Un techo para mi pais: emergency and social inclusion

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On Tuesday January 12, 2010 Haiti was rocked by an earthquake that resulted in the destruction of large swathes of Port-au-Prince, the deaths of more than 200,000 people and has left over 3 million homeless (30% of Haiti¿s total population) and emotionally and socially vulnerable.The proposed project will finance the construction of 2,000 pre-fabricated emergency shelters and the provision of income generating capacity, as employee or entrepreneur, for beneficiary families in Port-au-Prince Haiti by Un Techo para mi País (UTPMP), a Chile-based, youth-led NGO that employs volunteer student labor to build homes for the poor in Latin America and the Caribbean. UTPMP¿s development model focuses on the satisfaction of the basic needs of poor populations that lack a stable source of income. It is this poor, un- and under-employed population in Haiti that will most likely encounter the most barriers to accessing the housing and employment opportunities that may arise during the country¿s reconstruction.UTPMP begins its relationship with these communities by providing basic wooden 18 square meter emergency shelters. Through the construction of the shelters, UTPMP builds trust and self esteem in the communities it reaches in order to commence with its second stage¿support for the integration of beneficiaries into the formal economy through skills training services and community building efforts (habilitación social). UTPMP¿s goal is that families, once they secure a stable source of income, will accumulate the necessary resources to make them eligible for permanent housing, stage three of the UTPMP development model.