Building back and training masons
Altide and her daughter are among the many families who lost their homes when Hurricane Matthew roared through southwest Haiti in October 2016. Today, they are among the many families who have put their lives back together because of the work of Habitat Haiti.
With winds exceeding 145 miles per hour, Hurricane Matthew leveled houses and ripped off the corrugated metal roofs of those still standing. After an immediate response that provided shelter kits to those affected, Habitat Haiti has partnered with families like Altide’s in rural areas to build 300 new homes and repair more than 1,500 others. The new houses are equipped with water collection tanks, which can safely store up to 250 gallons of rainwater — critical in rural communities with no water supply where families rely entirely on rainwater for drinking, bathing, cleaning and growing their food.
Through partnerships with other organizations, Habitat Haiti also has educated more than 5,000 households on safe construction techniques and trained more than 600 new builders. Because many homes in Haiti are built with concrete blocks, often of poor quality, Habitat Haiti is training masons to build stronger, more durable houses by incorporating techniques such as reinforcing walls with wood beams.
In the days after the storm, Altide salvaged sheet metal to make a small shelter where her house once stood in Corail.
“We were always uncomfortable,” she says. Then she partnered with Habitat to build a new home using disaster-resistant construction techniques, including the installation of hurricane clips and strengthened walls to help withstand future storms.
She takes great comfort, she says, knowing that her new brightly colored house was built to withstand future storms. “Even during storms and heavy rains, the house is sturdy, and water doesn’t get through,” Altide says. “I’m very proud of this new house.”