Ecovillages: A Labor Not in Vain

Help Build Eco-Villages in Haiti… Not for, but with

They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vine­yards and eat their fruit.
No longer will they build houses and oth­ers live in them,
or plant and oth­ers eat.
For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my peo­ple;
my cho­sen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands.
They will not labor in vain,
nor will they bear chil­dren doomed to mis­for­tune;
for they will be a peo­ple blessed by the LORD,
they and their descen­dants with them.   (Isa­iah 65:21–23)

I felt like I was see­ing Isaiah’s words hap­pen­ing before my very eyes. Estin Andral is a young man filled with hope for the future. Today, he is liv­ing in a tent, but it is only for another month. Every day he works with six other men under the guid­ance of a struc­tural engi­neer to build 10 houses. These houses are part of an Eco-Village in Haiti’s Cen­tral Plateau. They will have a com­mu­nity cen­ter, rain catch­ment and water sys­tem, eco­log­i­cal latrines, and most impor­tantly gar­dens and fields that will feed their fam­i­lies and pro­vide them with liveli­hoods. When the houses are built and the crops are ready for har­vest, their fam­i­lies, as well as some fam­i­lies headed by wid­ows with chil­dren, will leave their tents in Port au Prince to join them. And the houses will be theirs for as long as their fam­ily or their descen­dants work the land and par­tic­i­pate in the community.

We all saw the tent cities in the after­math of the earth­quake that hit Haiti. I have learned vol­umes about how dif­fi­cult it is to pro­vide hous­ing for these vic­tims. You would think that it would be sim­ple to go help build houses but quickly there are issues. On whose prop­erty do you build houses since most of the vic­tims were renters? Does hous­ing include sewage and water sys­tems? Quan­tity vs. qual­ity? Cul­tural val­ues too: can you imag­ine some­one build­ing you a house in the U.S. with­out win­dows? That would be the equiv­a­lent of build­ing a house in Haiti with­out an out­side cook­ing area. Using local build­ing mate­ri­als is impor­tant. Are you bring­ing in nails and pre-fab pieces or are you buy­ing local mate­ri­als, which strengthen the Hait­ian economy?

For­eign non-profit orga­ni­za­tions came in and built lots of tem­po­rary hous­ing. This hous­ing should last per­haps 5 years. Hope­fully, by then, the occu­pants will have built up enough assets to buy prop­erty or build per­ma­nent hous­ing. Although very grate­ful to get out of tents, fam­i­lies find the hous­ing tracts crowded. There is no space for veg­etable gar­dens and they are far from employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. The Pres­by­ter­ian Church (U.S.A.) through Pres­by­ter­ian Dis­as­ter Assis­tance (PDA) will fund some of this hous­ing for approx­i­mately 150 fam­i­lies in Leogone, where the earth­quake hit fam­i­lies the hard­est and where the hous­ing is the best of the tem­po­rary hous­ing being built. It includes sewage and water; and is not too far from job oppor­tu­ni­ties. It will pro­vide shel­ter as these fam­i­lies get back on their feet.

At the same time, Mou­vman Pey­izan Papay (MPP), the Pres­by­ter­ian Hunger Program’s long-time Hait­ian part­ner, has requested assis­tance to help 40 fam­i­lies build four eco-villages in the Cen­tral Plateau. This is per­ma­nent hous­ing in a group­ing of 10 homes com­plete with eco­log­i­cal latrines, water catch­ment, space for gar­dens and ani­mals, a com­mu­nity cen­ter, and fields. Fam­i­lies who move here are tak­ing on farm­ing liveli­hoods with the tech­ni­cal assis­tance of MPP. They will be able to grow their own food and sell the sur­plus through coop­er­a­tives in which they can get bet­ter prices.

And, MPP is invit­ing you to help. There are some cri­te­ria though. You must be will­ing to work under Hait­ian super­vi­sion along­side Haitians. You must be will­ing to learn for a cou­ple of hours each day about the chal­lenges for small farm­ers from the expe­ri­ences of Haitians. You must be will­ing to believe in Hait­ian farm­ers’ vision for a Haiti in which Hait­ian farm­ers are feed­ing their peo­ple instead of pro­duc­ing crops for bio-fuels or export. You must be will­ing to use hand-made tools and tra­di­tional knowl­edge in the build­ing of homes and farm­ing of fields.

If you are will­ing to do all that and to live in sim­ple hous­ing and eat Hait­ian food, then this could be an invi­ta­tion for you to meet Haitians who will rock your world. PHP is not spon­sor­ing trips but we are con­nect­ing Pres­by­te­ri­ans and oth­ers to MPP and mis­sion co-workers in Haiti who can facil­i­tate this kind of short-term mis­sion experience.

That said, I warn you that Isaiah’s words talk of a world in which there is real jus­tice. Is it pie in the sky or is it pos­si­ble? If it is pos­si­ble, God has cho­sen to work through each of us to bring about this kind of world.

Take Action and Learn More

• Con­tact Jes­sica Maudlin (Jessica.Maudlin@pcusa.org; 502–569-5832) to learn more about the Pres­by­ter­ian Hunger Pro­gram and to get involved with the Mou­vman Pey­izan Papay (MPP).
• Visit Mark Hare’s Haiti Mis­sion Co-Worker web­page and blog.
• Check out this Bible Study and Video, pro­duced by David Barn­hart, about the seed project and part­ner­ship with MPP (the video is below).
• Learn more about the PC(U.S.A.) and Pres­by­ter­ian Dis­as­ter Assistance’s response to Haiti.

Watch “Impact Through Seeds”

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