On the morning of Saturday, August 14, 2021, 49-year-old Onézire was sitting peacefully with the youngest of her six children in their home in southwest Haiti. At 8:30 a.m., however, a devastating magnitude 7.2 earthquake began leveling it to the ground.

“At first, I heard the sound and thought it was the wind. When I realized what was happening, I was so panicked I ran to the back door instead of the front, which was closer,” Onézire recalls. She was lucky enough to have escaped the house in time, but its walls could not withstand the quake.

Like the vast majority of her neighbors, Onézire had to sleep out in the open, despite the fact that Haiti’s hurricane season was in full force. With strong rains from Tropical Storm Grace pelting the island in the days following the earthquake, she endured wind, cold, heat and sun.

After the earthquake, a team from Habitat for Humanity Haiti mobilized to the region to help authorities evaluate the housing situation and start outlining a disaster response strategy. With more than 30 years of experience in the country, the organization had previously built or repaired 1,800 homes after Hurricane Matthew, which had destroyed residencies throughout the region in 2016.

Upon inspecting the homes built by Habitat in the area affected by the most recent earthquake, it found that 98% of them had not suffered significant damage and were safe for families to live in comfortably.

Following this analysis, Habitat worked with local authorities to launch a disaster response plan that included the distribution of emergency hygiene kits with soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, masks, towels and other items.

In collaboration with ShelterBox and StartFund, Habitat then began to distribute more than 2,500 emergency kits to families such as Onézire’s in the most affected communities.

The kits included canvas tarps, tools, ropes, thermal blankets, solar lanterns, cook sets, sleeping mats, mosquito netting, water jugs, and other items.

In total, Habitat supported more than 15,000 people with hygiene and emergency kits as part of its response to the devastating earthquake.

Onézire and her family received one of these kits. As soon as it was in their hands, she took up the shovel and started to remove the rubble from her collapsed home.

Later, with the wood foundation of her home still intact, she raised new walls with the canvas tarps provided in the emergency kit, giving her children a new home with walls that could shelter them through the night.

Habitat is now seeking funds to begin the reparation and construction phase in 2023, with the goal of building new, disaster-resilient homes, in which Haitian families can build a more resilient future.

María Natalia lives with her husband, sister-in-law and three dogs in their home in San Juan Sacatepéquez, Guatemala. Each morning when she wakes, she prays to God and the Virgen to give thanks for a new day. Then, she cleans and tidies her house, which has a dirt floor, prepares breakfast, and begins her day of work.

Her job consists of weaving on the floor of her home. So, when María Natalia learned that she had been selected to replace her dirt floor with concrete, she was overjoyed that she would soon be able to complete her work in more ideal conditions.

“I am happy, because this floor used to be dirt and sand, so was very dusty. When I kneeled to weave, I wasn’t comfortable. My knees ached from the dirt and rocks. Also, the floor wasn’t even, so it was hard for me to weave like that. When I finished [the fabrics] they would be full of dirt and dust. But not anymore. I can see the difference. Now, they don’t get dirty, and the loom is in a different position and doesn’t move around as much,” says María Natalia.

Her family was among those selected to participate in “PISOS S³,” a pilot project launched by the Inter-American Cement Federation (FICEM) and developed in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Guatemala, Cementos Progreso, the Cement and Concrete Institute of Guatemala (ICCG) and the Network of Indigenous Entrepreneurs (REI).

The pilot focused on installing over 3,500 square feet of concrete flooring, benefiting 32 families in five Indigenous communities in the municipality of San Juan Sacatepéquez. As a holistic accompaniment to the new floors, the pilot also distributed water filters and provided the beneficiary families with training on healthy housing, operating the water filter and using and maintaining the floors.

Fueled by the pilot’s success, Habitat for Humanity and FICEM united forces to officially launch the 100,000 floors to play on initiative, which aims to replace 100,000 dirt floors with concrete in vulnerable households throughout Latin America and the Caribbean by 2028.

María Natalia’s home improvement not only represents a benefit to the development of her economic livelihood, but also has a positive impact on the health of her family.

Both she and her husband have noticed significant improvements in their health. They used to frequently come down with a cough. No longer living amidst dust and dirt, they haven’t been sick at all.

“Thank you for helping us with the floor. We are happy and content. This floor can be swept and washed. We couldn’t do that before because of the dirt and the dust. We had been thinking about improving our home, but hadn’t been able to”, María Natalia concludes.

Two hours from Mexico City, before reaching Valle de Bravo, is San Simón de la Laguna, a quiet town with a breathtakingly green countryside, a lake, and cornfields. The community mainly comprises Indigenous Mazahuas.

This is the community where Edna and her son, Edward, reside. Until recently, they lived with seven other family members in their parent’s three-room home. Without space for privacy, the two slept in the kitchen.

Edna cleans the community school and embroiders traditional fabrics with the Indigenous Mazahuas Artisans Group, which comprises 30 women from San Simón de la Laguna. Her monthly earnings, however, were not enough to fulfill her dream of building her own home with a loan.

When Habitat for Humanity Mexico told her she had been selected to build a house through a donation, Edna cried tears of joy and felt tremendous gratitude that God had answered her prayers.

“I said, ‘Thank you, God, because I didn’t expect this. But, as they say, hope is what remains. God heard our needs. This house is a blessing from God,” she recalls.

Edna’s house is the outcome of a donation from the Banorte Foundation, which funded a total of 25 improvements and/or new house constructions, all with an average size of 164 square feet and comprising two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room and a kitchen.

To obtain the house, Edna attended a series of five trainings that Habitat Mexico provided to the group of women selected for the project, covering topics such as the right to adequate housing, healthy community coexistence, habitability, healthy housing and proper home maintenance.

“God bless each of the people who have helped me. May God multiply their labors to provide more support to those in need. Thanks be to God that we have our home, that my son and I have our own space. I always dreamed of having a home like this, with a view of the corn fields and the mountains,” she says.

Edna and her son now live happily in their new home—a safe place where she can eat breakfast each morning with the view she had dreamed of.