Homes for Haiti

A whole bunch of you recently bought necklaces from the Apparent Project at my open house, out of my suitcase back in the States, and at the baby shower of a very gracious lady. (Shopping at baby showers: so hot right now!) The Project has been helping landowners build homes on their land, but they are about to run out of owned land--and if they build houses on rented land, that could lead to all sorts of ugliness down the road--see this quote from their blog for further explanation and for what they plan to do next:

In our home building efforts, we only build homes for people who own the land they live on.  We know that if we built homes on rented land, the tenants would be kicked off as the landlords claimed the newly built homes, or they would be charged a higher rent for the land.  Renewed land disputes are also a real danger if we build homes on land that previously held little value to the competing claims of multiple landlords.  The slum area that we have served is running out of undisputed land in the hands of the poor.  We can only build a few more houses before we begin building for tent-dwellers who have no land of their own.  We are excited that this is pushing us into the difficult task of bringing Jubilee to the poor.  We need to buy land and redistribute it amongst the poor.

We will start with those of our artisans who have no property and live in tents with their children.  Our hope is that if we buy a big enough piece of land, we can create an intentional community planned around an infrastructure that would eventually allow for electricity, rudimentary plumbing, gardening, and common areas for community gathering, church, and play.  Part of the concept is that if our artisans all lived in one cohesive group, their community of creativity would also invite a small tourist economy.  Croix du Bouquets has something like this already because all of Haiti’s premiere iron sculptors live in an artisan’s community there.  It is a hot spot for visitors to Haiti to visit, purchase artwork and gifts, but is much farther than we are from the heart of Port Au Prince.  Why not create a similar community of artisans making jewelry, journals, baskets, hats, funky sewn handbags and other kinds of artisan crafts? We think this could further stabilize the creative work that the Apparent Project has begun with our amazing Haitian friends, would provide them with more space to do their work, and create a safety and camaraderie in increasing the ways in which the artisans can share life and resources together.

Maybe that sentence about buying land and redistributing it to the poor scares some of my more staunchly conservative friends. But remember, the whole point of the Project is to equip these people to support themselves through their own work:

"We are finding creative ways for Haitians to be self-employed so that they can take care of their own children with dignity and joy."
Such a desperate situation as exists in Haiti calls for desperate measures. Please give something. Also, you can now shop online.