Homeless in Haiti: how a young earthquake survivor overcame the odds
On 12 January, 2010, a catastrophic earthquake devastated the small nation of Haiti, leaving 1.5 million people homeless. With your support, our partners helped 185,000 earthquake survivors, including 30-year-old Patrick Lafontant. Eight years after the disaster, Patrick sat down with our Haiti Programme Officer, Jocelyn Numa, to share his story.
Ten years ago, Patrick Lafontant was living on the streets of Carrefour Feuilles, a slum district in the south-east of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
Patrick had never known his father. His mother was so poor that she couldn’t afford to care for him: she had other children and wasn’t able to pay for Patrick’s food, housing or schooling on a regular basis.
That meant that between 2006 and 2008, in his late teens, Patrick moved from one house to another. Occasionally an aunt or uncle would look after him, in exchange for domestic work. Sometimes he had to sleep on the streets. It was an unstable, unsafe life.
As a boy, Patrick had attended events at a centre in Carrefour Feuilles run by a local organisation called APROSIFA: a partner of Christian Aid who support poor and vulnerable families in the neighborhood.
Things changed for Patrick when, in 2008, he entered a drawing contest organised by APROSIFA: the theme was climate change and violence. His natural talent attracted the judges’ attention.
As a finalist Patrick was invited to join APROSIFA’s youth club as a student painter, under the tuition of professional Haitian painters. Supported by Christian Aid, this APROSIFA art project was designed to give girls and boys alternatives to gang-related activities, violence and prostitution, and to promote peace, learning, creativity and innovation.
After the contest, Patrick’s uncle spotted his potential and invited him to live with him. As a student painter, he was passionate, diligent and dreamt of becoming a well-known artist.
After the shock
Two years later, on 12 January 2010, Patrick’s life was shaken to the core. Measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, the earthquake was the worst in Haitians’ living memory. It destroyed or badly damaged nearly 300,000 buildings, killed an estimated 220,000 people and injured 300,000 more.
The house where Patrick lived was totally destroyed. His sister suffered wounds to her feet and head. Like 1.5 million fellow Haitians, his family were made homeless in less than a minute.
Patrick had heard about a humanitarian camp that was sheltering people who had lost their homes: he decided to go and stay there with his mother and sister.
For weeks, APROSIFA staff searched for Patrick, so that they could support him and his family. A month after the quake, they finally found him. With APROSIFA’s support, Patrick and his family eventually started rebuilding their life. And he began to paint again.
Patrick’s artwork has since gained recognition, both inside and outside his community. He has appeared on national TV and has become respected as a talented artist whose work expresses hope, and gives a voice to the voiceless.
Four months after the earthquake, Patrick participated in an exhibition in neighbouring Dominican Republic, with APROSIFA’s support. In December 2011, he and three other APROSIFA youth club painters travelled to the Netherlands, to showcase their work at an exhibition in Utrecht.
Since then, Patrick has taken part in several exhibitions in Haiti, and has sold some of his work. Just last month, the Haitian First Lady bought one of his paintings. Patrick says he is deeply honoured by this recognition, and is grateful for the help Christian Aid and APROSIFA have given him.
‘My life is much better now’
Patrick, now 30, currently works as a monitor for youth students at the APROSIFA centre, teaching painting to new recruits. With the wages from this part-time job and his art, he is now able to support his family.
‘When I sell my paintings, I used the profit to support my mum and sisters’, he says. ‘ I even helped my mother to build a new house, in the north of Port-au-Prince.’
Reflecting on how far he has come, Patrick says: ‘I have travelled a lot; my community and other people know me because of my art and the many exhibitions. I managed to save some money and my life is much better now. With my savings I bought a piece of land in a nicer area, called Mayer.’
Patrick’s dream is to build a house and have a family: ‘For now, I am renting my house. One day, I will have my own house. I am very satisfied with the partnership between Christian-Aid and APROSIFA. It helped me to be who I am today.
‘My message to other young people, especially the ones who are living in vulnerable neighbourhoods is this: take courage, you can change the course of your life with some support. We all have some kind of talent; find yours. I managed to do it, you can do it too.’
‘There is still a lot to be done’
With your support, we raised more than £14 million for people affected by the earthquake, and helped 185,000 Haitians to get back on their feet. With our local partners, we provided water, food, cash, seeds, tools, shelter and social support. In the longer-term, we have been supporting communities to become more resilient so they can recover quickly from future disasters.
‘Christian Aid managed to build 700 sturdy houses after the earthquake, and construct 1,195 new roofs after Hurricane Matthew — and we are building 69 new houses now,’ says our Haiti County Manager, Prospery Raymond. These 700 earthquake-resistant homes played a critical role in providing shelter when Hurricane Matthew hit in 2016.
Prospery adds: ‘We are supporting better training for masons and more use of sturdier materials for better houses in Haiti. We are working closely with the Haitian government to have better legislation and policies on safe and affordable houses.’
But the work is not yet over: ‘There are around 25,000 people still living in tents,’ says Prospery. ‘The number is decreasing year after year, but there is still a lot to be done. We still have around 2 million people in need of humanitarian support, according to the United Nations in Haiti.’
These 25,000 Haitians are some of the 40 million people worldwide who are displaced within their own countries. We believe the world can, and must, do better. That’s why, this year — including during Christian Aid Week 2018 — we’ll be asking you to help support displaced people in Haiti, and elsewhere, so they can life in safety and withstand the storms of life.
To find out more about our work in Haiti, visit https://www.christianaid.org.uk/about-us/where-we-work/haiti or email haiti-dr-info@christian-aid.org
