So how bad are things in Haiti, four months after the earthquake? The acute risk of starvation for tens of thousands of people has passed, largely because of so much international aid flooding in. That's about the best that can be said.
"The housing crisis is very bad, there are 1.3 million people homeless," says Angel Aloma of Food For the Poor. "And many people moved out of Port-au-Prince and into different areas and those cities were already suffering from homelessness and poverty so now it's even worse."
In spite of its name, Broward-based Food For the Poor does a lot more than just supply food for destitute areas of the Caribbean. The charity is accelerating its home-building program in Haiti, recognizing the severe need, keeping an eye on hurricane season approaching.
"We started out slow at the beginning, but right now we have built up to over 200 homes a month and we are hoping to get to the point where it's 400 to 500 per month," Aloma said. "A housing unit costs $2,600."
Simple, sturdy, concrete block homes, made on a cement foundation, with corrugated metal roofs. Real, hurricane-resistant construction for $2,600. One crew can build four of the homes in a single day. Some of them come with solar panels for electricity. Wells are dug for potable water in the midst of a cluster of the small houses. They're spartan, they're tiny, but they might as well be heaven for the earthquake-ravaged victims of the earthquake.
"For those who have been living under plastic and cardboard and under a bed sheet or a piece of bath curtain, this is like a palace for them," Aloma points out, showing pictures taken by Food For the Poor's photographer, Benjamin Rusnak, just two weeks ago.
The need is so great, and Food For the Poor is just one agency, but combined with other efforts in Haiti, it's a start. Since Port-au-Prince is still so filled with rubble, there's very little room to build there, so FFTP's strategy is to build small villages of the new cottages in areas to which earthquake refugees are migrating. The old, the infirm, and families with children get first dibs on the new homes. They're also in the process of building six new schools to replace buildings destroyed by the quake.
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"90 percent of the schools were destroyed in Port-au-Prince, and in many areas they didn't have any school at all, now we have to get the children back or it's gonna set a generation backwards in Haiti, and the country can't afford that," Aloma said.
Looking through the pictures, it's obvious the kids who will use the new schools and the families living in permanent shelter are immensely grateful that the world hasn't forgotten about them. Aloma says that's the key to rebuilding Haiti.
"We need to keep bringing it up," he says, "because this is gonna take another 10 to 15 years, but I am hopeful that we will build back better, not to to go back to what it was, but to a much more improved situation."
You can make a donation at www.Foodforthepoor.com.
