Thirty-two houses that each have two bedrooms, the uncommon feature of bathrooms with flushing toilets, a living area and a porch are expected to be completed by early February on the Haitian island of LaGonave.
The homes won’t have a kitchen because the majority of Haitians cook over charcoal or wood.
It’s part of a women’s village planned by a Tea-based nonprofit, Haiti Alive, which has been an integral part of the island while the country has faced natural disasters such as earthquakes, rising gang violence and an assassination of a president in 2021, according to the Humans Rights Watch.
Bruce Blumer, a co-founder with his wife Sharon, started Haiti Alive in 2013 after re-visiting the island and villages after talking with residents of the island.
“It was just really clear from all the people that they really wanted support, education, healthcare and how difficult life is for women, children and the elderly,” Blumer said. “And so, we just started small. And we started giving some scholarships, and we tried to send some medicine. We do feeding programs. And then it started to grow.”
Blumer estimates now he’s been to the country 14 times, including 2010 when a devastating earthquake occurred. While LaGonave didn’t see the high number of deaths compared to other islands and cities in the country at the time, Blumer knew the country and LaGonave needed help, so he took action.
Finding the organization after being in Haiti during 2010 earthquake
Blumer’s passion for Haiti started back in 2003, when he took a mission trip to Haiti through the United Methodist Church in Mitchell.
His second trip came five years later, in 2008, which he said felt “too long.” In 2015, the 286-square-mile island’s population was reportedly 87,000 people.
“Honestly, it feels like South Dakota. It’s more rural. It’s more laid back. It’s quieter,” Blumer said. “I mean, I just feel connected there.”
In 2010, when a devastating earthquake hit the country, Blumer was on the island in a medical clinic. That’s when he said it sounded like a train was near them. However, the island has no trains, he said.
“We weren’t part of all the terrible death and destruction, but it was a very difficult time to get out of the country,” Blumer said. “… I knew I needed to do something there.”
So, after the mission trips started to grow too big for the church, Blumer, along with his wife Sharon, established a nonprofit, LaGonave Alive in 2013. Since then, the organization has changed its name to Haiti Alive in hopes to be more recognizable.
“In 2011, I went back to see and just kind of chipped away and tried to do some small things and tried to be helpful where we could, and it’s just grown way beyond any of my imaginations for sure,” Blumer said.
Haiti Alive Women’s Village aimed to give assets to women
Blumer said the women, especially, face a significant number of challenges. Oftentimes, Blumer said, the women become the person who care of the children.
“It’s long been my desire in just how difficult life is for women (in Haiti),” Blumer said. “… There’s this mud flat area and they allow people to live there for free, and so you get the people, women typically, who are very poor living in this mud flat area. It floods, it’s terrible and muddy … It’s just a horrible place to live. I was just like ‘How can we help the women? How do we get them out of that mud flat area?'”
Thanks to a large, anonymous donation, who is supportive of the village project, the organization went ahead with it by purchasing land and finding a local builder. Currently, plans for the women’s village includes those 32 houses, and the organization has funding for 40 houses. But, the organization hopes to add an another 32, for a total of 64.
Each home requires about $10,000 to build, the organization said.
“$10,000 is a lot of money,” Blumer said. “But you think about building an entire home for a person and changing their life, $10,000 is a pretty small fee compared to what we would build a home for here.”
The houses are roughly 26-feet-by-20-feet, small by typical American standards, but the reaction has been one of surprise.
“They are small by our (American) standards, but we had someone come through and they said, ‘This organization must care about people, because these are (a) really nice size,’” Blumer said. “And they actually figured they were bigger than (where) most people live in (Haiti).”
With the organization’s focus on women in mind, Blumer said the group is “gifting the houses to the women.” Those who receive a house are required to sign and agreement and agree to some regulations.
“They will be a homeowner, so they will have some assets,” Blumer said. “One of the stipulations is that they can never give it to a man. It has to be given to another woman. It can be a daughter, it could be a sister or it could be a friend, but it’s kind of how the culture works there. If you give it to a man, it kind of gets taken over and we want the asset to be for the woman, so she has an asset in the future.”
Haiti Alive, which isn’t looking to be landlords for the properties, is also asking those who receive homes in the village to not sell for the next 10 years to maintain their assets for that future.
Along with the houses, the nonprofit is introducing some amenities that, they say, aren’t common in the country, including a flush toilet.
“Most of the people will have never used a flush toilet in their life, and so we’re actually going to have some women that are going to teach these families how to use a flush toilet and that goes into a septic system,” Blumer said.
Dr. William Hyppolite, who serves as a doctor and “ground leader” for the organization, said they currently have a list of about 300 people looking to move into one of the houses.
One such woman is 58-year-old Merilia Colin, a single mother with 12 kids. She is one of 32 women who will receive a house sponsored by Haiti Alive so far.
While giving birth to her youngest twins, Colin had to have an emergency surgery, because of a complication with the babies. While in the C-section recovery room, Colin received the news her husband had passed away suddenly. That was in 2012.
In 2019, she and her family had to move from the south part of the island, eventually landing in Anse-à-Galets, in hopes of finding a job. She said she’s now a house cleaner or temporary maid.
“I clean houses or wash clothes in exchange for money or food for me and my family,” Colin told the organization. “Life is hard, but I believe if I keep forcing myself to provide for the children, someday my situation will change for the better.”
Colin will move into her home as part of the Women’s Village in February, Blumer said.
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Haiti Alive provides medical care to students, island residents
The nonprofit’s efforts don’t stop at housing though. While Blumer is located in South Dakota, Hyppolite serves as the medical doctor and “leader” in Haiti.
Blumer said he first met Hyppolite in 2008 when he was an orphan who was living with a pastor on the island. After finishing school, Hyppolite wanted to study medicine, so the church supported him to go to medical school.
He started in 2009 at school, but Hyppolite said that in 2010, during the earthquake, his school collapsed, killing many of his classmates and teachers. Hyppolite then headed to the Dominican Republic to continue his education to become a doctor. After 2016, Hyppolite said he finished school and returned to LaGonave to work for the organization.
Hyppolite, who has lived on the island for 25 years, also serves as the coordinator for the program on the ground. The organization has three doctors, an OBGYN and seven nurses, he said.
On the island, Haiti Alive has two clinics, Hyppolite said, one connected to a school, and another one in the commune of Anse-à-Galets.
“Sometimes, we do a lot of mobile clinics,” he said. “We bring nurses, medicine and doctors to the mountain to see the people, because sometimes people have to spend three or four hours on a motorcycle to come to the main city to see a doctor.”
The organization has also tried to make the clinic in the commune a “paid clinic,” for those who can afford it.
“We’re trying to have that clinic be self-sustaining,” Blumer said.
The clinic connected to the school though is a free clinic. The organization has converted the old kitchen of the school into a labor and delivery area, Blumer said.
“We’re getting more people than we know what to do with,” Blumer said. “… You’re getting so many women that need a place for labor deliver and that’s attached on the school.”
On the island, there’s only one “main” hospital sponsored by the Weselyan Church, Blumer said. In that hospital, there are beds for people to stay. For most surgeries or higher-intensive care, patients have to be taken to the main island.
“Our medical clinics, if they find something, someone that needs surgery, they have to go to Port-au-Prince,” Blumer said. “So it’s just really a difficult place to live, and that’s kind of why we feel called to work there.”
Hyppolite said one way people get to Port-au-Prince, the country’s most populated island, is by boat. People can also choose to fly by small planes, which typically have five to seven seats.
The organization has had a clinic on the island since 2016, Blumer said. And when Hyppolite was in medical school, the organization was doing sporadic mobile clinics.
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Rob Marchand Institute educates about 170 students
Along with providing housing and medical care, Haiti Alive has also aimed to educate students.
Initially, the organization started out with awarding a handful of scholarships. Since then, the organization has grown its education opportunities exponentially.
Now Haiti Alive has a two-level school, where they teach students from 1-8, called the Rob Marchand Institute, after Blumer’s late best friend, who had cancer. There’s about 170 students in the school.
In 2017, the organization saw a need for education, and constructed a five-classroom building, Blumer said.
“We realized if we want to keep growing, we have to build a second floor,” Blumer said. “And so in 2020, we had the second floor built and we just keep adding one grade a year.”
Next year, Haiti Alive will be able to teach kids into the ninth grade, but won’t go any higher than that, Blumer said.
At the Rob Marchand Institute, students are given uniforms and a meal everyday. The organization says that $120 per year provides students with uniforms, meals and education.
In Haiti, education can be expensive, Hyppolite said. He estimated about 60% of schools in the country are private schools. While there are public schools, Hyppolite said teachers often don’t get paid and children can go weeks, almost months, without ever seeing their teacher, leading to parents opting for private schools.
“People have to fight every day to find something to eat, or to pay (for) school. In some places, parents have to choose between sending the kids to school or feeding them, because they don’t have enough money to do that,” Hyppolite said.
In Haiti, Hyppolite said secondary schools typically go through Grade 13, which leaves him feeling uneasy.
“My biggest concern is what they’re going to do after Grade 9,” Hyppolite said. “Most of them won’t be able to finish school, because they don’t have money to pay for another school.”
“We don’t have a secondary school. We just don’t have the funds to do that, to afford that, so some will go into high school, and some, their education will end at ninth grade,” Blumer added.
Along with schooling, the organization puts on a Christmas Program for the children each year.
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Other programs
Along with education, providing housing and medical care, the organization works hard to supply the island with food to those in need. Lately, however, it’s been an issue. With a surge of gang violence in Haiti, some organizations are no longer shipping to the country, Blumer said.
“They’re not sending (food) there right now, because it’s just not safe. And so that’s really impacted us … Food has just gotten very expensive there, so it’s become more difficult to buy food and things like that,” Blumer said. “… We just can’t get (packets) into the country right now, because it’s just very difficult there right now.”
And, if you can afford food, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can get it, Hyppolite said.
“On the island, where I am right now, you can have the money, but you can’t find anything to buy,” he said. “When the gang’s leaders are fighting or they decide to stop everything. So it’s very difficult for us to get food. The last two months, it was very difficult, but for now, it’s better.”
To give to the organization, visit HaitiAlive.org/donate. A 100% of what donors give goes to support the ministry or the school or the home or feeding programs, Blummer said.
“The kind of program we have here makes a big difference in the life of young people,” Hyppolite added
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