Cross International

These simple but sturdy cement homes represent an amazing value at just $5,500.  The ministry, which also includes outreaches to the poor and elderly, wants to provide better shelter to farming families currently living in tiny, leaky shacks.  As ministry leader Fr. Glenn Meaux says, a house like this gives the poor dignity and hope – and Cross Catholic wants to help provide that blessing to as many needy families as possible in the year ahead.

Description:
Provide poor Haitian families with a simple cement house, a ½-acre plot of farmland, agricultural training, seeds, tools and a three-year farming subsidy.

	Destitute families of Kobonal, Haiti live in shanties that are vulnerable to rain, pests and thieves. With no way to improve their living conditions, these families are vulnerable to feeling hopeless, worthless, and resigned to perpetual poverty.

Purpose:
To give destitute families living in deplorable conditions the dignity of a safe, sturdy home, and the ability to become self-sufficient.

Cost:
Each house costs approximately $5,500, depending on the size of the family.

Location:
Six hour’s drive over broken, washed-out roads from the capital of Port-au-Prince, lies Kobonal, in Haiti’s Central Plateau. A remote farming community in the Diocese of Hinche, Kobonal has been isolated and basically ignored.

Goals:

1. Provide not only physical shelter for families living in shacks, but also human dignity and the accompanying motivation to become self-sustaining and productive.
2. Build a sense of community and accountability among the families, thus fostering a healthy social and economic climate.
3. Enable each family to become a landowner, homeowner and self-supporting farmer within three years.

Project Highlights:

• When Fr. Glenn Meaux arrived to establish Kobonal Haiti Mission on behalf of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, he found abject poverty, deplorable living conditions, and people dying of starvation.
• Frequent torrential rains in this area leak through the thatched roofs of flimsy shacks, turning dirt floors to mud. Babies must be held until the rain stops and the mud dries.
• The earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 has created even greater need for the mission’s outreach programs, including housing. 
• Fr. Meaux, with support from Cross International Catholic Outreach, will provide Kobonal’s most destitute families with a simple concrete home and a plot of farmland.
• Prior to moving into their new home, each family must agree to keep their area clean, and to plant fruit trees and a small farm.
• Subsidies, provided in a declining schedule over three years, will support the farmers as their farms become mature.
• Kobonal Haiti Mission agrees to buy some of the family’s crops each year to use in school feeding programs.

$5,500 builds a home!
(you may also make a partial gift)

View Proposal (Click Image Below)