Haiti home-building project to benefit from Corn Crib concert

Posted on June 7, 2016

*Welcome Home Haiti has provided about 70 homes in the earthquake-torn nation over the past six years. (Welcome Home Haiti photo)*

By Greg Halbleib

NORMAL – An upcoming concert at the Corn Crib will benefit a locally-formed organization that is helping build homes in Haiti.

Welcome Home Haiti has partnered with the Normal CornBelters for the July 23rd concert by Christian artists Mercy Me. Welcome Home Haiti founder Steve Hari tells WJBC’s Scott Laughlin he’s been traveling to the country for nearly two decades and has seen the devastation from a 2010 earthquake from which Haiti has not fully recovered, so he formed the organization to help rebuild homes.

“We committed to making a difference in one family a year in building a new house,” Hari told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin. “But the plan was much bigger than that, and after six years we’ve done 70 houses.”

Hari says local churches identify the needs.

“The church in Haiti identifies the family that needs the house, and then we come back and identify groups that basically adopt that family and raise the funds for the house,” said Hari. “Then we hire Haitian contractors to do the floor and the walls, and we take a team down to put the roof on, paint it, build furniture and hand it over to the family.

Welcome Home Haiti will also have information and a drawing at next Tuesday’s CornBelters game. More information is at www.welcomehomehaiti.com.

Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].

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