Verrettes is hosting Jacmel evacuees

Verrettes, Haiti – after the January 12 earthquake many homes in Jacmel were left unlivable, and many of Jacmel homeless needed a new place to call home. The obvious thing would have been a tent in a public park and wait for the international aid to arrive.

However, some of the residence with the help of their government decided to search for another suitable living condition, this is what we would call a homemade solution. They decided the best thing for them was to follow their predecessors.

Verrettes – a quiet city in the Artibonite region known for its low crime rate, its many schools for a small town, self-sufficiency, nightlife, small town feeling, its rural surrounding, and its urbanization development aim sounds just like the ideal place for the newly homeless Jacmelien.

Verrettes families are also in mourning, many had sent their children to universities in Port-au-Prince. Many of their children died or were injured in the earthquake. They also lost their senator; his body was found in the National Palace and returned to Verrettes where a funeral was held a week later.

The birthplace of President Dumarsais Estimé, the city once hosted Jacmelien fleeing a similar natural disaster in the late 1970s and early 1980s; Verrettes has been relatively sheltered from many of Haiti’s political turmoil and natural disasters.

About 300 Jacmelien are now living in Verrettes and are calling La Providence their new home.

La providence is a privately owned elementary school in Verrettes, known for teaching mostly children from Verrettes and Deschapelle is now being use as a temporally refuge for the homeless.

They are not receiving any aid from their government nor are they receiving aid from the international community; most are using their own money to pay for their meals and drinking water which has caused local goods and services to inflate.

In the early 1980s many Jacmelien remained in Verrettes after the city hosted them, and according to some of the earthquake victims they are looking forward to calling Verrettes their new home.

Join TNHP @ http://newhaitiproject.ning.com/