Fonkoze Blog

A safe home for her family and business

Earthquake victims Jocelyne Borderon and her teenage daughters live in a new cement house thanks to a partnership between Fonkoze and Haven.

Fonkoze client Jocelyne Borderon, 43, lives in a new cement house with heart-shaped blocks for windows. Next door, her brother and sister live in a crumbling mud house. Next to them, her mother lives in a transitional shelter made of tarp and wood.

Jocelyne was one of about 200 Fonkoze clients and earthquake victims for whom new houses were built at no cost to them by a partnership between Fonkoze and Haven and BRAC. She knows she is lucky to have a new, safe house in Cabaret, a seaside town not far from Port-au-Prince where many lost loved ones, homes, and businesses to the earthquake.

“I’m very happy because I’m in an organization that cares, that helps me,” Jocelyne said.

Jocelyne’s house collapsed in the earthquake, killing her husband and leaving her alone with five children, ages 11 to 24, and her Fonkoze membership.

She moved into her neighbor’s collapsed house, which had nothing but a tarp for a roof and a few remaining walls. With no protection from intruders, thieves stole the merchandise for her small business and men with guns tried to assault her teenage daughters in the night, she said. “Jesus sent Fonkoze to take me out of this,” she said.

Jocelyne said construction started on her new house, which sits in the same place her old house did, in December 2010, and by March, her family had moved in. She has recovered her business, has all her children attending school, and has continued taking loans, now at HTG 7,000 at a time, about US $175.

“I don’t have a husband. Fonkoze is my husband,” Jocelyne said.

Fonkoze’s housing programs are continuing with two new small grants to build 18 more houses. The first one is from Medico, or Lion’s Club Belgium, for $20,464. The second one for $52,000 from a group of Chinese artists called Rattray Kimura Foundation. More than 100 clients are still hoping for new houses through the project, so we’re working to find more funding. If you’d like to help, check out our Ways to Give section on our web site.