Haven is a non governmental, non political, non religious organisation working to build sustainable communities, through the provision of housing, and emergency relief by implementing community development programmes in Haiti.
What Haven does
Haven's focus is on shelter, water and sanitation, emergency relief and the provision of training. These programmes run throughout the year. By training, upskilling and employing local Haitian people Haven is creating jobs and encouraging local trade and industry. Schools, playgrounds, and commnuity buildings are key elements of Haven's community building projects.
By training, up-skilling and employing local Haitian people throughout the year, Haven is creating jobs, encouraging local trade and promoting industry. Homes, community buildings and house upgrades are key elements of Haven's projects. As well as employing over 600 people on these projects Haven has also brought over 1,000 Irish volunteers for one week periods to Haiti to assist with the building of houses & help fund the cost of building materials to make these building projects feasible.
Since the earthquake hit Haiti's capital city, Port au Prince, on January 12th, 2010, Haven has been working in affected areas providing emergency relief to those most in need. To date Haven has:
- Built, repaired and upgraded over 2,000 homes in Haiti.
- Over 1,300 latrines, 308 showers and 20 community shelters have been provided in IDP camps.
- More than 3,000 local people have been trained in hygiene promotion, conflict resolution and vocational training to empower communities to pursue their livelihoods.
- Haven has employed 600 local people in their projects.
- More than 10,000 children in schools have been provided with clean water, sanitation facilities and hygiene training.
- Over 1,000 volunteers have travelled with Haven to Haiti to assist on house building projects since 2009.
Gressier Build It Week, May 2012
Haven along with Oxfam has committed to build houses for earthquake affected families in the town of Gressier which lies 26km south west of the capital Port au Prince. This is where the epicentre of the devastating earthquake occurred 2 years ago and saw over 240 thousand Haitians lose their lives in a matter of 42 seconds. The town of Gressier suffered greatly with 95% of homes being destroyed resulting in communities being displaced and families divided up into temporary camps where they are still living today.
This May, 45 Haven volunteers will travel to Haiti for an intensive week-long 'Build It Week'. Volunteers are of all ages and come from all walks of life, but they are completing a housing project in one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. The dates of travel are from 4th May - 12th May 2012.
There will be 30 houses under construction at any one time on Havens Gressier programme. Haven employs 11 local Haitian contractors so each volunteer will slot into whatever stage the house build is at & work under the supervision of the contractors.
Voluntees will work long days outdoors with Havens Haitian workforce and live in basic accommodation beside the build site.