More than a year after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake off Port-au-Prince, Haiti left 1.3 million Haitians living in tent cities, it is estimated that 70 percent of those people are still living in their tents. Barrels of Hope is looking to change that.
Barrels of Hope is a nonprofit organization that formed in response to the Jan. 2010 earthquake with the intention of pooling resources and expertise to supply shelter for victims. According to Ryan Scott, Barrels of Hope director of operations, the world has moved on from the disaster. Although large amounts of money, food and transitional shelter were donated after the quake, there was no plan for what the shelters would transition to.
Scott said that rubble is slowly being cleared from residential areas allowing some families to leave the tent cities, but they are still living in their tents. Building practices are completely unregulated, and any reconstruction is done according to old, inferior regulations. The country has few trained civil engineers to regulate how many beams should be in a house or the proper cement to use in construction. Scott believes Barrels of Hope can meet the needs of Haiti, and of areas struck by future disasters. All they need is one barrel.
Each 55-gallon rain barrel that Barrels of Hope sends contains about 500 50-pound feed grain bags and two spools of barbed wire – enough to build a 10’ x 10’ one-room house. Scott said they can build a 2 room house for less than $2500, which is less than half what it would cost to build the same house with current methods.
The bags are filled with earth and clay – free resources – from the chosen construction site, placed like bricks and tamped down, then secured to each layer with barbed wire. The bags are covered with chicken wire, then in plaster which gives the appearance of a traditional cinderblock home. Finally, a roof is secured to the foundation and a gutter system is attached to the rain barrel, providing fresh water for the family.
Basically, they have built a bunker with 16-inch thick walls – a building-type the United States Army has tested and used for years. Scott said they can incorporate hurricane strapping into the construction, providing 25,000 pounds of earth as hurricane-resistance.
The Barrels of Hope plan has two phases. Initially, it would fund and manage six houses, training local crews in the building process and gaining support from the community. While this provides housing for families, it also acts as economic stimulus and provides job training for people desperate for work.
Once it has its local construction teams, Barrels of Hope would transition to a supply role, helping families and builders get their supplies as cheaply as possible. Currently, Scott said Barrels of Hope is doing hurricane testing to ensure the homes meet Florida building codes. Recently, working with the University of Florida chapter of Engineers Without Borders, the houses withstood a hurricane-wind pressure test up to 130 mph and a 90 mph impact from a two-by-four.
Scott hopes the Cade Prize will help Barrels of Hope complete its first phase in Haiti. So far, its team has built two houses and hopes to build four more while training its first local construction crew. Scott believes the prize will be a great investment that the nonprofit can earn back quickly once it shifts to a logistical and support role for the builders in Haiti.
To find out more about the Cade Prize, visit CadeMuseum.org and keep an eye on the blog for more on the Cade Prize Sweet 16. Click here to see past profiles.
