Haiti – Reconstruction : Martelly has visited housing projects

On Thursday the President Martelly traveled to 90 km south of Santiago to inquire about the Chilean experience in reconstruction, he visited several housing projects for victims of the earthquake of February 27, 2010 in Chile, which caused more than $30 billion of losses.

Michel Martelly was accompanied by the Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs Alfredo Moreno, and that of the housing Rodrigo Pérez Mackenna. He visited the village of San Antonio, which houses 190 families temporarily (600 people). He also visited the rojects “Don Mateo” and “Real Compañía” of the city of Rancagua, where 800 homes are built to the victims.

“The Chile help Haiti, this is why we decided to come here, in order to strengthen the cooperation and to learn from their experience to provide solutions and development for my country”, declared Martelly, adding that the long term not only means “money, on the contrary the cooperation may be something more, such as cooperation on the technical aspects of the construction of housing paraseismic.”

“In Haiti, we had no culture of earthquakes. The last took place there 150 years. So we did not think that one day something would happen. Today, we understand that we must live with this reality. It is very important to understand that we must build in a particular way to prevent the risks…”, said the Haitian President.

For his part, Foreign Minister Moreno explained that the purpose of the visit of housing projects of Rancagua, 90 kilometers south of Santiago, was for the President Martelly to see how Chile has solved its problems after February 27, 2010, so that the Haitian leader can define how a cooperation can be established between the two countries.

The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Rodrigo Pérez Mackenna, has for his part handed over to President Martelly a copy of the plan of reconstruction that his ministry runs, and which provides the construction by 2014 of 200,000 homes.

Martelly has also, on Thursday, late in the day, visited a school in the village of Champa, 50 km from Santiago, where he was greeted by a group of 400 students and then he visited the city of Quilicura where he was greeted by a group of 200 Haitian children who live and study in this area.