Renovating a Haitian Orphanage – Manpower

When we first considered renovating an orphanage in Haiti our thoughts were to bring down a bunch of our local building contractors and just “get ‘er done.” It wasn’t long before the faults of this approach became apparent. Consider the costs of airfare, food, beer, and lodging for 10 or more Americans for one week. These costs could well exceed all other costs to renovate the orphanage. It soon became obvious that it was not only cost effective to utilize local Haitian labor, it was also the right thing to do. There are millions of unemployed working aged men in Haiti. They needed these jobs. We would hire local. We put together a plan and a schedule based on a crew of 20 Haitian men. We would provide the supervision.

The night we arrived in Haiti there was significant rainfall and localized flooding. The next morning 10 men arrived to begin work. Our plan had been to begin outside removing debris from the earthquake. The standing water around the premises prevented this. While we considered other options for the day our crew stood around no doubt discussing whether these guys from the US had a clue. We decided to have everyone gather in the orphanage for a meeting. Each man was asked to describe his skills. Then it came down to the wage rate. In a few minutes the room was empty. Though we were offering almost twice the average wage rate in Haiti, none of the men were willing to work for that amount. They were all skilled laborers and even though all unemployed, they weren’t going to work for less than what they were accustomed to receiving. In the case of some of the men, that amount was more than 7 times average wage rates. And we were on a budget.

What we needed was some guys who could paint, shovel, work hard. We soon found “our guys” and we put them under the charge of a man with obvious leadership skills who had originally been hired to paint the exterior of the building. Within a week these men, along with a plumber and electrician, had achieved the goal of transforming the orphanage from a decrepit creepy structure into a safe and welcoming environment for children. But perhaps as important as the success of our first renovation project was proving that Haitian labor would be the best means of carrying out our goal of renovating scores of struggling Haitian orphanages.

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