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Leslie and Carmel Buckley founded Haven in late 2008. As a successful businessman and co-founder of the Digicel mobile phone company, Leslie's business interests brought him to Haiti for the first time in 2004. He was horrified by the level of poverty that he saw. He decided to do something to help and set up Haven with an initial donation of one million euro.
Haven is house and community building charity, working solely in Haiti, since the first sod was turned in 2009. By training, up-skilling and employing local Haitian people throughout the year, Haven is creating jobs in a country where unemployment stands at approximately 80% and opportunities are few.
Twice a year Haven's Haitian workforce is joined on site by a team of volunteers who take part in an intensive Build it Week. While in Haiti, volunteers live and work on the building site in extremely basic conditions.
Since the earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12th, 2010, Haven has been working in the capital, Port au Prince, providing emergency relief to those most affected by the disaster.
On January 12, 2010, an earthquake measuring 7.0 hit Haiti's capital of Port au Prince. According to the Haiti government 230,000 people were killed, and a further 1.3 million people were left homeless. 1.1 million of these people are being hosted in 651 spontaneous settlements across Port au Prince.
Haven has been working as part of the Water and Sanitation cluster, and the Shelter cluster, providing hygienic sanitation facilities in the form of trench like latrines, and protection from the elements through the distribution of thousands of heavy tarpaulins, to those living under sheets and pieces of cardboard, and the construction of Community Shelters in 15 campsites.
Haiti is part of the island of Hispaniola and shares a border with the Dominican Republic. It is about one third the size of Ireland (10,714 square miles) but has a population of 9 million. Haiti is in the Caribbean and only 60 miles from Cuba and 90 minutes by air from Miami.
Haiti is the only country in the world where a slave population successfully rebelled against their colonisers, the French, and won its independence in 1804. However, the country was crippled by debt as the French demanded payment of 150 million francs in 1825 for loss of the slave colony - that's the equivalent today of 21 billion US Dollars. It took more than a century for the country to pay off this massive debt. The capital of Haiti is Port au Prince. French and Creole are the languages spoken, but mainly the latter. The gourde is the currency, but US dollars are widely accepted. 80% of the population are Catholics and voodoo is widely practiced by all.
Haiti is a deeply impoverished country - the poorest in the western hemisphere. It is 148 on the UN's Human Development Index, a measure of the country's standard of living. Sudan and Bangladesh have a higher HDI than Haiti. More than 75% of the population live below the official poverty line of 2 Dollars a day, and more than half live on less than 1 Dollar.
Almost half the population is illiterate. Unemployment stands at 54%. Only 28% of people have access to basic health care. One in twelve Haitian children die before their 5th birthday and a child dies there every hour from malnutrition. 40% of families do not have enough to eat.
All of these statistics were calculated before the earthquake of January, 2010.
Haven's first project took place in Ouanaminthe, a border town close to the Dominican Republic, in north east Haiti. There are approximately 50,000 people living in the town and another 50,000 on the outskirts. It is mainly rural and under-developed. We will build 200 new homes and upgrade 250 more in our first year of operations. Most of our beneficiaries previously lived in makeshift mud huts, often with thatched roofs. They have no running water and most have no toilet facilities. The average income of our beneficiaries in Ouanaminthe is 523 gourdes - which is just over 9 euro. Those who are working are mainly involved in agriculture or informal trading.
Gonaives is 160km north west of the capital Port au Prince. We are building on a site 3km from the city. The city has a population of approximately 350,000. Gonaives is also known as Haiti's City of Independence because it was there that Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti, (formerly known as SaintDomingue) independent from France on January 1, 1804. In September 2004, Hurricane Jeanne caused major flooding and mud slides in the city. 3,006 people were confirmed dead in Haiti, and the death toll in Gonaives was believed to have topped 2,000. Four years later, the city was again devastated by another storm Hurricane Hanna which killed 537 people.
