A Colombian NGO that arrived in Haiti to build a neighborhood for victims of the earthquake that left 1 million people homeless has yet to lay the first brick.
According to newspaper El Colombiano, the NGO Antioquia Presente released a report showing their progress over the past year. The organization censused 213 people of the municipality of Cabaret, Department West to select 102 beneficiary families who need the most help. With land allotted from the Haitian government the NGO will build 102 houses, a cultural and community center, and two school houses. As of Monday, Corporation Antioquia Presente has not received any land from the Haitian government.
According to Corporation Antioquia Presente’s website, the steps and processes needed to create such a development vary drastically from those in Colombia and that is why it is taking time to complete. The executive director Margarita Ines Restrepo Cardenas tells El Colombiano, “We have fulfilled all requirements, we have the project formulated and the available resources and are only waiting for the accreditation (as a NGO in Haiti) and the delivery of land to build.”
Corporation Antioquia Presente hopes to actually start building later this year.
The January 12 earthquake killed 230,000 Haitans and destroyed the homes of 1 million.