View From Haiti: Habitat for Humanity’s CEO Looks to the Rebuilding Effort

As America focuses its generosity on the immediate relief efforts in Haiti, Jonathan T.M. Reckford, chief executive of Habitat for Humanity International, hopes its attention will not wane in the months ahead.

Historically, the public does not give as much to disasters once the emergency fades from the headlines.

But the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that rattled the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince last week left an estimated 1 million people without homes. And to help the desperate families rebuild and find shelter, Habitat and other aid groups will need donors to continue to contribute for months, if not years.

“I really hope there’ll be a sustained attention because there’s going to be a tremendous need for years to come,” says Mr. Reckford.

So far Habitat has raised $1.4-million, a fraction of the more than $355-million that has been given to help Haiti.

Mr. Reckford says however he is confident the organization’s fund-raising totals will increase; several foundations and corporations are interested in supporting long-term home-building projects, he says.

In addition, he traveled to Port-au-Prince this week with the pop singer Ricky Martin, who will help garner media attention for Habitat.

During their visit, Mr. Reckford says he wanted to witness first hand the destruction, but also “rally” the 50 Habitat workers who live in Haiti, some of whom were lucky to survive the temblor.

“Our headquarters in Port-au-Prince actually collapsed around them. But our national director and our resource development director down there stood in a doorway and the doorframe protected them,” he says.

The charity leader says he was heartened to hear that of the 200 houses Habitat has built in or around the Haitian capital, only two were destroyed and two damaged. The rest survived relatively unscathed, thanks in part to the fact that the charity builds them to survive natural disasters.

Despite that good news, Habitat has a massive job ahead of it; a point Mr. Reckford says was driven home during his three-day visit.

“Seeing all the buildings and the homes down was heartbreaking, but to see all the families who are literally living on the street now is harder,” he says. “They’ve just lost everything.”

In an interview, Mr. Reckford talked about Habitat’s assistance to Haiti, how relief efforts need to work hand-in-hand with recovery planning, and his concerns about the surge in text donations to disaster relief.

How does Habitat for Humanity plan to help the people of Haiti?

Habitat’s response is really a three-fold response. The first thing we’ve already begun is trying to help families try and clear debris and recover any reusable materials they can.

Second, providing Habitat for Humanity shelter kits that provide them tools, materials, and tarps to allow them to begin doing repairs for those homes that are repairable.

And then the third and biggest part of our response will be to build “core” houses. These are very small, one-room houses that include access for water and basic sanitation. But their built to disaster strength and they’re designed to be expandable over time. So as families get back on their feet they can work with us to take our loans and incrementally improve those homes down the road. But the goal is to get as many people into shelter as possible.

What we’ve found is if we can build transitional shelters that are durable and of permanent materials it’s much better for the families than putting them in a tent.

How many people do you hope to assist?

It really depends on the resources that come in. We’ve been there for 26 years; we will be there for the long term; it’s really going to be depended on whether we can raise the funds.

How much have you raised?

We have raised relatively little so far. We have prospects for some much larger grants. Rightly most of the giving in the past week went to the Red Cross and the relief organizations. But what we really hope is that once the initial relief ends, people will begin turning to the long-term recovery, which is the much more long and expensive phase. That’s where we’re talking to corporations, foundations, and governments about support for the rebuilding.

How does your fund raising compare to Hurricane Katrina or the South Asian tsunamis?

For both Katrina and tsunami the pattern actually was quite similar. The initial donations primarily went to relief and we got our large gifts a little bit later in the cycle. We hope this will follow those patterns. The interesting question is whether we can the press to pay attention to the recovery issues.

Why did you decide to visit Haiti? Were you concerned at all about getting in the way?

The reason I didn’t go down right after was for that reason. It’s a fine line. None of us want to be disaster voyeurs; we want to make sure we’re actually helping. The big driver for me was to help our disaster-assessment team and really to rally our national staff and give them some hope. All of them have lost family members and lost their homes and have been personally devastated.

Why did you invite Ricky Martin to join you?

He came to us and we were really grateful. Ricky had been very active in our tsunami response. The great thing is that he’s truly sincere. In fact, he didn’t want to do any press but it leaked out because he was recognized. But the intent was for us to see it first hand, not do any press, and only talk about it after we left the country.
Whether it’s right or wrong in our society these entertainers and public figures can get the attention of the media and get the attention of the people so they can make a big difference.

Are there decisions made during the relief period that will affect the success of the recovery?

Very much so. One of our learning’s goes right to that point and that’s why we have an expert disaster team from around the world that we send in immediately. If we’re not at the table in these early decision-making times than that actually gets in the way of the long-term recovery. What you don’t want is to have is a relief group and a totally separate group come in and do recovery. Ideally you’re doing relief with an eye toward recovery right from the beginning.

Habitat is using text messages from cell phones to raise money for Haiti. How has that gone?

We’ve had some response, but the attention has been so broad that the Red Cross has gotten the bulk of [such gifts].

What do you think text donations means for the future of fund raising?

I think it’s here and will stay. We’ve had some questions, of course. We don’t want people to only give $10. We’ve been a little sensitive about that. We’re not promoting text giving on our Web site because we’d rather people give $100 or $1,000.