11/7/10 FROM TWITTER:
Tomorrow we continue residential mudding, will also help Hopital St. Croix w/ mud/cleanup - it's completely shut down, no services
(Result of Tomas)
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11/7/10 FROM THE SITE:
All Hands has partnered with Gadyen Dlo, an NGO providing clean water solutions in Haiti, to help respond to the cholera outbreak. On Saturday All Hands volunteers labeled and packaged 8,316 240ml bottles used to distribute chlorine. These bottles are part of water treatment systems being deployed in St. Marc as well as in Leogane.
"Your volunteers were amazing," said Brittney Eddy of Gadyen Dlo, "Please tell everyone how much we appreciated their help today!"
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10/08/10
Project Leogane has achieved remarkable progress in our first seven months of operation. Due to the incredible scale of the needs and what we feel we are still capable to help with, Project Leogane will now run until 31 December 2011! While we expect our programs to gradually transition from early recovery and cleanup to rehabilitation and sustainable development, we will remain committed to our dual goals of benefiting the local community while providing worthwhile, enriching volunteer experiences.
If you’re interested in volunteering, please click over to our Project Leogane Volunteer Information page. We're scheduling volunteers to be on-project from 23 January through 16 June, 2011.
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HAITI: Project Director’s Update –
Appeal for Skilled Volunteers
Posted on 09/17/10
http://hands.org/2010/09/17/appeal-for-skilled-volunteers/
Masons
Carpenters
Equipment Operators
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12 May 2010
Today marks the 4-month anniversary of the earthquake that permanently changed the lives of so many in Haiti on 12 January, 2010. Life quietly, proudly, adamantly goes on. Here at Project Leogane we are surrounded by the pulse of progress amidst the ruins – there is heavy equipment on the roads, construction at schools, and bustle in the markets. There may seem to be rubble mountains beyond rubble mountains, but together the tenacious people of Leogane and our volunteers embody incredible heart, resilience, generosity, and solidarity. For that, may we all be profoundly touched and changed.
Extension!
Project Leogane has achieved remarkable progress in our first 12 weeks of operation. Due to the incredible scale of the needs and what we feel we are still capable to help with, Project Leogane will now run until 15 January 2011! While we expect our programs to gradually transition from early recovery and cleanup to rehabilitation and sustainable development, we will remain committed to our dual goals of benefiting the local community while providing worthwhile, enriching volunteer experiences.
If you’re interested in volunteering , please click over to our Project Leogane Volunteer Information page. The project is full through August but we anticipate some openings in May and June due to rescheduling; we expect to be able to accommodate 60 volunteers at a time on our base through January.
Rubble
Our crews have earned a reputation around town as being an incredibly hard-working, productive force! We’ve cleared 75 homes and 3 schools so far, and have begun doing technical demolition of structures that are dangerously damaged and on the verge of collapse. Often these homes are built in areas too tight for machines to maneuver, so manual work is the only way to get this done. We’ve especially been targeting “vulnerable” families – households with single-parents, female-headed households, expectant mothers, elderly, very young children, etc.
Also, thanks to a very generous donation, we now have 2 Bobcats sitting in our yard! Now we’ll be able to take our demolition and rubble clean-up work to the next level!
School Build
Getting children back in school is one of the most effective ways to re-establish routine and normalcy to the lives of youth affected by the earthquake. Two weeks ago, HODR started work on our first transitional school build. The design features a wood frame clad in metal mesh that is plastered to create a finished, masonry look without the collapse risk of block masonry construction. The structures feature earthquake-resistant bracing and hurricane strapping. They’re designed and prefabricated in a way that allows for easy installation, thus ensuring the quality of production and maximizing the opportunity for community participation in the building process. If this all sounds familiar, that’s because this is the same earthquake-resistant design that we used to build homes in West Sumatra, Indonesia earlier this year!
Local Volunteer Program
Our Local Volunteer Program in Leogane has officially launched! Community participation is a hallmark of HODR programs around the world. Initially community members started informally helping on our jobsites, and they’ve naturally transitioned into our more structured program. Three weeks in, an average of about 15 young men and women per day actively participate in the cleanup and rebuilding of their own homes, schools, and community spaces alongside our brigade of volunteers from around the world. This program is a unique opportunity for cultural exchange and professional development on all sides!
ShelterBox
ShelterBox is a Rotary project, providing families with a kit that includes all of the non-food material items that they need to survive the immediate months after a natural disaster. Due to the incredible scale and impact of this event, they’ve returned to Leogane to continue distribution and determine how they can continue to support the community in the months to come. Following a quick training on ShelterBox tent assembly, HODR volunteers registered beneficiary families, ran a tent assembly training, and distributed tents to 190 tents in the rural community of Merger.
Joint Logistics Base
Ground preparation has finally begun on our Joint Logistics Base, the multi-agency warehouse and workshop space hosted in our rear field. Working directly with a number of partner NGOs included CHF International and Canadian Red Cross, we’ll build up the space into a hub of transitional shelter prefabrication and assembly in Leogane.
Plaza Playtime
Dancing, laughing, singing, playing with children – there’s no better way to spend a day! Volunteers continue to run weekly activities for local children, adding Tuesdays and Thursdays at a local orphanage to our Saturday community program. We’ve also expanded our games and activities selected by the children to include art therapy in the program. Whether it’s using crayons, construction paper, markers, leaves, or twigs, the children have demonstrated beautiful creativity, hopes, fears, and dreams through their artwork.
Structural Evaluations
Specialized volunteers play a special role on this project, bringing their structural engineering and architecture expertise to the community through HODR. We continue to complete ATC-20 evaluations for public buildings and private residences (800 in the last week alone!), as well as talk with homeowners about repairs, identifying safe evacuation routes, and how to build back better. These evaluations clarify the true state of damaged structures and offer psychological closure to families grappling with whether to continue living in fear of a home or demolish it. All of our evaluations will be included in the national database of structural evaluations being developed by the United Nations.
ShelterQuest
ShelterQuest! We’ve finally settled on a name for the trio of New York entrepreneurs who brought their simple, cost-effective temporary shelter idea to Leogane and who have now sheltered thousands. Using lightweight PVC piping and heat-shrink boat plastic wrap, ShelterQuest creates family-sized tents for those still living in camps. Every day, volunteers help to unload materials, prefabricate tent parts, and troubleshoot aspects of the design. To date, we’ve prefabricated 1000 tents, installed 200 in camps, and have produced 80 larger units for use as classrooms.
Water System Mapping
Natural disasters often underscore the underdeveloped and poorly maintained infrastructure of vulnerable communities. Leogane is currently receiving potable water from trucks which fill large “bladders” around town – the municipal system has not been operating for years. With the goal of re-establishing long-term, sustainable water service to the town, HODR has partnered with the WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) Cluster and the municipal water authority to map the water system. Teams traced the reservoirs, pipes, and valves in the field, marking them with GPS to create a map that will help to plan current repairs and also document the system for posterity.
Field Hospital
We continue to supply volunteer “runners” who help with the logistics of day-to-day operations at our local field hospital. From finding supplies, transporting patients, and building shelves to fixing cots, repairing electrical equipment, and inventorying medications, HODR volunteers are filling the gaps and supporting the hospital in providing the highest quality of care to the residents of Leogane.
And the work goes on…
Every day, HODR volunteers find new ways to plug in and support the recovery work in Leogane, as well as to develop our base and volunteer community. Earthquake safety training continues, with over teachers trained to date in how to prepare and respond to earthquakes in the classroom and at home. Following our landlord’s announcement that he was closing the camp in our front yard, we organized and managed a distribution of shelter materials to those 70 families. We’ve prototyped furniture for school classrooms, started a composting system to handle our organic waste, helped UN OCHA to map NGO activities and divide Leogane into zones of activity, and have started working in the mayor’s office to support their operations and information management.
The Volunteers
To date 365 volunteers have joined Project Leogane from 17 different countries. Hundreds more are in the pipeline, and we’re eager to put their skills, talents, creativity, and energy to use here at Project Leogane.
Visitors and Guests
The HODR base is a lively meeting point for the NGO community in Leogane! In addition to Tuesday Night (Salsa Night) at Joe’s Bar, we’ve also hosted NGO staff from ShelterBox, stART International, CHF, and GOAL. HODR board members Pete Kirkwood and Mike McQueeney have volunteered with their families, and we were even joined by the Haiti Lonely Planet author for a week of service. Check out his experience here!
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FROM THE SITE:
HAITI: Project Leogane 30 Day Report 3/16/10:
It’s been 30 days of Project Leogane, and we’re off to a running start!
Here’s a quick look at what we’ve been working on and how we’ve ramped up.
Rubble
In one month, we’ve cleared over 30 slabs! Land is extremely limited in the urban/semi-urban areas most affected by the earthquake, so each home that we clear is a chance at a fresh beginning, a jumpstart to the rebuilding process. Our volunteers have thrown themselves into the work, sledge hammering concrete roofs and columns, hack sawing twisted rebar, and pushing loaded wheelbarrows. Also emerging from the rubble are the stories of each family who lived there; they’ve worked alongside us to clean up, salvage what they can, and begin rebuilding.
Special thanks to the kids of Leogane who work cheerfully and energetically with our teams each day! Their attention to safety is rewarded with a wheelbarrow ride through the neighborhood. The Canadian army has also been a tremendous asset to the city of Leogane with their heavy equipment and can-do attitude. Once HODR teams fill the streets with rubble, they arrive to truck the debris away.
Wilner’s House
At one potential rubble site we noticed that the homeowner, Mr. Wilner, had a sizeable quantity of salvageable materials that could be converted into a self-built temporary shelter. Some kind of built shelter is preferable to a tent because it can be designed to have a larger floor area, higher clearance (you can stand up inside it), it can be partitioned for privacy, and it can be expanded and modified as needed. Mr. Wilner asked if we could work with him to demolish, salvage, and then rebuild. Four days later, he and his family moved in to their new shelter. The wood frame/corrugated iron roof and wall structure will keep them dry and means that they no longer need to live in a camp.
Infrastructure
One of our biggest programs has been building our own infrastructure so we can house the hundreds of volunteers scheduled to come lend a hand. We started with an enclosed basketball court/defunct nightclub and have spent the last four weeks wiring electricity, installing plumbing, outfitting a kitchen, building shelves, bunk beds, showers, and connecting the internet. Our setup is still a rustic work in progress, but it allows us to get our work done each day and enjoy a (cold bucket) shower each night! The intensive (and ongoing) infrastructure process has also allowed us to hone our skills and support other organizations with their infrastructure needs.
Hopital St. Croix Field Hospital
Next door to our base is a field hospital which will transition into the permanent medical facility for Leogane, the Hopital St. Croix. Teams of Haitian and international doctors are working together to provide a full range of clinical and hospital services at no charge to the community. HODR is supporting the hospital with both infrastructure build-out and operations/administration.
We started with a fencing project around the perimeter of the hospital; now we’ve expanded and are framing and building triage and clinic buildings. On the admin/operations front, we have a crew organizing the extensive supply/pharmacy inventory at the hospital and developing an inventory system that can be transferred to the local staff. Volunteers are also slotting in as “runners,” helping the doctors to move patients, run tests, take vitals, get supplies, and whatever else is needed to keep the hospital moving.
Ayuda Haiti Field Hospital
Another clinic/hospital in town is the Ayuda Haiti facility, which hosts a variety of medical groups. We’re working with their logistics people to build showers, hand washing stations, shelves, and more. Helping these other organizations with their infrastructure is a way for us to share our skills and support the work that these groups are doing in the community.
JLB
The HODR base may be different than you’ve ever seen it. In addition to our building, we also have a 5 acre field as a backyard. We plan to develop the field into a joint logistics base (JLB), where we’ll provide storage, prefabrication, and staging facilities to a number of partner NGOs working in the area. These NGOs are launching significant transitional shelter programs, and our combination of volunteers and space will allow us to help them in their efforts to help our neighbors here in Leogane.
To begin with, a team of Canadian Army engineers and heavy equipment operators spent 5 days building a gravel road and platform for us. Then the World Food Program (WFP) donated 2 Wiikhalls (30’x100’ tents) and a team of their engineers erected both tents in about 1 ½ days! Next is a perimeter security fence and then we hope to have multiple NGOs sharing space with us.
Team Tarp
HODR volunteers are great at exceeding expectations to the point of ridiculousness. Oxfam America contacted us because they’re cutting rolls of UV-resistant tarp into large pieces for distribution to families in camps. However, after a couple weeks of work, they weren’t processing the tarp fast enough. In 3 days, our team cranked through 120 rolls, cutting and packaging 1200 tarps and ropes for distribution. This morning, a truck picked them up, and they’re on their way into communities that need them.
Plaza Playtime
Another HODR tradition is to facilitate “safe space” play for children in the local community. Each weekend, volunteers put down their shovels and pick up soccer balls, jump ropes, and markers, for an exuberant afternoon of laughter and play. We’ve taken this program to various camps in our area, and children of all ages (adults too!) join in the games.
Hosting
With the lack of accommodation options in Leogane, we’ve been able to host multiple groups of architects and structural engineers who came as volunteers to inspect the buildings in our community. We had special guests from the Mentor Initiative pass through our base as they strive to control mosquito born diseases in our area. Last weekend we had a team from Acupuncturists without Borders provide a group therapy session. The stress reduction treatment was needed and appreciated by the volunteers and some of the community members alike.
Thanks to our volunteers, donors, and followers for your tremendous support through this event. The momentum from those initial 3000 volunteer inquiries continues and powers us as we work, live, and learn with our neighbors in Leogane.
I’d also like to thank a few key volunteers who helped International Operations Director Marc Young, Project Director Jeremey Horan, and myself to set up and launch this program. Sinead Clear, Chris Turner, Lenka Blanarova, Gilbert Fortil, and Richardson Pierre all arrived during our setup period and have worked tirelessly to get HODR Project Leogane operational. Because of their help and that of the first wave of volunteers we are up and running!
Stefanie Chang, Project Director
Project Leogane, Hands On Disaster Response
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Today we are announcing Project Leogane, Haiti 2010. This extraordinary disaster has had a devastating impact on the entire fabric of Haiti, and we are anxious to help.
The country has suffered over 110,000 lives lost; in Leogane, where we will focus our efforts, an estimated 90% of the buildings were destroyed. This will be a serious project, cooperating with other local and international NGOs, to help the community of Leogane recover from this massive event.
We are committed to a minimum period of 6 months, beginning February 15, 2010, when the project will be open to volunteers. As always, we tailor our projects and work on the ground to the unique needs of each community and disaster. Since this event and challenge is so large, serious, and we’ve received unprecedented volunteer interest, we have established specific rules and structure for this HODR deployment:
■We will have a capacity for 100 volunteers at a time and therefore may not be able to accommodate everyone who is interested in volunteering.
■We will build up to this capacity over the month of February, and we will consider satellite projects later in the deployment, but not initially.
■We will not be able to accept drop-in volunteers.
■We will give some priority to:
■HODR alumni, particularly our Project Gonaives alumni
■Specific skills we enumerate; at the time licensed structural engineers
■The volunteer base will have no alcohol, strict curfew and lights out policies, with zero tolerance.
Our efforts will be under open scrutiny from the community, media, donors, and humanitarian world. It is an opportunity to demonstrate the special and direct impact that your volunteer efforts can make on a community in dire need.
Whether you are able to join us on-project or support our efforts with a donation, thank you for your continued engagement and commitment to the unique and effective HODR model and to supporting the people of Haiti following this overwhelming disaster.
David Campbell
Executive Director
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Donation Inquiries: 919.830.3573
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http://hodr.org/volunteerhaiti/
Beginning February 15, 2010 HODR’s Project Leogane will open its doors to volunteers in response to the devastating Haiti earthquake. Over the next 6 months we will help the community of Leogane recover and rebuild.
If you are interested in volunteering with us on Project Leogane, please read “The Basics” below, then continue to our Project Leogane Volunteer Info for more information.
http://hodr.org/2010/02/03/haiti-project-leogane-announcement/