A Non-Profit Uses Compressed Earth Blocks to Build Happy Homes in Haiti 

Runge headed down to Haiti and helped the workers in the CEB facility "perform some of the 100,000-block maintenance actions," he wrote on his blog. Runge also "got the machine running like a clock again, producing over 1,000 blocks per day!" 

"The CEB plant is especially valuable because decent building materials are not readily available on the island," he wrote. "With their BP714 machine, WHH and crew [can] produce enough fireproof, hurricane-proof, and earthquake-proof CEBs to build a house every week." 

Steve Hari, WHH's co-founder, and field director, first visited the area with his son Tyler in 1999 on a mission trip through their church. They quickly realized the need for decent housing. "The community's spiritual, medical, and educational needs were met," Hari says, as the church had helped fund and build worship areas, a health facility, and a school. 

"But most families went home every night to structures made of sticks and mud—sometimes ten people crowded into a room the size of the master bath in our house in the States. The need for safe, secure, and sanitary housing was obvious." 

In 2010, Hari helped establish the WHH ministry. The organization's goal was to build one home per year for a Haitian family. Instead, using CEB technology, WHH has been averaging one house a month since 2010. "Now, we're ready to do 50 a year," Hari added. 

Out of Tremendous Need, A Home 

According to the relief organization, the KORE Foundation, Haiti currently has 10 million people. Ninety-five percent are descendants of former African slaves brought to the country by the French to farm sugarcane. The literacy rate is about 52%; less than 30% of students reach 6th grade.

Almost 60% of Haitians live on less than $2 per day. While KORE writes that 29% of the population lives in extreme poverty, other sources estimate it to be 60 or even 80 percent. In 2009, multiple tropical storms and hurricanes escalated the country's food crisis and political chaos. The 2010 earthquake left 316,000 dead, 300,000 injured, and 1 million people homeless. 

The compressed-earth block homes all have three bedrooms with a family room and a covered porch. The project also includes an outbuilding with a toilet and shower. "There isn't any internal electricity and plumbing in the homes," Hari says. "But when the families are coming from mud huts with dirt floors, these homes really are life-changing."