Happy New Year!
Before we get too far into 2025, we wanted to celebrate all of the families we have been blessed to build homes for in 2024. We hit a major milestone of 200 homes last year, and ultimately built our 214th home!
Get to know the last 10 homes of 2024 and the families that live in them:
Homes 205–206: Francine Jean Joseph, 67, has two daughters and three grandchildren. The entire family was living in a shack made of wood and plastic. Now, they all are able to live in this duplex. Her daughters work selling fruits and vegetables in the flea market, while Francine stays with her grandchildren.
Homes 207-208: Yolene Exantus, 47, lives with her two children, her grandparents, and one brother. The family had been gathering materials and already had the metal frame to put in front of the porch to make it more secure. However, they had not yet been able to build a home, so our team decided to build them a duplex since there are seven people. We are working to donate $300-400 to help the family start a small business.
Homes 209-210: Denise Raphael Thomas, 64, her two daughters, and six grandchildren will all live in this duplex. They left Port-au-Prince last year due to riots and gang-related violence. We hope to buy them some furniture because they only have one mattress, a table, and two chairs.
Homes 211-212: Gerson and Kenima Dorestant lead a family of eleven people, including their four grandchildren. One daughter works as a street vendor in the city of Mirebalais to support their family. They will all share this duplex.
Home 213: Our team typically chooses families led by women, but this is a special case. Emil Mertil is the father of two sons, and his wife died last year. He moved to Mirebalais because of violence in his city and has no other family ties. Our team couldn’t find any land to build on, so he bought a small piece on credit and pays $50 a month. This is a new model of house—the porch is longer and the overall cost is slightly more.
Home 214: Ulrick Saint Pierre, 53, has two daughters, and his wife also died about three years ago. He said he was looking for an organization to build him a house for the kids because they lost everything in Port-au-Prince. Samaritan Purse was working in his city, but ceased building in Haiti. So a pastor in Croix-des-Bouquets put him in touch with our team in March, and we were finally able to build a home for his family toward the end of the year.
