Before the earthquake, Ramong and Samantha had a job and were attending university to obtain a professional degree. Ramong worked as a primary school teacher in Leogane and commuted everyday to Port au Prince, the capital of Haiti, to attend university. The disaster, however, prevented him from continuing his studies and he was forced to find a new job within an unstable economic environment. At 26, Ramong became the main supporter not only of himself but also of two of his younger cousins whose parents died during the earthquake. Similarly, Samantha, an accounting student in Port au Prince, was forced to stall her studies. Although the earthquake did not destroy the building that housed the local economic development cooperative she was working for, she did lose most of her clients, small agriculture and trade businesses that she had been supporting through business skills training.
Ramong and Samantha are among the 3 million people that were in different ways affected by the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12th 2010. Described by the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as the most destructive urban disaster in recent history, the earthquake is estimated to have caused 222,570 deaths and 300,572 injuries and destroyed or damaged 70 per cent of homes in affected areas, leaving over 1.5 million people homeless. Today, over 500,000 people are still living in makeshift tents under tarpaulins in 758 camps, mainly in metropolitan Port-au-Prince.
The humanitarian situation remains precarious, but signs of progress are visible. In a recent report, OCHA states that as of December 2011, a total of 636 schools have been reconstructed or repaired, 5 million cubic meters of debris removed, 3 million people have received water treatment and water filtration systems, more than 5,000 community mobilisers on hygiene promotion were deployed, and the cumulative cholera fatality rate dropped from 2.4 per cent in November 2010 to 1.3 per cent in December 2011.
Ramong (middle) leading a health and hygiene education radio show.
For the last 2 years All Hands has been part of the recovery efforts in Leogane, one of the most affected areas in the country. As of January 2012 Project Leogane has: provided business training and mentorship to 32 small and medium size local businesses; trained hygiene promoters to provide effective hygiene and sanitation education to over 800 people; built and installed 550 bio-sand water purification filters; rebuilt 18 schools providing approximately 2,700 children the opportunity to receive an education; provided construction skills training for young Haitians; cleared 20,386 cubic meters of rubble; and provided 2,500 hours of mud removal post Hurricane Thomas. All of this has been possible through the support of people throughout the world, especially, the local hands of volunteers and staff members who have dedicated their times to rebuild their own communities.
| Ramong started volunteering at All Hands over a year ago. Several months later he became the Hygiene Promotion Supervisor working as a mentor for local volunteers who stimulated good hygiene practices in the community. Today he is the Education Specialist for our Bio-Sand Filters Program, which provides a water treatment solution to vulnerable communities while aiding the nation-wide effort to decrease cholera. In an interview, an eloquent and confidently composed Ramong, affirmed that “education must be at the forefront of the recovery process, especially in the efforts to combat cholera in Haiti”.
Samantha has similarly moved up within our Livelihoods Program, beginning as one of our Business Mentors to currently being the Dam Dam Program Coordinator. She is now in charge of providing business coaching and training to a women’s handicraft cooperative so that they can increase their sales and income and expand the enterprise. When asked about her job within the recovery efforts Samantha, a 28-year old woman, smiled and proudly stated that “the key to move forward in the reconstruction phase and especially to revive the economic sector, is to support the development of women”. |
 Samantha in the Dam Dam workshop with women from the cooperative. |
Two years after the earthquake All Hands Volunteers Project Leogane respectfully remembers the victims of the earthquake. We remember the grieving families, friends and neighbors of the deceased. And we remember the hours of incredible hard work and dedication of our local volunteers and staff in the difficult times after the disaster and in the months that followed.
The unprecedented scale of devastation caused by the earthquake, the cholera epidemic that resulted from sanitation and hygiene conditions and an unstable political landscape have posed challenges to the reconstruction process. It is for these reasons that All Hands Volunteers will continue Project Leogane as the longest project the organization has ever run. The team on the ground looks forward to 2012 with enthusiasm. Ramong and Samantha believe that leadership and teamwork as the skills they possess which have strengthened and will continue to strengthen at Project Leogane. One of our mandates in Haiti for 2012 is to continue building valuable skills in our local team to empower them to take control of the recovery process. Ensuring valuable community-level engagement to further the success of the Bio-Sand Filter, Livelihoods and Transitional Schools Programs will be at the centre of our operations. We thank all the international volunteers and donors who have in some way been a part of Project Leogane, and would like you to remain involved. But today we are especially grateful to Ramong, Samantha and all of our local volunteers, staff and friends in the community for your support over the past two years. Your work is encouraging and inspiring, it is in many ways the reason for the successes of Project Leogane and leads to a promising outlook for 2012.
Sources of information:
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2011) Fact Sheet: December 2011. OCHA Haiti. www.haiti.humanitarianresponse.info
