(ABP) — Help Build Hope Haiti organizers envision mobilizing Christians — and other people of good will — in the United States to provide permanent housing for Haitian families, many of whom lost their homes to an earthquake that devastated the country one year ago.
“Our mandate is to build 5,000 homes in five years in the United States and ship them to Haiti,” said Mike Stickler, chief executive officer of the Vision Group, one of the key partners in the building initiative.
In turn, 5,000 Haitians will perform final assembly on the homes, gaining construction skills that will enable them to become employed in rebuilding their nation.
“Honestly, 5,000 homes is just a drop in the bucket,” Stickler said, noting last year's Jan. 12 earthquake destroyed more than 250,000 homes and left 1.5 million homeless. “But we want to employ one member of every household in long-term construction.”
Organizers are planning weekend building events in church parking lots and other open spaces in multiple cities throughout the United States over the next few years, beginning with six simultaneous build-outs April 30 in the Dallas area.
“It can be the shortest short-term mission trip a church ever takes,” Stickler said.
Homes will be constructed from modular structural insulated panels with expanded polystyrene foam sandwiched between sheets of fiber-cement-based board.
Ric Drudi, director of the building initiative, emphasized these are substantial homes, not emergency shelters. Homes — averaging 456 square feet — are built to the Miami-Dade County, Fla., building standards, so they are designed to withstand sometimes-violent seasonal storms.
“They are hurricane-resistant, earthquake-resistant, insect- and rot-resistant and fire-retardant houses,” Drudi said.
At each building event in the United States, volunteers ages 13 and older will be assigned to stations in an assembly-line-style operation. Tradesmen with power tools will cut materials and supervise volunteers as they assemble the 4-foot by 8-foot panels using cordless screwdrivers.
Workers will assemble and paint one sample 450-square-foot home at each site so volunteers will be able to see the end product of their labor. On the Sunday following each Saturday event, volunteers will pack panels into shipping containers bound for Haiti.
Help Build Hope Haiti has plans to build a village on 5,000 acres at Mayotte, southwest of Port-au-Prince. The group is working with established ministries and nongovernmental organizations in Haiti regarding community planning.
At First Baptist Church in Midlothian, Texas, leaders responded enthusiastically to the prospect of building homes for Haitians. The church already had existing relationships in Haiti, with one mission team serving there just a couple of months before the earthquake hit last year.
“I like the fact that it’s sustainable and something that will last and has the potential to make a difference for several generations,” Pastor Bruce Prindle said, pointing specifically to the goal of creating an indigenous construction industry in Haiti.
In particular, Prindle saw Help Build Hope Haiti as an opportunity to involve church members in meeting human needs months after the initial rush of relief after a disaster.
“We’ve seen how people will do such much in immediate relief but not stay engaged,” he said. “This is the kind of project that could be duplicated over time, extending beyond the immediate knee-jerk reaction.”
While the Midlothian church has sent mission teams not only to Haiti, but also to Indonesia, those trips are costly and involve a small percentage of congregations’ members, Prindle noted.
In contrast, a local build-out for Haiti likely will be the church’s “least expensive mission project but with the greatest involvement of our members,” he said.
That summarizes exactly what Help Build Hope Haiti organizers considered when they decided to organize build-out events around the United States, rather than concentrating on raising funds, mobilizing volunteers for mission trips or building a factory in Haiti, Stickler noted.
“Help Build Hope is leveraging human capital, not cash capital. This means that we are drawing on the tremendous human resources of the United States rather than simply asking people for money. Furthermore, this solution changes the hearts of participants in the U.S., encouraging greater participation in Haiti’s recovery in the future,” he said.
“We believe the more people who are engaged the better. Haiti needs widespread support, and these build-events are an important way to develop this kind of awareness and support.”
Cost for participants in the build-out is $67 per volunteer to help cover materials and other expenses related to the events. Prindle puts that expense into perspective.
“Would you rather spend $67 on dinner and a movie for your family,” he asked, “or spend it to build a home for somebody?”
For more information, visit www.helpbuildhopehaiti.org or call (877) 313-4466.
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Ken Camp is managing editor of the Texas Baptist Standard.