Haiti Hurricane Matthew Rebuilding Homes & Lives

Thank you! Your generous gift is making a real difference in the lives of 230 Haitian families as they continue to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Matthew.

Here are the latest numbers that show what your generosity is making possible for the hardest-hit families on Lagonav Island.

• 89 houses repaired or rebuilt
• 80 houses with repaired or rebuilt sanitary latrines
• 332 goats, 64 pigs, and 32 donkeys distributed to families

In addition to rebuilding and repairing homes for families and ensuring that their children are in school, the approach that Beyond Borders' Hurricane Matthew Response Program is using includes six other elements:

• Assets for families to make a living with, for example goats, mules or other livestock, or goods to start an informal store,
• Training on how to manage the new assets,
• Initial cash support to reduce the need to sell the new asset in an emergency,
• Weekly coaching visits to reinforce skills, build confidence and help participants handle any challenges,
• Health education and access to healthcare to stay healthy and able to work, and,
• A savings account to help save money to invest or use in a future emergency.

Monette, 37, is the head of one of the 230 families that you are helping to make a full recovery with your gift. With her permission, we are sharing Monette's story to give you a sense of what life is like for the families in Beyond Borders' Hurricane Matthew Response Program.

Monette lives in the community of Bouziyet with her six children, who range in age from one to 17. You can see an interactive Google Map of Monette’s community on our website: http://hurricanematthewhaiti.org/blog/bouziyet

Monette is raising five boys: Bonzer, 16, Kinder, 11, Djouby, 7, Djoulens, 4, Louvens, 1, and one girl: Djerline, 17. All except Louvens, who is too little, attend school.

Monette was one of a few families in her community who was struck with additional misfortune as an illness affected three of the goats she received from Beyond Borders and nine of her chickens. Despite her efforts and those of the veterinarian services available as part of our hurricane response effort, the animals were not able to recover and they died. Beyond Borders’ provided Monette with a new goat, which has since given birth, so she now has two goats. Because of this setback, Monette has not yet had the opportunity to sell offspring from her animals. However, once she breeds her new livestock, she will work towards selling the offspring so that she can purchase other larger forms of livestock.

Since entering the program, Monette has been able to use 4,000 Haitian Gourdes (approximately $64 U.S.) to start a small garden. She grows corn, millet, and beans to feed her family and to sell to earn income.

Monette is a member of her village savings and loan association, launched by Beyond Borders as part of the Hurricane Matthew Recovery Program. The association allows Monette and her neighbors to access small loans. Monette has borrowed money from the association once since joining in order to pay fees she owed the school for her children’s attendance.

Monette uses rain water collected at home – in drums and buckets – to meet the water needs of her family. When this is not enough, she purchases water from the neighboring community.

Since becoming part of Beyond Borders’ Hurricane Matthew Response Program, Monette has also received training on:

• animal husbandry
• water treatment
• sanitation and hygiene (related to using and maintaining her latrine), and,
• sexually transmitted diseases

Monette has also participated in Beyond Borders Child Rights Training Program. Last month more than 650 women and men on Lagonav Island graduated from the 32-week training that Monette completed. The training helps parents understand that children who are sent away to live with others are at grave risk of becoming enslaved by those who promise to take them in and care for them, but instead exploit and abuse them. The training also includes an in-depth and interactive discussion of other subjects including the rights of children, corporal punishment, and sexual abuse.

Thank you again for your generous support for the work of Beyond Borders with these 230 families like Monette's. You are helping them to make a full recovery from Hurricane Matthew, and to build a brighter future for themselves, one filled with hope, dignity, and opportunity.

It’s now been six months since Hurricane Matthew struck Haiti. Thank you so much for your generous support for families on Lagonav Island as they recover from the storm.

As a reminder, your generous support is helping 230 families that Beyond Borders is working with in nine rural communities on Lagonav, and you can see those communities on this Google Map.

Families have weekly visits from family life coaches who focus on training and reinforcement of critical topics ranging from nutrition, to health and sanitation, to small business management, to animal husbandry.

Here’s an update on those trainings and the progress that families are making thanks to you and your generosity.

Health

Along with rebuilding homes after the hurricane, Beyond Borders committed to ensuring that every family has proper sanitation. Nearly every destitute family that is being reached by this effort practiced open defecation because they lacked the means to construct even a simple latrine.

Waterborne disease is a leading killer in Haiti, especially among children. So, a portion of your support is allowing us to dig and build a sanitary latrine for each family. The new latrines greatly reduce the risk of contracting a gastrointestinal illness or a deadly bacterial disease like cholera.

Families are making regular use of the water filter that your gift helped make possible immediately after the storm, and, thanks to regular accompaniment from Beyond Borders, families understand how critically important it is to use the filter at all times to prevent waterborne diseases.

Thanks to generous donors like you, families attend weekly trainings conducted by Beyond Borders that cover a variety of health topics, including:

• Health care before and after birth
• Sanitation and latrines
• Parasites
• Vitamins
• Vaccinations
• Signs and treatment of malnutrition

Hunger

Having a more secure income -- which we’ll talk about below -- allows families to enjoy a greater variety of food and a more balanced overall diet. This leads to improved health, lower medical expenses and less time lost from school for their children.  

Hunger, which was a constant reality for the most families before and immediately after the hurricane, is a thing of the past now, thanks to donors like you. Parents tell us they no longer worries that their family won't have enough food in the house or that they might go without food completely for a time.

The weekly stipend that families received for the first six months after the storm helped ensure that they didn’t go hungry. Now, they are earning money to support themselves, thanks to the kinds of income-generating activity that your gift supports (see below for more on this).

Economic Livelihoods

Having begun with little or nothing after the storm, families are working with their life coach to identify and track specific, achievable economic goals, such as developing savings to purchase and raise goats, or raising and selling piglets from a pregnant sow, for example, so that later they can invest in an animal of greater value, like a mule or a cow. Another economic activity families engage in involves buying ingredients in larger quantities so that they can make and sell a special Haitian confection that is made with locally harvested peanuts and shredded coconuts.

Building on economic success is a huge boost to a family’s self-confidence and self-esteem within their community. This self confidence is a vital resource that will sustain them as they face future challenges.

Families meet regularly with other sponsored families to allow them to encourage one another and to build bonds of solidarity that will help sustain them after they complete the program. Each family continues to invest some of their savings in community-based collective savings groups. These collective savings groups not only promote solidarity among neighbors, but also provide each family with a greater measure of security that they never had before. It provides a resource in case of an emergency and helps families to increase their purchasing power to be able to invest in and grow their young businesses.

Thank you again, for your generosity, your care, and your concern. Through your gift, you are giving families devastated after Hurricane Matthew a path to a much brighter future, filled with dignity, hope, and opportunity.