The house is not sleeping in the street. A place to rest. A place to feel safe. It's a kitchen, some bedrooms, a bathroom. It is the family, its own language, its own people. "Home" can mean so many things. And, in Haiti, after the 2010 earthquake, none of this remained for many. Almost ten years later, that's what Haitians think when they talk about their "kay".

On the mountains behind Cap Haitien is La Citadelle Laferrière, a monument to Haitian pride and a symbol of the country's independence. Not far away, the ruins of the Sans-Souci palace recall the era of kings, while the characteristic Gingerbread in wood of Port au Prince show the legacy of colonial culture. Haiti is a country rich in history and its buildings tell the story.

On 12 January 2010, one of the greatest disasters in human history took place, the one that caused the greatest number of victims in relation to the total population. The estimates of the Haitian Government speak of 300 thousand deaths and as many wounded. Over 100 thousand homes and 200 thousand public buildings have been destroyed or damaged. Almost 10 years after the earthquake, what has been done? What has been recovered, rebuilt and how?

In Haiti, over 60% of the buildings are made of concrete, one of the most environmentally impacting materials. The Haitians associate it with security and stability. But this is not the case: most of the damage caused by the 2010 earthquake was reported by concrete buildings. Some virtuous realities are therefore working to promote the use of alternative and sustainable materials such as bamboo or straw.

From waste to resource. The reconstruction project brought to Haiti by Architettura Senza Frontiere Piemonte rests its foundations on the poorest and most undervalued material of the island: rice straw. In the rice-growing district of the Artibonite, involving local organizations, ASF taught how to make straw bricks, to create more resilient, anti-seismic and comfortable homes and start a sustainable building supply chain.

At Wynne Farm, an ecological reserve just a few kilometers from Port au Prince, organic farming techniques and methods to protect biodiversity are experimented. At Marmelade, the Jean Dominique Agricultural Center grows bamboo for green building and produces fruit juices by encouraging the zero km supply chain. In a country where attention to the environment is not the first priority, these excellences are concrete examples of the desire to improve.

Garbage - fatrà in Creole - is one of the most serious environmental and health problems in Haiti. The percentage of waste collection is among the lowest in the world. Not so much a problem of quantity, but of management, lack of infrastructure and education. In the organizational vacuum that the country suffers from, there are however several small virtuous realities that seek to raise awareness and promote good practices in the field of recycling.

Haiti is a country with strong political instability, frequent social clashes and a high risk of civil war. The profound inequalities, corruption, widespread violence and the difficulty in enforcing the law denounced by the Haitians themselves make any solution complicated. Despite the enormous problems, there are those who do not give up hope of rebuilding a better future. Starting, for example, from education.

Haitian women are discriminated against, often victims of violence and difficult to access the study. According to the 2017 Gender Inequality Index, the country ranks 144th out of 160 due to gender inequalities. Although Haitian women are strong and accustomed to adversity, they struggle more than anywhere else to see their value recognized. But creativity and tenacity help them, giving life to precious projects of female cooperation.

Haiti is the second nation in the world by number of NGOs per capita. Already very present before the earthquake, the international organizations that operate in the country have increased exponentially since 2010, coming to constitute a real parastate. Aid is certainly fundamental, but the problem now is to succeed in making the projects started stable and incorporated into the economic and social fabric. On this every Haitian has his vision.

Sustainability, in French, translates as "durability". A word that goes beyond environmental issues and that opens up to the idea of stability, solidity and continuity over time. Sustainability is a house that does not collapse, a project that does not end in a few years, the care of one's own land. It is a push for change that starts from creativity. Not an objective and immutable concept, but a subjective, personal and evolving interpretation.