Helping the people of Haiti with a fresh approach to community outreach.

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Motivation for the Haiti Rebuilding Effort

In January of 2010, I was working in Turks and Caicos when an earthquake ravaged Haiti. I became very close to a Haitian man, Franklin, who worked with me and I was with him when he learned of the devastation. Witnessing his personal tragedy left a lasting mark on me, and feeds my desire to help the Haitian people rebuild their communities.

Designs that Address the Needs of the Haitian People

While my motivation for starting this project is very personal, my choice of construction methods and designs is based on a number of studies, the example of past rebuilding efforts (both successful and unsuccessful), and the stated needs of the Haitian people, as described in the following links:

The Ubuntu Blox Project

The Ubuntu Blox Project takes discarded styrofoam food containers and other plastics, cleans them, and compresses them into lightweight and flexible building blocks that are more earthquake resistant than typical brick or concrete structures. This innovative construction technique is helping to clean up streets and rebuild cities.
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Haitian Wisdom for Aid Buildings

This presentation describes how the Haitian culture and climate affect building designs. It contains many photographs and illustrations as well as thirty pages of basic information for designers and builders.
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Final Resolution, International Forum on the Crisis of Housing in Haiti

This is the final report on the proceedings of an international forum consisting of organizations of survivors living in internally displaced persons’ (IDP) camps, social and grassroots organizations, and representatives of foreign nations (including the U.S., Dominican Republic, and Brazil). The forum assembled at Fany Villa in Port-au-Prince in May of 2011, “to reflect on the problem of housing within Haiti’s longstanding crisis.”
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Law & Housing in Haiti

A project of the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, Law & Housing in Haiti takes a legal approach to the problem of reintegrating IDPs, focusing on ways to provide access to permanent housing that respects and reflects Haitian cultural and social needs, uses local building materials, and engages the local population in the decision-making.
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Builders Without Borders

Describing themselves as, “an international network of ecological builders,” Builders Without Borders advocate the use of locally sourced, sustainable building materials in Haitian construction projects. Alaso Haiti hopes to partner with Builders Without Borders on construction projects as we build our organization.
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Who We Are

In January 2010, a massive earthquake devastated Haiti, leaving many skilled and educated Haitians without jobs and living in makeshift shelters. Many previous Haiti relief efforts have imposed external design choices on the Haitian people rather than meet their unique environmental, social, and cultural needs. They focused on single-family homes rather than the multi-generational homes favored by Haitians, and built homes with imported materials unsuitable for the harsh tropical environment and that must enter the country through customs, leading to inefficiencies and opportunities for corruption. These complex and dire local conditions demand a new approach to rebuilding this proud nation.

Alaso Haiti takes a fresh approach to Haiti earthquake relief. We help Haitian men & women:

  • Develop marketable job skills
  • Take a direct role in rebuilding their community

We build homes and community buildings that are appropriate to the unique needs of the local people:

  • Designs that meet the social and cultural needs of the Haitian people
  • Construction methods and materials that are suitable for the harsh tropical climate
  • Locally sourced materials that avoid customs delays and boost the local economy
  • In Haitian Creole, alaso means onward. Alaso Haiti!

News Overview

Beauty and Community Highlight the Wynne Farm Project

I’ve been remiss in not updating the site with details of our latest project, so I want to share that with you now.

Written by Mike on 7/8/16

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A New Home Brings Pride and Gratitude to Jean’s Family in Jacmel

Time does fly by! It’s been six months since we completed our last project in Jacmel, a beautiful port city, on the coast, south of Port Au Prince.

Written by Mike on 2/4/15

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Onward to New Projects!

There were many challenges on the Menelas project but in the end we were successful in completing a new home for the Adme family.

Written by Mike on 7/19/14

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Older Posts

Community Building Projects

Alaso Haiti manages building projects that engage the Haitian people through the entire building process from planning to construction. In doing so, we help them develop marketable job skills in the construction trades as they rebuild their communities with homes and community buildings that meet the unique environmental, social, and cultural needs of their communities.

As we identify projects, we will provide links below so you can learn more about our work.

Ubuntu Blox Prototype Composting Toilet (November/December 2012)

In December 2012, Alaso Haiti completed a prototype Ubuntu Blox structure for a composting toilet project for Haiti Communitere. Ubuntu Blox are building blocks made of collected, cleaned, shredded, and compressed plastic trash packed into rice bags. This novel construction method addresses two major problems in the rebuilding of Haiti: the prevalence of trash in the waterways and streets of Haiti and the lack of affordable building materials.

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Adme Ubuntu Blox Home(Spring/Summer 2014)

This project is an 18’x32′ house made from Ubuntu Blox. Only the second ever built. We are working with the Adme family who will be benefiting from the home. We are also working with six members of Team Tassy who were chosen from the surrounding community.

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