team working on the same program for schools located near Project Leogone.

Volunteer Dhaniella, also inspired by observations while out in the community, put together a basic first aid training session aimed at teachers. We’ve combined the two trainings and the new ‘extended’ program is being delivered to schools throughout the area. It’s a great way to engage and inform both students and teachers, and is easy for local school staff to repeat throughout the year!

Village Photo Project
One of the legacy programs that HODR frequently engages in is the Village Photo Project. Most families in our community don’t have access to cameras or the means to print pictures, so we are compiling a collection of images to hand out. After four months of work and play, HODR volunteers have accumulated an impressive collection of beautiful photos. Sharing these images is immensely rewarding during this time of rebuilding and new beginnings.

Upcoming
Families continue to feed us overwhelming amounts of fried snacks, ice tea, local noodle dishes and adoring smiles. In the coming weeks we will continue to welcome volunteers to help us build more transitional shelters and continue safe deconstruction of earthquake-condemned homes. While new volunteers arrive daily, we must also say goodbye to some who are making their way to join HODR in Haiti. As our volunteers carry their immense energy, dedication, and skills to the other side of the world to help the people of Haiti I wish them, all the others who join their efforts, and the people of Leogane the best of luck.

Come volunteer with us and see what all this is all about!

-Henri Fawcett
Project Coordinator
Project Sungai Geringging

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HAITI: Notes from the Field 2/23/10

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

An update from David Campbell, HODR Executive Director:

Haiti PhotosFriends,

I have just finished my second trip to Haiti since the Jan. 12th earthquake, and am moved by both the breadth of the devastation and the enormity of the response effort. The challenge of providing an appropriate human response, in a poor island nation with weak infrastructure, after an event that hit the major urban area and seat of government, has been overwhelming.

Supplies of water, food, and fuel seem stable, and the port is now receiving container shipments. The airport has reopened to the first commercial flights since Jan 12th. Schools, hospitals, homes in the hundreds of thousands, have been destroyed. The official death toll is now reported at 230,000.

But the people are moving forward. In spite of the media reports I see busy streets, people working together to cope, initial steps to rebuild lives.

We’ve opened our HODR Project Leogane, in a large abandoned concrete building that sustained minimal damage; we’ve added water, kitchen, bunk beds, hired cooks and drivers, and opened for volunteers a week ago.

We’ve already cleared rubble from several homes to allow the families to start on the path back, and have a clear, safe place for tents and transitional shelter. In the future we’re planning to clear many more homesites, help build transitional shelters (normally about a 12 x 18 sq ft space), temporary classrooms, and help in every way we can. We expect 60 volunteers on site this weekend, and will ramp up to our full capacity of 100 volunteers each day in March.

Our expectation of an initial 6 month project cost is $500,000, our largest effort since Hurricane Katrina. Your support is essential by volunteering and monetary donations. The IRS has allowed any donations made by Feb 28th to qualify as 2009 deductions, so please use that extra incentive to send a donation to help now. Click here for details from the IRS.

To make a contribution today or volunteer with us in Haiti, use the buttons to the right.

Thanks,

David Campbell

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Help Build Homes & Hope In West Sumatra

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Hands On Disaster Response (HODR) is building transitional houses in West Sumatra as part of Project Sungai Geringging, our Indonesia earthquake response. These shelters cost US$1000 each and will ensure a dignified, secure, and versatile space for families as they rebuild in the years to come.

Your donation makes a direct impact in the lives of families recovering from the earthquakes and the volunteers who support them. All donations will be used specifically for HODR’s Transitional Shelters in Indonesia. For more information and to donate, please click here.

Please help HODR build homes in West Sumatra by donating today.

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HAITI: Project Leogane Announcement

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Announcing Project Leogane, Haiti 2010, earthquake response project. This extraordinary disaster has had a devastating impact on the entire fabric of Haiti, and we are anxious to help.

The country has suffered over 110,000 lives lost; in Leogane, where we will focus our efforts, an estimated 90% of the buildings were destroyed. This will be a serious project, cooperating with other local and international NGOs, to help the community of Leogane recover from this massive event.

We are committed to a minimum period of 6 months, beginning February 15, 2010, when the project opened to volunteers. As always, we tailor our projects and work on the ground to the unique needs of each community and disaster. Since this event and challenge is so large, serious, and we’ve received unprecedented volunteer interest, we have established specific rules and structure for this HODR deployment:

  • We will have a capacity for 100 volunteers at a time and therefore may not be able to accommodate everyone who is interested in volunteering.
  • We will build up to this capacity over the month of February, and we will consider satellite projects later in the deployment, but not initially.
  • We will not be able to accept drop-in volunteers.
  • We will give some priority to:
    • HODR alumni, particularly our Project Gonaives alumni

    • Specific skills we enumerate; at the time licensed structural engineers
  • The volunteer base will have no alcohol, strict curfew and lights out policies, with zero tolerance.

Our efforts will be under open scrutiny from the community, media, donors, and humanitarian world. It is an opportunity to demonstrate the special and direct impact that your volunteer efforts can make on a community in dire need.

Whether you are able to join us on-project or support our efforts with a donation, thank you for your continued engagement and commitment to the unique and effective HODR model and to supporting the people of Haiti following this overwhelming disaster.


David Campbell
Executive Director

Get Involved:

For more information about volunteering on Project Leogane, visit our Haiti Volunteer Page.
To support our efforts with a tax-deductible donation, click here.
Follow our teams on Twitter for daily notes & progress @HODRops

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Posted in Donate, Haiti, Projects, volunteer | No Comments »

INDONESIA: New Project Photos!

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

If you haven’t been automatically redirected to our Flickr Photo page, please click here. Thank you for your interest & support!





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