It may be a very simple, two-home duplex — 14 by 20 feet, poured concrete and block walls with a metal roof — but if you and your family have been living in a makeshift tent city for two years, it is a dream come true.

Join One Small House in spring 2012 as we travel to Haiti to build simple, decent homes for families displaced by the devastating earthquake of January 2010. We will partner with the Grace Fuller Center, homeowners and local Haitian craftspeople to construct six homes as part of a 56-home development already underway on a site located between the cities of Carrefour and Leogane, not far from the epicenter of the earthquake.

Our partner,the Grace Fuller Center, is an affiliation between Grace International and the Fuller Center for Housing. The Fuller Center provides volunteers, funding, oversight, and home-building experience and expertise. Grace International helps with family partnership and empowerment, the hosting of work teams, community development, and overall program implementation. We will not be building temporary shelters, but permanent homes, designed to withstand earthquakes and category 4 hurricanes, and positioned to be at the center of a new community.Prior to the earthquake, Haiti was the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Afterward, conditions became immeasurably worse. Granted, we all have the natural tendency to block out horrible news, political strife and economic corruption. We think: What can I, one person, do?  In Haiti, however, progress has been made. Rubble has been cleared. Rebuilding has begun, and some people have moved out of their temporary quarters and where possible, returned home. The Haitian people are determined and hardworking and deserve the assistance of us, their more fortunate neighbors. Why go? We will not cure all of Haiti’s ills, but in the words of Edward Hale, “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”

If you’re interesting in becoming a volunteer, click here.

One Small House work teams will be in Haiti, March 11-17, March 25-31 and April 8-14. Plans call for us to fly to Port au Prince Airport on Day One, a Sunday. A driver will meet us at the airport and transport us to our lodging at the Residence Filariose in Leogane.  Monday through Friday will be workdays, filled with tasks such as building roof trusses, mixing concrete, tying rebar and laying blocks. On Saturday, transportation will be provided to the airport for the return home.