Did You Sleep Well Last Night?

Reverend Benoit of the Lutheran Church Haiti said an interesting and thought provoking thing in his conversation with us. He said he always found it peculiar when he visited Canada that people would ask, “Did you sleep well last night?” Or, “Did you have a good sleep?”

He said the question is never asked in Haiti. It’s not hard to see why.

If we had to go to sleep on a mud floor, perhaps wet from rain that day and mosquitoes flying around….

If we had to go to sleep being afraid of our own security as we slept outside or in a tent….

If we had to go to sleep with deep worry about whether our children would be able to go to school or have anything resembling what was considered a normal life before the earthquake….

If we had to go to sleep at night with memories of family and friends killed in the earthquake….

If we had to go to sleep at night hungry and uncertain where the next meal might come from or whether some kind of job might be available….

Would we ask one another, “Did you sleep well last night?”

– Posted by Tom Brook

Another Effective Partner For CLWR in Haiti

Lutheran World Relief is not CLWR’s only partner in Haiti. Through the Haitian Mission Society in Canada, CLWR has supported the relief work of the Lutheran Church Haiti. CLWR’s donation allowed for the purchase of 100 tents situated in a camp in the Leogane area which was the earthquake’s epicentre. These are much larger than regular shelter tents and very comfortably house six to eight persons and are extremely rugged.

The head of the church, Reverend Revenal Benoit, took time from a very busy schedule to share some of the challenges and hopes for his church and its mission.

Lutheran Church Haiti has 40,000 members among 192 congregations. It has revenue generating activities including a construction company, rubble removal contracting and a bakery. It works hard to provide meaningful and useful employment and builds hope among those who need it the most.

The church supports seven specific ministries with education being the highest priority. This is a recurring theme among all those caregivers that we have spoken to in the last few days. There is a deep concern that a generation or two of young Haitians not be lost to under-education.

Reverend Benoit spoke of plans to build 700 permanent homes. These homes will be built to new specifications that will make them resistant to earthquakes and hurricanes. The cost of he project will exceed $2 million, but he is undaunted by the challenge.

CLWR Executive Director, Bob Granke, was very pleased with the visit. He said, “there is very good work taking place which is being led by the Lutheran Church Haiti. I believe that the future will hold other opportunities for close collaboration between the church and the agency.”

– Posted by Tom Brook

You Are Making A Difference

We are preparing to leave Haiti. One question on the minds of many back home will be, “has our support of the Haiti Appeal made a difference? Have we had an impact on lives in Haiti?”

In our short time in this country we have witnessed the work of the Lutheran World Federation. The compassionate and determined way the LWF staff works daily with local camp committees to address urgent and future needs, identified by the community itself, brings relief and a sense of control for many whose lives have seemed out of control.

Relief supplies at Leogane base camp ready for distribution

Yes, the people in the camps organized by the LWF receive tents and repairs for the tents along with blankets, hygiene supplies, classrooms, water facilities and means for personal and camp sanitation. But there are very practical strategies in place too. There is no food distribution any longer, meaning that the camps do not become a source of complete dependency for people.

Another strategy surrounds water supply. Storage tanks and distribution systems along with the first supply of water are provided free to the camp. After that the local management committee is expected to sell water and reorder as required. We were told this has had practical results. A woman was found to be seriously ill and required urgent hospital attention that was costly. The community used the surplus in their water fund to see that she got the medical care she needed. She’s alive today because of it.

Our partners are not limiting themselves to immediate relief alone. After all, there are 1,000,000 Haitians living in 1300 tent communities. They can’t do it alone. Others have to help and they do.

The school building program is impressive. A school can be built in three days, and add another week or so for latrines, kitchen, garden, and security fence and for less than $40,000 you have a school that can accommodate up to 200 children a day in shifts. The target is classroom space for at least 40,000 children. I think they’ll make it.

Employing people to rebuild infrastructure and provide for environmental preservation means money in the pocket for food, children’s school costs and starting a business as well as easing transportation of produce to market and goods into the communities in places like Tete au Boeuf.

This is only a small sample of all the work you are doing right here in Haiti today thanks to these effective and efficient partners.

Has your support made a difference, are you saving and changing lives? Emphatically yes.

– Posted by Tom Brook

Please Send Us A Ball

It’s not often these days that you see unbridled enthusiasm for mission and ministry that seems to be part of a pastor’s persona 24/7. But that’s what we witnessed in the presence of Pastor Levinson, head of the Eglise Lutherienne d’Haiti. He is in his 20’s, educated at seminaries in Jamaica and Wartburg in Iowa.

This is a young and struggling church. There are twelve churches and four pastors – a familiar situation for many North American Lutherans. The church receives generous support from the ELCA and hopes to become a member of the Lutheran World Federation.

The Lutheran congregation in Carrefour is reaching out to neighbours providing daily necessities as well as spiritual care.

We visited one of the churches located in Carrefour. The devastation surrounding the church was unbelievable. There were many demolished homes and small tent camps and people living in homes barely habitable. But the church, a simple plywood and 2X4 structure is very important to the community. It provides a water supply, latrines and a feeding program. It is a place for local gatherings and a school as well as worship space.

What this small Lutheran community can teach us in Canada is enormous. This church was planted exactly where it needed to be – in the middle of people who needed to hear the caring words of Christ and see them translated into mission by the willing hands of this church.

The children were so happy and excited to see us and be with us. They were not begging for money or food, the only thing they asked was, “please send us a ball.” They needed something to play with and enjoy. CLWR is going to make sure they have that ball.

– posted by Tom Brook

The Trailblazers of Tete a Boeuf: Cash-for-Work

The Lutheran World Federation and it’s partners, including CLWR, has been providing economic and social development in Haiti for many years and will so long after the more than 400 NGO’s active in disaster relief leave.

Cash for work is an important program in development work in Haiti. People are paid for vital work, mostly infrastructure improvement and environmental management. The money allows artisans to produce and market their production, build small businesses or educate children among many good uses. We visited one of these project sites in the mountains of Haiti.

Does it make a difference? What follows is a report from former country director Craig Kippels on the Cash for Work program in the Tete au Boeuf region.

– Tom Brook

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Tete a Boeuf farmers widening the treacherous path into a safe, usable road: literally trailblazing!

High in the steep mountains of Grand Goave, 75 kilometers west of Port-au-Prince, a handful of people are hard at work. They are men and women, young and old; they wield hoes and shovels, picks and rakes, in the heavy Haitian sun.

They are farmers, but they are not working in their fields. They are building a road.

This group represents ten of the two hundred people currently involved in a cash-for-work program here in the mountain community of Tete a Boeuf—a program implemented by the Lutheran World Federation Haiti as part of the LWF’s emergency response projects after the devastating January earthquake.

The people of Tete a Boeuf were particularly vulnerable in the months following the quake. With most of their mountainside houses and crops destroyed in massive rockslides, they had no means to buy food, care for their sick, or send their children to school. The LWF distributed seeds and tools during the planting season in April, but until these crops are ready for harvest, the cash-for-work project has been critical in allowing the people here to earn immediate income to meet their most pressing needs.

Under the LWF program, each person works for fifteen days (plus one day of voluntary participation), and are directly supervised by local authorities and local association staff members, who are trained and equipped with materials, thus building local capacity and community ownership. At the end of the work period, workers are paid 3,000 Haitian gourdes ($75). Skilled workers—team leaders, medics, and supervisors—get slightly more. When the project is complete, nearly 2,500 people will have worked on the road and received payment.

In addition, the outcome of the work itself—the building of this road—has an even farther-reaching impact. It used to be that if these farmers had a surplus of crops, they could sell it in Grand Goave town—but to get there, they had to brave a narrow, rocky path that zigzagged down the steep mountainside. Donkeys and people alike easily lost their footing, sometimes resulting in fatal accidents.

Louise Marie Joseph will use the money she receives from the LWF to pay for school fees for her children.

“Now that the road has improved, we can go to town without fearing,” says Cameli Mangi, a widow and mother of five. With the money she received for working, she hopes to start a small business selling vegetables in Grand Goave; the new road will facilitate her journey.

“Merci beaucoup à LWF,” says Louise Marie Joseph, another farmer who has just finished her fifteen days of work. “We are so happy for the road you have built.”

Of course, it’s Louise, Cameli, and their fellow community members in Tete a Boeuf who have built the road themselves. The LWF simply helped them on their way.

– Dispatch from the Lutheran World Federation Haiti

We Are Children. We Are Strong. We Will Change The World.

Psycho-social programming targeted at children in refugee campis is part of the work being supported by CLWR

Yes the refugee camps are depressing and in spite of all the aid and assistance being provided there is still need for one of the central pieces of LWF emergency relief work – psycho-social activities, particularly among the children.

The CLWR Haiti team was treated to the singing of a group of youngsters at the Leogane area camp we visisted. The children were enthusiastic and full of hope and encouragement as you can see in the title of one of the songs they sang for us – We are children, we are strong and we will change the world.

It’s going to take a massive effort by CLWR working through its Haitian partners, but with an attitude like that among the children, anything is possible.

– posted by Tom Brook

I Paint My Toenails So I Can Have Something Bright To Look At

The Canadian Lutheran World Relief team visited a total of four refugee camps in two days. Three were in the Petionville area of Port au Prince and another in Leogane, the epicentre of the earthquake.

Tents pitched within a meter or two of each other indicate the high density living conditions in camps set uo to temporarily house Haitians who lost homes in the earthquake. Photo: T. Gallop, ELCIC.

The camps are just that – camps. It would be like going to your favourite national park with everybody tenting in the exact same tents only there is about two feet between tents. Cooking and washing takes place over open fires. There is no power, the washrooms and showers are communal and there is little or no space for children to play. Well you might say that sounds like a camping holiday you’ve been on — not just so crowded.

There’s one big difference here – you can’t go home after the weekend is over. People haven’t been able to go home after living like this for nearly ten months.

Lutheran World Relief is distributing new tents to replace old ones and plastic sheeting to reinforce old tents against the rain and winds. We watched the distribution of quilts and blankets, hygiene kits and other necessary supplies.

One camp we visited was on the grounds of the former Italian embassy which was completely levelled. The kids play soccer in the empty swimming pool. When Executive director Bob Granke asked children what they could remember about the earthquake, they fell silent at first and then with vacant looks in their eyes recounted the deaths of family members.

Most people in the camps we went to were renters, so even if the buildings they once lived in are ever rebuilt, they likely will be rented out to others with more money. Some owned the land their houses were on but there is no way to remove the rubble because three or four houses farther up might have slid into their property. There is no heavy equipment available to remove the huge slabs of concrete.

People who own the land where the camps are now on want everyone out and there is nothing the government seems to be able to do little about it.

To bring the property issue into strong focus, the Leogane camp, which is managed by LWF that we visited today, had moved from a previous settlement that had been badly damaged by storms. An agency rented the land for them but only for two months, even as they establish their water supply, latrines and showers and talk about the need for a school their future may only be sixty days in this place.

Yeogana, the LWF employee who has been our guide told ELCIC Director of Communication and Stewardship Trina Gallop while staring at her open sandals, “I started painting my toenails when I began relief work. It gives me something bright to look at now and then.”

One million people are still in camps. If one of the Atlantic hurricanes even comes close to Haiti it will be back to square one or worse for most of them.

– Posted by Tom Brook

School Out For…..Not Much Longer!

Thousands of Haitian children are going back to school thanks to the efforts of Canadian Lutheran World Relief’s partner in Haiti, Lutheran World Federation working collaboratively with Finn Church Aid. Many children had no school for months after the earthquake, and many more are only now preparing to return to classes.

Schools constructed by the LWF are making it possible for Haitian children to get back to learning. (Photo: P. Jeffrey, Act Alliance)

We received a report at LWF headquarters from Interim Country Director Craig Kippels that fifty tent schools have been provided and about fifty-five wooden schools. One hundred and ten more are needed in areas where the LWF is concentrating its efforts. Each school has two classrooms of fifty students each. The total space provided so far is for about 10,000 children and accommodation for at least that many more is in the planning stages.

Parents prefer the wooden schools because there is less danger of serious injury in case there is another disaster.

A pilot project is currently underway where a caging system using rubble will be used to construct more permanent schools. Parents, both women and men, and other community members are participating in the rebuilding as part of a “cash for work” program but also for pride of contributing to their children’s welfare.

The schools do not come cheap. Basic construction costs are $7500. Add another $1500 if you want a concrete floor. A security wall, kitchen and latrines can cost up to another $7,500. Finally, wells have to be drilled and can cost as much as $10,000 but a well also serves the surrounding community as well as the school. So, $35,000-$40,000 for a school for 100 students and many hundreds are needed in total.

We visited three refugee camps this afternoon. It was very difficult and will take some time to process properly. More on that tomorrow.

– Posted by Tom Brook

Haiti: seeding recovery in the countryside

In the early morning sunshine in the commune of Petit Gôave, 68km southwest of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, hundreds of people wait. A distribution of seeds by ACT Alliance will take place any minute.

People have come from mountainous areas surrounding Petit Goâve, areas significantly hit by the earthquake. Most arrived in Petit Goâve hours ago.

Seeds are transferred to sacks for distribution. Photo: Maria Halava/ACT

The Lutheran World Federation, an ACT member, is distributing maize and bean seeds to the most vulnerable people in the area – the elderly, people from single parent households or families with many children. They are all members of a farmers’ association and were selected by that association to receive seeds, LWF agronomist Plancher Rolnick says.

Seeds will give crop in late summer

When distribution starts, people are called by name to come forward in groups of three. One group is given 50kg of beans, which is to be shared among three families, and 50kg of maize for nine families.

The long trek home begins with seeds received from the Lutheran World Federation. Photo: Maria Halava/ ACT.

Yvès Raymond, a young farmer from the mountains, is among the first to get seeds. At noon, he leaves for home. “I left home by midnight and arrived here at 5am,” he says. After queuing for several hours, he now has four measures of bean seeds and one of maize. He faces a long walk home under the blazing sunshine.

Like everyone else, Yvès Raymond will plant his seeds in June after the heavy rains. In this way, he will be able to harvest the crop in August-September.

Joseph Galnave Norre, coordinator of a farmers’ association, says that for most people the crop will only cover the needs of their families. ”Those who get some surplus sell it at the market. Some people even go to Port-au-Prince to get a better price.”

Food production needs to be kept going

Haiti’s food security situation was fragile long before the earthquake. Decades of insufficient food production left Haitians highly dependent on imports. Since the earthquake an influx of people from Port-au-Prince to rural areas has meant rural dwellers are forced to share their food with those who have fled the capital. Sixty percent of the population lives in rural areas and under the poverty line of less than two dollars a day. Keeping food production going is extremely important for farmers.

In Petit Goâve, people are relieved to get the seeds from ACT. ”My parents do not have jobs at the moment, so we have had to find other ways to survive,” Lidor Roseline, a 16-year-old girl says.

The family with four children is living in a temporary shelter as the family home was damaged in the earthquake. The maize and bean seeds given by ACT are used only for subsistence, as are the other vegetables the family grows.

Seed distribution “will produce a good harvest”

In rural areas, many farmers lack cash to buy seeds and food prices have already gone up since the earthquake. ”Seed distribution is very welcome here, since it will give people a good harvest,” Joseph Galnave Norre, from a farmers’ association, says.

Aid work is not always trouble-free. The distribution was initially planned to take place a week earlier but problems with logistics forced its postponement.

People who arrived in Petit Goâve in vain last week are now worried that there won’t be enough seeds for everybody today. ”This time we made sure that the truck with the seeds was already in place when the distribution was about to start,” Plancher Rolnick says.

By the end of the day, 1300 farmers have received seeds. The last 200 still need to wait until the next morning.

After the distribution, ACT will see that the seeds are shared equally among the designated families. Meanwhile, it will keep distributing other items in different parts of the country as it has done since the earthquake.

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Posting courtesy of Maria Halava, ACT Alliance

It’s back to school in Haiti: LWF playing a significant role in providing temporary facilities.

Haitian children are returning to classes in termporary facilities. Photo: ACT Alliance

Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Léogâne is rising from the dust. The city was one of the worst hit areas of the January 12 earthquake.  Approximately 80-90 percent of it was destroyed.  Six out of ten schools were totally destroyed. Now 66 out of 184 primary schools have re-opened

Masséd Dimy, a teacher of école Saint Esprit in the city of Darbonne, was working during the earthquake. “I was having my geography lesson for eleven students while the earth started to quake”, he says. Mr. Dimy together with his students managed to run out of the school building before it collapsed. All of them survived. Except for one student, everybody has come back to school. But some of them are still afraid of a new earthquake.

“I felt very stressed afterwards, but now I’m feeling much better. My only fear is that there will be a new earthquake which is even stronger than the previous one”, Mr. Dimy tells us.

Both teachers and students have received psycho-social support to cope with the fears the earthquake caused. Discussions have helped them to understand what happened and to handle their traumas.

Revised curricula to catch up

With the support from ACT Alliance, five of the largest schools in the areas of Léogâne, Grand Goave and Petit Goave are now up and running in school tents. In école Saint-Esprit, seven tents put up in the school playground started operating three weeks ago and are now hosting several hundred students from kindergarten to secondary school, with more returning to school each day.

”Before the earthquake, there were approximately 600-700 students in the school, Country Coordinator David Korpela from ACT member Finn Church Aid says.

Some people have moved away from the area and some students are still afraid of coming back to school. “When school feeding programs start, we expect the amount of students to increase to over 1000”, he continues.

Tents are often divided in two parts with tarps and sheets. One tent can host up to 80 students. As the number of students increases, the school facilities will be used in multiple shifts to accommodate all the students.

Primary school teacher Pierre Mesgline is teaching 34 children of six or seven years old.
“Classes start at seven o’clock in the morning. Since we finish one hour earlier than usual, we have been forced to make some changes to the curriculum”, she tells.

Reconstruction will start soon

Clearing of rubble of the totally damaged school building is going on in the courtyard of école Sainte Croix in Léogâne. Being one of the few schools now operating again in the area, école Sainte Croix is open to all children in the area, also taking in students from surrounding schools that were destroyed.

Before the school started operating on April 5th, we had a meeting with parents and made a list of all students who would attend”, Jean Baptiste Emmanuelle from the Episcopal Church says. When new students arrive, they will be added to the list.

Ecole Sainte Croix is still missing lots of materials, such as tables, chairs and blackboards that were destroyed in the earthquake. Replacement furniture has been ordered from a local contractor and will be distributed this week. School kits and teacher kits donated by Unicef have already arrived and are being distributed to teachers and students.

The biggest concern, though, seems to be the heat which cannot be avoided at this time of the year. Especially in May the temperatures start rising high. Shade netting has been installed to alleviate the heat but students will have to try and study through some of the hot summer months to catch up with their peers in the rest of the country.

The aim of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Finn Church Aid, both members of ACT, is to have all the 30 target schools fully operational with access to clean drinking water, sanitation facilities and a school feeding program within the next six months. After this period, the activities will shift towards permanent reconstruction.

In June-July they will start building a model school for approval by the Ministry of Education in Haiti. Eventually, the aim is to reconstruct all 30 schools in the area, and maybe build even more.

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By Maria Haval, ACT Alliance

CLWR is a founding member of the ACT Alliance and a related agency of the Lutheran World Federation.