Making stoves and changing lives in Haiti

[ScienceRocks]

Making stoves and changing lives in Haiti

Disaster struck Haitian stove-maker Duquesne Fednard only a week after his workers were trained and ready to start production.

The January 2010 earthquake killed more than 220,000 people and made more than 1.5 million homeless in Haiti.

Mr Fednard's new stove-making factory was destroyed, along with all but two pieces of equipment.

He had been in New York at the time of the quake. Mr Fednard returned to Haiti six weeks later and called a meeting with his 15 employees to tell them that with everything destroyed the business was over.

"It was a tough, tough moment," he says. "When I saw that I thought, 'OK, I guess that's the end for me.' "

BBC News - Making stoves and changing lives in Haiti

 

[TheOldSchool]

I'm amazed that this isn't a thread about how black people can't be trusted to make stoves! That's a big step forward for you Matthew congrats!

 

[waltky]

Haitians still homeless 3 years after earthquake...

GAO: After $230M in U.S. Aid Thousands of Haitians Still Homeless
November 27, 2013 - A GAO report found that three years after the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was given $651 million for reconstruction efforts in Haiti, only $229.5 million (35%) has been disbursed, and construction for a projected 15,000 permanent homes has been scaled back by 80 percent – to 2,649 – and delayed by two years.

This means that while originally 75,000 to 90,000 Haitians would have had access to housing, that number is now reduced to the 13,200 - 15,900 range. These decreases came about due to miscalculations of costs and the Haitian government’s request for “larger houses with improvements such as flush toilets,” according to the report. The report details several miscalculations on the costs for building permanent housing, port construction, an industrial park, and an electrical power plant. There are also significant delays with each of these projects.

On Jan. 12, 2010 an earthquake in Haiti displaced 2 million people and caused an estimated 230,000 deaths and 300,000 injuries. After the earthquake, Congress passed the Supplemental Appropriations Act with $1.14 billion allocated to reconstruction in Haiti. Of that, USAID is responsible for allocating $651 million. USAID has allocated $72.5 million to plan and build a new port in northern Haiti. As of June 2013, the agency obligated only $4.3 million (6%) because of planning delays. There was no staff in Haiti with the technical expertise needed in either construction, oversight or planning to build the port. There was also no port engineer available to oversee the project.

A youth searches for recoverable items left behind by people evicted from the camp that had been set up for people displaced by the 2010 earthquake near the national stadium in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, April 22, 2013. Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told The Associated Press Monday night that there were “some” landowners who were responsible for forced evictions but it was not something the government endorsed. A report by the global advocacy group Amnesty International says forced evictions violate the rights of displaced people at all stages: threats prior to an eviction, violence during eviction and homelessness afterward, and that Haiti has violated international human rights obligations by failing to protect displaced people.

According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, more studies are needed to determine the feasibility of building the port, and these studies will take between 18 months and 2 years. Estimates on the time to build the port were originally 2.5 years but have now ballooned to 10 years, depending on how complex the port design will be. The costs to build the port also remain uncertain, with a feasibility study showing a cost ranging from $185 to $257 million. Given that USAID planned to pay $68 million for the port, this leaves a substantial gap of $117 million to $189 million.

As of Oct. 9, 2013 when the GAO report was released, it is unclear that the Haitian government will be able to find a private sector company willing to finance the rest of the port building project. The GAO report states that the first phase of building for the power plant was completed, but the rest of the project is now on hold due to delays with the port. The sustainability of the port, the industrial park, and the power plant are interdependent. USAID also has plans for expanding the power plant’s capacity to at least 25 megawatts and to build a solar energy farm of at least 2 megawatts.

GAO: After $230M in U.S. Aid Thousands of Haitians Still Homeless | CNS News

 

[ScienceRocks]

How sicking. Can't even pick up their own fucking mess