It pays to get stuck in: Cash for Work in Haiti

by Marion Aberle

Construction workers in Jacmel, Haiti with red
helmets and green T-shirts of Welthungerhilfe.
© AberleJacmel must once have been a really beautiful town. Perhaps a bit like New Orleans with its carved wooden balconies dating from colonial times. But since the 12th of January everything has changed. As in the capital, Port-au-Prince, in this town in the south of the country you get the impression that a demented, cruel giant has been on the rampage. Destroyed houses, ruins everywhere. "That was a school", says Jean Véa Dieudonné in a flat voice. "Eight dead". Jacmel has 40,000 inhabitants, there were 500 deaths.

Véa is a coordinator of the Cash for Work measures working on behalf of Welthungerhilfe. The inhabitants are clearing away the rubble, they're setting about the reconstruction and they get a wage for doing so. Véa is a victim himself. He could only watch helplessly from outside his house as it collapsed, burying his son beneath it. Now he’s trying to get over the grief and pain by working.

Vea (left) briefs workers on
their tasks. © AberleFive Dollars per day

He coordinates 20 construction teams. Wherever he goes, there's a flurry of interest. Véa explains things, gesticulates and repeatedly wipes the sweat from his face. The level of interest is high. The inhabitants of this part of town repeatedly hand him lists of the names of those who also want to take part in the Cash for Work programme, financed by ECHO. And he repeatedly explains patiently that the owners of the houses affected will benefit from the programme initially, then the town's inhabitants, and later other people as well.

Many people also want to know where the money is coming from. And Véa tells them about far-off Germany where the people, alarmed by the terrible pictures, have donated money for Haiti. Each worker receives five dollars, about four Euros, per day. Only one person per family can take part. It's a lot in this poverty-stricken country, and yet not enough. For Haiti has to import roughly half of its basic foodstuffs and most of all other goods because it hardly produces anything itself. Life is therefore expensive.

Revitalizing trade

The Cash for Work programme contributes towards reviving the regional economy. And it clears away the consequences of the earthquake. Most houses are so damaged that there is no question of repairing them. And so, many people in Jacmel are busy hammering the rubble that was once their home into smaller pieces so that it can be carried way, first in wheelbarrows, then in lorries.

Strong women: Brimé
Francoise and Jean
Roselanne. © AberleTwo of them are Jean Roselanne und Brimé Francoise. Whilst their husbands in green Welthungerhilfe T-shirts are in discussion with Véa, they just keep on shovelling, non-stop. "Work helps us not to think about things so much", says Roselanne. "Somehow we've just got to carry on."

They need a roof over their heads again. And under no circumstances do they want to abandon their land. Because in Haiti there's no land registry and no land register. If someone leaves their land and it is claimed by somebody else, it is not possible for him to seek the enforcement of his land rights.

Tents for the rainy season

This is why Welthungerhilfe distributes tents as soon as lots of land have been cleared. For it's not clear how the reconstruction of houses can be paid for. And that takes time. But the inhabitants of Jacmel can't wait, because the rainy season is about to begin.

Mona Lapaienne has already moved into such a tent. She too has lost a child, who was called Vana. Because she is one of the first to have a tent she has taken in relatives so that fourteen people are now living on top of one another, but they know that the aid from Germany will continue, and soon more people will be able to live in tents.  


Around the corner, a large pot is bubbling away. Head cook Desir Marie is cooking for a 20-strong construction group.  There are beans in a mushroom pepper sauce with rice. This too is funded by Welthungerhilfe. The work is hard. Hammering, shovelling, lugging stones around, cutting up iron bars, and the dust is everywhere. The face masks are already unusable after three days.

Change of location. Cayes-Jacmel, a rural suburb of Jacmel. Here you see almost no men - most of them are working in Port-au-Prince or in the United States because there are hardly any opportunities for earning an income in Haiti. The women do a bit of agricultural work in addition in order to be able to feed their children. There are bananas here, and papaws. It's enough to survive on. But what do you do if the wall of your house suddenly collapses, or the roof needs fixing?

That's why Jesula Louis was overjoyed when Welthungerhilfe sent over a local architect and paid for the cost of the building materials. She and her neighbour then did all they could themselves to lend a hand with the work. Now all four walls are standing again and the roof is watertight. "I'm so happy", she says. "I can't just let the children sleep in the rain. Thank you for everything."