300 volunteers of Un Techo para mi País will build the first emergency houses in Haiti
The NGO will send 300 Haitian and Dominican students to participate in the construction of the first 20 emergency houses from February 26th to March 1st in the community of Grand Goave, 70 kilometers from the capital Port-au-Prince.
Un Techo para mi País will construct 20 emergency houses beginning next Friday, February 26th through Monday, March 1st in Grand Goave. This intervention is part of an action plan for Haiti that entails the construction of 2,000 emergency houses during the first year and 10,000 in the next 4 years. This important project is the first construction for the victims of the earthquake.
The team leading this construction involves students from various Latin American countries: the Dominican Republic, Chile, Uruguay, El Salvador, and Peru. The team also includes Haitian volunteers living or studying in the Dominican Republic who want to help deliver the new homes to victims of last month’s earthquake.
Once the first construction is completed, a second intervention is planned for March 19th to March 22nd to construct 100 emergency houses. For this stage, 1,000 volunteers from various Latin American countries will participate.
The emergency house is a housing unit made of prefabricated wood of 18 square meters (6 m in width and 3 m in depth). It is constructed on the basis of 15 stilts that isolate the house from the ground and thus protect it from humidity, floods, and diseases. This house lasts about 8 years and can be built in 2 days by a team of 8 or 10 youth volunteers and beneficiaries.
The non-profit organization Un Techo Para Mi País has undergone all the necessary coordination with municipal authorities and international organisms to start the reconstruction of Haiti.
Maximiliano Perez, Vice Social Director of Un Techo Para Mi País, declared: “We have evaluated the importance of the urgent intervention in the community of Grand Goave where the earthquake destroyed the precarious houses of these impoverished families. The community is preparing for the arrival of volunteers with great expectations and willingness to participate in the construction of their new homes.”
Under the slogan “THE EARTH SHOOK FOR US TO LOOK AT HAITI. MOVE YOURSELF. WE NEED YOU TO REBUILD IT”, the organization calls on companies and individuals through its website and social networks to support the reconstruction in Haiti. In recent years, the organization has participated in the construction of more than 2,000 emergency houses following four natural disasters in Latin America.
