LESLIE BUCKLEY,entrepreneur and philanthropist recalls the Haitian earthquake of 2010 and suggests why it shouldn't be forgotten
How did you become involved in Haiti?
Well, I’m vice-chairman of Digicel. When we launched in Haiti about six years ago, Denis O’Brien set up a Digicel Foundation there. The aim was to build 20 schools in 12 months. At the time, I had been doing some work with John O’Shea in Goal. So I went and visited Haiti and was appalled by the living conditions.
You founded the Haven charity with €1 million of your own money in 2009. Were you optimistic about the country’s future at that point?
Yes, our initial mission was to build 200 homes. Hundreds of volunteers from all over Ireland raised €4,000 each and then travelled to Haiti for a week to help with the construction. That was our first Build It Week. It took place in October 2009 and it was an immensely positive experience.
Three months later, a devastating earthquake struck Port au Prince. What do you remember about that day?
I’ll never forget it. I was at home in Ireland when I got a call from someone telling me to turn on Sky News. Honestly, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. In all the chaos, it took me four or five days to get into the country on a relief plane.
There have been so many disasters and calamities around the world recently, people might forget the scale of this one. Remind us.
It was horrendous. There were bodies everywhere: 230,000 were killed, 1.5 million people homeless. Three quarters of all buildings were destroyed. That included the parliament, the presidential palace, the airport, seaport, the prison, the UN mission. If a catastrophe like this occurred in Ireland, my God, at least we have an infrastructure and a reasonably stable government. But Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. They were running the country from a shed at that stage.
Did the houses you’d built in October survive?
They did, thank God. We were very fortunate in that we’d built them up on the north east coast, near the border with the Dominican Republic away from the epicentre of the earthquake.
How did Haven respond to the tragedy?
My initial commitment was to build 3,000 homes. But when I met President Préval after the quake, I told him Haven would build 10,000. So far we’ve built 2,500.That’s the reason we’re highlighting the second anniversary of the earthquake now. Haiti has all but disappeared from the headlines. It has disappeared from our TV screens. But it’s vitally important that people not forget.
What methods of fundraising have you used?
It’s a combination of things. In the aftermath of the quake, our main contributions were from large donors: Unicef, American Red Cross, Irish Aid, Oxfam. But now we have volunteers from every parish in Ireland doing everything from bagging groceries to coffee mornings to raise the €4,000 to come out on our Build It Weeks.
What kind of an experience is that for volunteers?
It’s fantastic. It’s like boot camp. Volunteers live on the building site. They sleep in tents. The kitchen staff are up at four in the morning to have breakfast ready for 6am. You work till midday, then there’s a break till two and then back out there again. And of course we have a few drinks and a sing-song at night. It’s great because it allows volunteers to see what living conditions are like over there.
Are these houses built of bricks and mortar? Would they withstand another earthquake?
Yes, they’re earthquake proof. They’re bricks and mortar and a galvanised roof. The average size is 24sq m. There are two bedrooms and a family room. In Haitian culture, they eat outside. So there is an outdoor kitchen. The beneficiaries pay €2 a month for 60 months. If they miss a month, that gets added on at the end. In other words, they don’t get it for free. They take ownership of it.
Wouldn’t it make more sense if the Irish volunteers stayed at home and Haitian workers were employed to build the houses?
We could have used Haitian contractors. But to be honest, there are two things we’re doing here. First, we’re building homes for the poor people of Haiti. But equally, we want to bring Irish people out there. Building houses is the easy part. We want to build communities. We do a lot of training in conflict resolution. We bring in revenue generating projects, like chicken farms that sell chickens and eggs to the local community. We also build relationships between our volunteers and Haiti. Forty to 50 per cent of them are repeat volunteers. They keep coming back.
