Safe Place for a Baby

* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

On the day the quake struck, Gideon was sitting inside his hillside home in the remote southern village of La Croix. Suddenly, he felt the house shake from side-to-side. Grabbing his cane, he fled outdoors. He had no idea what was happening. Moments later, his house collapsed before his eyes. In that same terrible moment, more than 200,000 Haitians lost their lives. Among those who survived, more than 1.5 million people like Gideon and his family lost their homes along with many of their possessions. ###IMAGE_1###In La Croix As news of the quake’s devastation spread around the world, Medair mobilised an emergency response team to travel to Haiti and assess how the organisation could best provide assistance. Medair soon began a shelter programme in Jacmel, a city where there had been severe damage and loss of life. The shelter programme was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). As soon as the region’s roads became more navigable, Medair expanded into the more rural areas surrounding Jacmel, including the hillside village of La Croix where Gideon and his family live. “At our first community meeting in La Croix, we met with residents to tell them that Medair was planning to come build transitional shelters but we needed their assistance,” said Patrick, a former school teacher in Haiti who joined Medair to help rebuild his country. “When Gideon stood up in the meeting, it was the first time I had ever seen him.” Gideon rose to his feet with the assistance of a little cane. He told everyone what had happened to his house on the day of the quake. “Now I am sleeping outside, and I have so many kids,” he said. “I cannot walk well, but I will ask my neighbours to help me. My children will help too.”   Gideon’s speech made a strong impression on Patrick. “I thought he should be the first one to be helped because he had real need.” A Very Crowded Tent Gideon wasn’t exaggerating when he told us he had many kids. He and his wife (Madame Gideon) have nine children, aged 13 to 31.  With four of them living at home along with three grandchildren, they always have a full house. Yet in the first months after the quake, they lived inside a single crowded tent, simply too small a space. At 21, Willianna was the eldest child still living at home. She was also pregnant. And so Gideon sent her to Jacmel so that she wouldn’t have to live in such a crowded tent. ###IMAGE_2_LEFT###Safe Place for a Baby After a careful assessment, Medair made the Gideon family the first recipients of a transitional shelter in La Croix. The team constructed the shelter with a solid foundation, a roof, timber-framed walls, and durable plastic sheeting secured tightly to the frame. “I am so happy to have this,” said Gideon. “Because I am disabled, I have no easy way to earn enough money to build anything like this. What I like most about the house is the metal sheets on the roof. They are good quality, so when it is raining we don’t get wet inside.” Once the shelter was built, Gideon called Willianna back to the new house so they could all live together again.   “I like everything about the house,” said a smiling Willianna, holding her one-month-old baby Miriam in her arms. “I gave birth here. I wanted to have the child here.” Hurricane! And then, on 5 November, just three days after Miriam’s birth, Hurricane Tomas crashed into Haiti’s south coast with fierce winds and driving rain. The Gideon family took shelter in their new house. “We were not afraid,” said Madame Gideon. “I know my house is strong.” Madame Gideon’s confidence was well founded. The Gideons’ home withstood the hurricane without any damage; indeed, all of Medair’s transitional shelters stood strong despite facing all the force the storm could muster. “Now every time I see Gideon he offers thanks to Medair and thanks to God for sending Medair,” said Patrick. “Without Medair, he didn’t know what he would do.” A Welcome Invitation In December, the Gideons invited Patrick and Medair’s Emma Le Beau into their new home to spend the night with them. “This is such a cheerful family,” said Emma. “They were very hospitable to us.” Together, they all spent the evening under the Gideons’ roof, listening to the results of Haiti’s presidential election on the radio. Gideon’s son and daughter worked on their homework, while the granddaughters had their hair braided. Madame Gideon prepared a simple meal from three ingredients, a soup with yams, grated coconuts, and some peas. While the meal was being prepared, Emma and the small children climbed down the vertically sloped hillside and collected small branches and twigs to bring back to Madame Gideon’s fire. “I felt really happy to see the way they are sleeping,” said Patrick. “The place was really secure. They have a better life now and they are happy. They also told us that they were happy for us to be there, that we were showing that we really care about them.” After the year the Gideons have been through, the year that all Haitians have been through, seeing their happiness and newfound security provides meaningful and much-needed hope in this crisis-weary nation. “I have a sense of achievement for the past year,” said Patrick. “I have been moving all around the areas we are working and I see a lot of people who are in secure places now. I believe we are saving many lives, because we don’t know where they would be if we had not helped them.” Your donations make Medair’s ongoing Haiti projects possible. Please consider a donation today. Medair’s private donors empowered Medair to launch what has become a significant rehabilitation programme for the people of Haiti. Today, Medair’s transitional shelter programme in Haiti is made possible by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The Medair Haiti programme is also supported by Läkarmissionen, ICAP Charity Day, and by private donors. Medair arrived on-the-ground in Haiti within days of the devastating 12 January 2010 earthquake. Our team conducted assessments of damaged homes, identified families in need of aid, and coordinated rubble clearance from properties to make space for new transitional shelters. In our first year in Haiti, we have constructed 1,937 safer shelters, housing 11,622 people in Jacmel and the surrounding rural areas. The views expressed in this feature are those solely of Medair and should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinion of any other organisation.