Stephane's Story

LIFE IN “CAMP KID” IS NO LIFE FOR KIDS

10-year-old Stephane Jerome has been living with his parents and sister in Camp Kid in Port au Prince Haiti since shortly after the January 2010 earthquake that devastated the country. Their lives are dramatically different that what it was like prior to the quake.

Before the quake Stephane’s father Frantz worked for the Red Cross and his mother, Rene Marie Helene worked at the police department. The lived in a two-bedroom apartment and both children attended school. Everything changed on January 12^th, 2010.

Rene Marie was near their apartment with Stephane and a young cousin when she heard a rumbling fill the air and felt the ground shake beneath her feet. She had no idea what an earthquake was so the quake confused and frightened her. She thought the earth was ending.

Terrified, she grabbed the childrens’ hands and raced to what she thought was the safety of their apartment. To protect the children she pushed them, and her daughter, under her bed and ran to find her husband. She only made to the next room when part of the building collapsed.

When the shaking stopped Stephane realized that he, his sister, and his cousin were unharmed. The bedroom they were in appeared to have suffered little damage other than personal items falling to the floor. Crawling from beneath the bed, however, he saw that the rest of their apartment had collapsed.

“Momma?” he called. He looked at the rubble and didn’t know if his mother was alive or dead. “Momma?” This time is was a frightened scream.

The room had collapsed on top of her, but Rene Marie was okay. She heard Stephane and the other children calling for her and managed to crawl her way out. Once free, she took the children and fled the building.

The moment the quake stopped Frantz, Stephane’s father, ran home and discovered his shaken family huddled together outside. Unsure what to do they wandered down the street and found an open garage. They spent the night there.

The next morning the family went back to look for the Rene Marie’s mother who lived close by. There were dead bodies everywhere and they had to step over the corpses as they searched. They finally found Stephane’s grandmother alive, but learned that an uncle and another cousin had been killed.

With no food or water, and only the clothes they were wearing, they started walking; hoping to find someplace the family could stay. Eventually they ran into some friends who told them about a man who had opened up his property and was letting people come and stay there. They are still in that place. It’s a makeshift tent and shack city called Camp Kid. It’s home for about 5000 people. Sporadically the government or an NGO (non-governmental organization) gives the people aid.

Alex Herbig, an Intern in Haiti working with World Wide Village, Inc. (WWV) met Stephane at a mission event he was helping with nearby. Something about Stephane caught Alex’s attention. Though language was a barrier, Alex learned Stephane’s story.

“When I asked Stephane to describe his experience during the earthquake,” Alex said, “he couldn’t look at me. He looked like he was about to cry and all he could say was, ‘It was hard. I was scared. I was just scared.” After a moment’s pause, Alex said, “The look on his face was one of the most difficult thing I’d ever witnessed.”

Alex visited the Jerome family in their new home. He describes it as “a 20’ by 20’ room with one mattress, one table and a couple of plastic chairs. The home was constructed from tin and tarps.” Alex took photos that show the sleeping arrangements for the family.

The two children share the mattress and the parents sleep on the floor. When it rains the roof provides little protection from the water and an inch or two quickly fills the ground. “I hate to think what will happen to the family, and to others living in Camp Kid, if a hurricane comes ashore or, God forbid, another earthquake strikes,” Alex noted.

The ‘streets’ of Camp Kid are narrow and strewn with garbage and debris. There is no drainage and little sanitation. Children, most no longer able to attend school, are forced to play in any nook or cranny they can find, when they are not trying to find food or money to support the family.

It’s ironic that a woman who worked for the police and a man who worked for the Red Cross are now unable to find jobs. Frantz struggles to find odd jobs that can provide food for the family, yet they still manage to send their daughter to school. There is not enough money to send Stephane, so he stays home.

It would be nice to say that Stephane’s family is the exception, but they aren’t. There are hundreds of thousands of other families in very similar situations. The need is overwhelming but organizations like World Wide Village are working hard to provide solutions to the permanent housing problem.

With a $125,000 donation from an anonymous donor, World Wide Village has launched the “Family Housing Fund.” Their approach is an economically sustainable and renewable model for building homes that is built around collaboration between the new homeowners, outside partners and supporters, and the staff of World Wide Village.

With WWV’s experience and staff in Haiti they are able to build a home for a small family for as little as $4890. They are asking groups and companies to commit to donating the cost of construction for at least one home to the “Family Housing Fund” and to sending a team to Haiti to help in its construction. A side benefit of the building trips is that the teams work with local labor and teach them quality skills they can use to build a stronger future.

The WWV model is sustainable because the new homeowner contributes 1/3 of the cost of the home by helping to build the home or by providing services to the community; 1/3 of the cost of the home is contributed by World Wide Village and its supporters; and 1/3 of the cost of the home is repaid by the homeowner through a 10 year mortgage provided by the Family Housing Fund.

“Homeowners earn their new homes in our model,” says Randy Mortensen, Executive Director of World Wide Village in St. Paul, MN. “By contributing labor or services, and by repaying a loan, the homeowner has a direct stake in the home and in improving the community. And the loan payments allow us to recycle the money into helping even more families move from tents and sheds into permanent housing.”

Broken down, the $1 million dollar goal for the Family Housing Fund will build 200 homes, but the loan repayments, with interest, will eventually help build an additional 117 homes over the next ten years, and many more into a self-sustaining future.

To find out how you can support the World Wide Village Family Housing Fund, or for help putting together a mission trip to Haiti to help build a home, contact the Team Coordinator at WWV. The Coordinator can be contacted via phone at 651-777-6908, or via email at teams@worldwidevillage.org. You can learn more about World Wide Village by visiting their website at www.worldwidevillage.org.

 Photo credit: Alex Herbig (www.alexherbigphoto.com)

Story credit: John Hagerman