The following summary is based on an article of El Mercurio, Manuel Valencia (29.09.2012) entitled “El constructor chileno de Haiti” (The Chilean builder of Haiti). Brief and translation by Beatriz Maturana.
 |
| Photo: El Mercurio, Guillermo Rolando |
As director of the Fundación América Solidaria (Solidarity America Foundation) and having spent two years in Haiti, Guillermo Rolando assisted a military contingent sent from Chile to Haiti to provide humanitarian aid during the stabilization period that followed the 2004 military coup against President Bertrand Aristide.
Most recently, while serving as Director of the Division of Housing Policy of the Ministry of Housing (MINVU, Chile) and moved by the devastation left after the Haiti earthquake (2010) that flattened the capital and killed about 300,000 people, Guillermo accepted the responsibility for the creation of the first Ministry of Housing in Haiti. Six months later, this newly formed Housing Ministry of Haiti, modelled around the Chilean Ministry of Housing, is approaching its first program for housing subsidies and plan for permanent residencies for those affected by the earthquake. This is certainly not a small task for Guillermo Rolando in America´s poorest country and one of the poorest countries in the world.
