She shoos a barefoot neighbor child off her garden, which lines her front porch with pebbles, flowers, and baby trees.
“Off! Off!”
Nancy’s face softens to a smile as she proudly displays her new home.
“I moved in March 23,” she tells us through a translator, and if we had asked her the length of her homelessness, I bet she could have told us down to the minute. Nancy’s family was one of the first families to receive a home through New Story.
A little over two months later, our vision trip team was able to see the impact New Story has had in her life.
Just as she keeps her garden kept, Nancy holds herself to keep her home clean, brushing or washing away any dirt that might cross her path.
“If the wall is dirty, I clean it too,” Nancy says.
With her permission, we enter her property, passing through the cactus fence, a common sight in Haiti.
“It’s cheap and keeps people out,” our leader explains.
Next to the three cement steps leading to her porch are ten baskets of charcoal.
“I remember Nancy saying she wanted to start a charcoal business when she had a house!” Brett, New Story’s co-founder, tells us.
The day she received her home, her exact words were, “I would like to start a business. I can sell charcoal and oranges.”
Just two months later from that statement, she is running a small operation right outside of her front door, providing essential support for her family.
This would have never been possible without New Story’s donors.
Looking inside her immaculately decorated home (thin curtains decorate each door frame), it’s hard to believe that until recently, her family of three was living in an unlivable tarp tent. Now that her family has a home, she says they live a good life and are always happy.
“Living in the shelter is a very difficult life,” Nancy shares. “I was so afraid because the sun is hot, but now there’s no suffering for me anymore.”
Nancy’s charcoal business is just the beginning of her new life. She has started planting plantains and beans in her backyard, which she can use to feed her family or sell.
“I would like to make my yard more beautiful; I want to plant orange and mango trees.”
Standing in her doorway, we ask her: what does a home mean to you?
“A home means a lot to me,” Nancy says. “But I keep praying for all the people who still live in the blue tents, so one day they can have homes too.”
To view the before and after video of Nancy’s story, visit http://newstorycharity.org/nancy-family.
*Note: Nancy and her family switched houses after they moved, thus the color of her current house is different than the one in the video on our website.
