Georgia Travel Agency Helps Give Haitian Families A Home

Epperly Travel Fundraising helped build five homes in Haiti like this one. Photo: New Story

It’s been more than six years since a 7.0 earthquake devastated the island of Haiti, killing more than 100,000 people and leveling hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings. Today, upwards of 60,000 Haitians are still living in temporary housing.

At times the problem has seemed insurmountable. But two entrepreneurs, one the owner of a Columbus, GA, travel agency, are combining their entrepreneurship and hope for a better future to improve the lives of hundreds of families.

Brett Hagler is the CEO and co-founder of New Story, a not-for-profit he launched with a childhood friend after traveling to Haiti three years ago. He witnessed firsthand the struggle that much larger organizations had experienced repatriating families out of Haiti’s slums.

“People were very frustrated that a lot of money was injected into big organizations, and still people had no homes. Donors wanted more transparency and accountability,” Hagler said.

So, a little more than a year ago, Hagler and three partners started their crowdfunded company, with a website where individuals and others can make donations to build hurricane-resistant homes in Leveque, a town 40 minutes from Port-au-Prince. One hundred percent of donations to New Story are used to build the homes, which cost about $6,000 each.

To date, more than 160 homes have been built. The 388-square foot, three-room concrete structures are built with local labor and materials, in partnership with Mission of Hope, an organization that has been building homes in Haiti for about 16 years.

The homes are built to Miami Dade County housing standards, Hagler said. “Our mission is to transform slums into sustainable communities. We are not funding and building one-off housing. All of the homes are in one community.”

Epperly Travel has had a hand in building some of those homes. Like Hagler, Lindsey Epperly is a youthful entrepreneur with hope and empathy. She started her pseudonymous travel agency in December 2014.

“A friend introduced me to Brett. He had just launched New Story a few months prior. We immediately had something in common, with our brand-new organizations and our desire to have a positive impact on those we came into contact with through our businesses,” Epperly said.

“We’re two entrepreneurs thinking more outside the box,” Hagler said. “It’s pretty obvious that millennials care. We’re creating a new standard for [charitable causes] like these.”

Fundraising impacts Epperly’s customers and employees too
“When I launched Epperly Travel at the end of 2014, I knew that I wanted to partner with an organization that shared a similar sense of ethics and goals,” Epperly said. “Even before we were profitable, it was important for me to know that some of our profits would be going to support a cause that was larger than ourselves.”

In April 2015, Epperly Travel announced to its customers that it would donate a portion of the proceeds from every trip it booked to New Story. The agency raised $6,000 in a year, contributing to housing five families, and has already raised $1,000 toward the second $6,000 donation it would like to make by April 2017.

Epperly’s customers have been very engaged in the fundraising and the construction. “Our clients love knowing that every vacation they book goes toward helping a family in a struggling community. It’s something that they inquire about and cherish as we see these families receiving their homes. When we reached our campaign goal, we sent out a newsletter to everyone who had traveled with us in 2015 and the response from clients was overwhelming.”

Epperly wants to travel to Haiti “to capture some of the stories and images to share with our clients so they understand where the proceeds are going,” she said. New Story films every family as it moves in to its new home and posts the videos on its website, “so we get a small glimpse into their lives,” Epperly said.

The fundraising has also elevated employee engagement, Epperly said. “I had brought on a number of agents who were completely new to the travel industry, and I’ve seen such a positive reaction from them. It’s something that we have bonded over and has inspired a certain culture at Epperly Travel that is important to each of us as agents, knowing that we can not only make our clients’ vacation dreams come true, but also help to create new stories for those in need.”

Writing New Stories elsewhere
Hagler said that other travel agents and individuals looking to donate should know that the tide in Haiti has turned. “I was just down in Haiti. There’s a hope and positivity there. The adults and children have a lot of optimism now,” he said.

New Story has built homes for approximately 500 families so far, and is starting construction on two new communities, for a total of another 550 homes. Based out of San Francisco, New Story has set up a base of operations in Nuevo Cuscátlan, El Salvador, to transform slums there as well, and has its sights on Bolivia next year.