Woolwich (NEWS CENTER) — An intrepid group of 40 Maine businesses have banded together to overcome obstacles of getting aid directly to Haitian people and are building a school in the devastated Haitian community of Cabaret, Haiti. They are hoping it is just the first such project they fund and oversee in Haiti.
“I think that old saying from those to whom much is given much is expected … and this is our opportunity to fulfill that promise,” says Jack Parker of Reed and Reed in Woolwich, one of the 40 members of the coalition which calls itself Maineline.
“We work with the supply chain in Maine,” says Parker. “We have vendors we have subcontractors, we have designers who work with us on a regular basis and we’re gonna reach out to them and ask for help whether its monetary services or goods we can make this thing happen.”
Darcy Pierce is an international disaster consultant from Scarborough who works with Maineline and has helped coordinate aid in many parts of the world, like Indonesia after the Tsunami. He says he’s never encountered many of the hurdles that are slowing down the rebuilding effort in Haiti. For example, most people in Haiti rent their homes.
“When it comes to rebuilding those buildings you don’t have the ability to rebuild for the intended beneficiaries because they don’t own the land,” says Pierce. “You’ve got an environment where the landowner owns the beneficiaries building and they can take it away from them and lease it to someone else.”
So in order to build the Cabaret school, Maineline teamed up with a non-governmental organization called Samaritan’s Purse that hopes to build 300 schools in Haiti. Maine businesses will donate all the necessary materials, technical and support services and hire Haitians to do the contstruction. They hope the school facilty, which will also house a social services area and a soccer field, will be up and running by next Spring.
source: wlbz2