Supporting Haiti after the Storm

I have been asked by a few people about how they might help Haiti recover from the devastation of Hurricane Matthew. Given that I have been asked by a few people I thought it might be easier to answer via a blog post.

It is challenging to provide aid to Haiti as we have all seen in the news. A combination of poor long term planning, lack of understanding consequences, organization self preservation, and corruption have all help to exasperate problems in areas of Haiti. Even so, there are many in need in Haiti because of this storm and we need to separate providing immediate aid in the shadow of a disaster and the longer term recovery of Haiti; which must be lead and driven by Haitians with the rest of us providing the support as we are asked.

The people that I have directly worked with in Haiti were largely spared the brunt of the storm as they are in Port-au-Prince and the storm tracked over the south - west of Haiti. That is not to say that they weren't affected as they still had to deal with rain, flooding, and strong winds. Additionally, many have friends and family that live and work in the areas that we most affected. What I mean is that when evaluating where to help with aid I believe that there are places in more need after this storm than those with which I directly work.

There are two groups that I have worked with in the past, trust, and feel comfortable donating towards hurricane relief: United Christians International in Haiti and the Be Like Brit foundation.

United Christians International in Haiti (link)
This mission is lead by Pastor JeanJean and Kristie Mompreimer in Caiman, Haiti. The area in Caiman in which they work was once mostly a place of Vudu. Since the Mompreimers have moved in, Vudu has largely been eliminated and they have built both an elementary and middle school as well as an excellent university. The area in which they are located is far enough from Port-au-Prince that they were largely unaffected by both the earthquake in 2010 and the strong winds of this storm.

After the earthquake in 2010 the people in Caiman loaded trucks of supplies and headed to Port-au-Prince to provide help. Additionally, they brought people back to Caiman to help them be safe, warm, and fed. They are planning a similar effort after this storm. Below is an excerpt from an email sent by Kristie. These are people I trust and they plan to work with people they trust.

We had a nice Wed. night service last night. We talked as a congregation about what we can do for the people without homes and provisions in the south. As I'm sure you have heard, people need to cautious about how to proceed. There is potential government red tape and there are organizations that would use relief money and aid unethically.


Our church decided to collect food and clothing to send to some pastors that we know personally to give to the needy in their congregations. We also want to try to raise the money to put roofs on houses and churches in the south. We will be sending Eliberne, UCI board member and mason, with a crew to oversee the work. We believe that in this way we'll be certain that the money will get to the people that need it.

If you would like to help the Caiman church with this goal, you can go to the UCI website, ucihaiti.org and give a donation through our Clover online giving. There will be a drop designation for Hurricane relief.

Be Like Brit (link)
This organization is was started by the parents of a college student that was on a mission trip to Haiti when the earthquake hit in 2010. Their daughter, Britney, was killed in the earthquake. Shortly before the earthquake Britney sent the following text to her mother.

They love us so much and everyone is so happy. They love what they have and they work so hard to get nowhere, yet they are all so appreciative. I want to move here and start an orphanage myself.

Britney's father, who works in construction, over saw the construction of the orphanage they now run in Haiti and it was built as a safe haven for the children that they raise as if they were their own. A gentleman named Jonathon LaMare, who has experience working in Rwanda after the genocide, was hired as the director of the orphanage and he as done a wonderful job.

As you can see from the map links from their web site, the BLB orphanage is outside Port-au-Prince and close to the track of the hurricane. During the storm Jonathan posted updates on their Facebook stream and they continue to do so as they help with rebuilding their surrounding neighborhoods. It is also noteworthy that during the storm the BLB home took in 100+ people to help shelter them.

Trust
Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. Both UCI Haiti and Be Like Brit are organizations and people I have worked with and trust. They both care about and ahare life with the people of Haiti. There is longer term need in Haiti and I would be happy to talk to people about that; but for immediate need after this storm I trust these people with my donations of time, marterial and money.

Bondye la avèk ou ak tout pèp la an Ayiti
(God be with you and the People of Haiti)