Dry for the First Time

        	              

“You would not believe the difference you have made in this community. This is the first time that most of these families have been dry since the earthquake!”




finished shelterMattieu, a district official in the region around Gressier, wanted to let our Haiti leader know this before an assessment of the shelter project. The night before, torrential rains poured down on the area, yet 5,000 people in this area stayed dry in the shelters that have been built.




One year ago an urgent SOS was sent to churches to help build 1,000 shelters. Partnering with Samaritan’s Purse, 900 shelters have been built by TouchGlobal teams in the last year.



Highlights


    

  • As a church team walked down the road with a ladder and impact drives in hand, three little girls, jumping up and down, called out over and over in unison, "Praise God, they are coming to build our home!"
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  • An elderly blind man sat in a chair with a Bible on his lap as team members arrived to complete paperwork and dedicate his shelter. After praying a prayer of blessing on his new home, he spontaneously, with heartfelt passion and tears in his eyes, recited the Lord’s Prayer in Creole.
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  • A family of ten had been sleeping on the ground under one torn tarp but now they have beds to sleep in and they felt safe and stayed dry for the first time since the earthquake.
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  • "There were 55 children living in the chicken coup that used to house 200 chickens. So what would the team do when they arrived and there were 60 different pre-fab wall pieces from which they were told to create five bunk houses for the orphanage? They described it as trying to put together a Rubic’s cube without any colors to help them figure it out. Some of the team worked at leveling the ground, some of them hauled cement blocks and others tried assembling the puzzle. It took a few days, but they were able to piece the five buildings together." (from a team member’s blog)
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unfinished shelterThese are the true stories of how short-term teams have impacted Haiti. To alleviate the desperate circumstances of the families left homeless after the January 12 earthquake, Haiti officials called on groups to provide temporary shelters for the 1.4 million homeless Haitians.




Temporary shelters were identified as the most critical need for Haiti and the EFC churches responded.




Your teams, working alongside TouchGlobal’s efforts, have been a tremendous success as American and international churches have connected with the despondent people of Haiti.




Leogane is considered to be the city that best represents the epicenter of the earthquake. Over 80% of their buildings are no longer standing. Four churches in this area had identified 200+ of the most affected families in this region and requested that TouchGlobal partner with them in providing shelters to these families.




Send new or past teams to finish the shelters from the original SOS "for such a time as this…"



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