An Impact Report for Q3 2021

To our New Story family,

We finished Q3 with an exciting moment: The New York Times featured our work on their front page of the business section. You can check out the article here.

You know better than anyone, these moments of recognition come from a deep commitment to doing the hard and unnoticed work for as long as it takes.

I’m proud the public can celebrate the good we’re building together in Nacajuca, the world’s first community of 3D printed homes. I’m also thankful I can take this moment to share with you the good that often goes unnoticed in places like Haiti.

I first visited Haiti in 2013, three years after an earthquake destroyed nearly 250,000 homes. Families were displaced, living in tents with dirt floors and no clean water. We believed these families deserved better, which is why we founded New Story.

Fast forward to today, and Haiti is still a country experiencing severe hardships. The devastating recent events serve as another reminder of the country’s struggles and the importance of safe homes.

Thankfully, generous partners like you have helped our team safely house 750 Haitian families. Within the past quarter alone, all of these families endured COVID-19, national riots, and another brutal earthquake.

I’m proud to share every home withstood the disasters and protected about 3,000 people from reentering homelessness.

These Haitian families are the reason we’re committed to doing the hard work for the long haul. And I know they’re the reason you continue to build alongside us.

Thank you for believing in our team. From a NYT feature to another family moving out of homelessness, each moment is building a better world.

Onward,

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Community Spotlight

Titanyen, Haiti

In the final week of Q3, 33 families moved into their new homes in Titanyen, Haiti. These families have endured more in the past decade than any human should in a lifetime.

In 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake ripped through the country and left more than one million Haitians homeless. To this day, most of these Haitians are still living under tents and scrap metal.

New Story was founded to help these very families.

Then, in 2016, category 5 Hurricane Matthew destroyed nearly 200,000 more homes across the country. Millions of Haitians were stranded without life’s basic needs.

In Titanyen alone, our pre-intervention surveys revealed 92% of the families were drinking untreated water, and nearly 90% of them had dirt floors. You can learn more about the families in Titanyen by checking out this data report.

Partnering with Mission of Hope, we started building homes for the families of Titanyen in 2018. Due to natural disasters, political unrest, and COVID-19, this community has been our longest-running and most challenging project to date.

The pandemic and national riots forced us to shut down our construction for many months. The devastation escalated when the President of Haiti was assassinated, and a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the nation earlier this year.

Thankfully, all 750 homes from our previous builds endured the earthquake and protected more than 3,000 people from reentering homelessness.

Amidst all the obstacles, we resumed building homes in Titanyen and completed the first phase of the project in September. Because of your support, families are experiencing freedom from homelessness — families like Paul, a single father of eight and the recipient of the first completed house in Titanyen:

“It will be completely different from where we live now – this will be permanent. This will be my land. In my name. For my family. And that is freedom. I will have room to invite others in if anyone is hurting or in need of a place to stay. This home will give me the ability to help so many more people.”

Thank you for helping the families of Titanyen persevere through life without a home. We can’t wait to see how your support continues to build homes and hope for so many more.

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Selène Joseph

Titanyen, Haiti

At the beginning of the pandemic, Selène’s husband passed away, and she was left with only their makeshift home of tarp and scrap metal with her six children.

“My husband was a very hard worker. He saved all he could, while also doing his best to send each of our six children to school. He dreamed of one day building our family a home, despite the hardships and setbacks the earthquake caused, destroying everything we owned. But then he died, and it all felt like an impossible, hopeless dream.”

When Selène’s husband passed away, she had no source of income and had to find a way to feed her family and pay for school fees. Her friends rallied together to help her start a small vendor stand in the local market. The profits weren’t much, but they gave her hope to keep moving forward with her family.

But on September 25, 2021, everything changed.

Selène moved into her safe shelter, becoming the eighth recipient of a new home in the Titanyen community. With tears in her eyes, she said,

“With this new house, I finally have a place to call home! Here, it is very hard and very hot under the blue tarp. But in our new home, the children will all have space to run and play with other kids. Their childhood will be so much better than it has been here. They can worry less, and live more.”

Thank you for partnering with us to help families like Selène’s build new stories.

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Team Update

Thank you for enabling us to bring on four remarkable team members in Q3. One of the best ways you can support our mission is by helping us find top talent with a passion for impact. You can share our current career opportunities here.

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