We'd never felt like celebrities before setting foot in Deschapelles, Haiti to run HAS's Cash for Work project.
The first month of hirings were calm and went smoothly....I remember that we even spent time worrying about how was best to get the word out about our program; we wanted to be sure that everyone in the community knew about the job opportunities Cash for Work offered. With strong and wishful thinking, we hoped that this smooth pace would continue.
The second month’s hirings were a bit more agitated….everyone in the community was now aware that we were hiring thousands of people, and were doing so after a catastrophic earthquake, in one of the poorest regions, of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. People hoping to be hired started queuing up in large numbers at our hiring sites, and we discovered that our names and our life stories were being murmured among people in the community. Everyone knew our faces and what cars we drove; suddenly, everyone was waving and shouting at me as I drove by, “Kijan nous ye Madanm Gozde?” (How are you, Ms. Gozde?) At every step, I found I was greeted with smiles and waves….We continued to be very clear that our hirings were fair and transparent, and with the exception of the displaced and handicapped, no one received preferential treatment when hired for our program....our strategy has always been, and remains, “first-come, first-served”.
The third month of hiring hit hard. People from all over the region were now aware of the Cash for Work project. For each project, we only had the resources to hire people who lived in the different areas in which the crews would work, but now that word was out, we found that people from villages far away would be waiting for us, or even camping out in front of our houses in hopes of following us to discover where we’d be hiring next.
There were hiring days where 900 people would show up for only 200 jobs; considering that our budget does not allow for taking the measures necessary to ensure the safety of a group of 600 people or more, we worried enormously for the crowd’s safety....and as a result, we were forced to come up with creative solutions which would avoid putting those waiting in line in danger.
One hiring day, we created a diversion: I drove around in my well-recognized truck the morning we were to hire, so that those who were waiting in front of my house (all of whom were not from the village in which we were to hire, and therefor not eligible for this hiring) assumed I was on my way to the hiring site, and followed me to an alternative site. At the same time, Project Managers set out on foot for the real hiring site, and went ahead and hired those already in line, a number which already far exceeded our quota for hiring.
Our last hiring was at our “base” here in Deschapelles....by 2am of hiring day, we discovered that hundreds of people had already lined up for a hiring which wasn’t scheduled to begin until 6am! Rather than risk the safety of people whose numbers could easily swell to 900 by 6am, we surprised everyone and began hiring at 3am, and after registering the first 300 people in line (and filling our quota) we packed up and left. Although we didn’t enjoy deceiving people, we felt sure that we’d avoided what could well have turned into a riot.
A day didn’t go by without putting ourselves into the shoes of people seeking jobs....I wish we would have had more finances to hire more people to do more meaningful jobs, but both we and the Haitians bitterly accept the reality of having limited resources and being obliged to hire limited numbers of people....the Haitian people are forced by nothing more than circumstance to understand and respect the limits which come with a Cash for Work job. What would you do if you’ve heard there’s a job opportunity for a month paying 90USD, and you’re used to earning only 10USD a month? And have a family at home waiting to be fed, sent to school or to hospital? I have no doubt that I too would follow the manager’s truck or queue up for hours, hoping to be hired. This is something I never forget when I’m doing my job.
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