When you think of community, what do you picture? A neighborhood cookout or beautification event? A coworker after-work gathering? A bonding of individuals through common interests like parenting meetings or children’s activities, exercise class, book group, etc.?

Those may be common methods of community building in many parts of the world, but not in rural Haiti. In outlying areas like Fondwa, your nearest neighbor may be an hour’s walk away. Because most Haitians live in multigenerational homes, their immediate family is often their only easily accessible form of community. Dropping in to borrow the proverbial cup of sugar might require a more Herculean effort than just strolling next door.

In addition to building homes designed to withstand natural disasters, Project Rouj is building communities designed to strengthen and sustain Haitian families. How are we doing that? By creating small cohorts of new homeowners, bringing them together to celebrate and share the transformative act of actually owning their own homes.

First, we established a Selection Committee made up of Fondwa leaders to help establish criteria, make decisions and prioritize home-building projects. The primary role of the Selection Committee is to vet potential Project Rouj homeowners, making sure they meet the criteria of owning one of our homes. Those criteria include owning their own piece of land, being able to obtain a reasonable mortgage loan, and completing 200 hours of sweat equity while their home is being built.

Once applicants are approved, cohorts of 8-10 families are formed. These families meet regularly and stay in contact in several ways:

• They attend seven classes taught by community leaders. While they are learning how to care for a home with a toilet that flushes (they get lessons on how to plunge), they are also building relationships.
• Because they are active participants in their house build, they help each other move materials from the main road down to the footpath to their home. This involves things like carrying concrete blocks, bags of concrete and buckets of sand to make sure the construction workers have what they need to build their home.
• When the homes are finished, they  gather for each other’s dedications to celebrate as a community.

Because they don’t have email, and very few have phones, if they really need to get a message to someone, they either walk to their home or send a note with a child to deliver. So, while they don’t live right next door to each other, they have now expanded their world and their support system in a place that often feels fractured and fragile.

Your gifts to support Project Rouj aren’t just providing modern kitchens, cement floors instead of dirt, indoor plumbing instead of outhouses and putting red roofs over heads. Your gifts are building community in a world where community doesn’t happen organically.