CWS - A year later in Haiti 'we see people trying to move on with their lives'

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

A year later in Haiti 'we see people trying to move on with their lives'
Monday, January 10, 2011

Media coverage of the first year since the devastating January 12, 
2010, earthquake is focused on government inaction, the slow pace of 
recovery and the seeming inability of Haiti to recover.

> By Chris Herlinger/CWS

Port-au-Prince, Haiti -- Media coverage of the first year since the 
devastating January 12, 2010, earthquake is focused on government 
inaction, the slow pace of recovery and the seeming inability of 
Haiti to recover.

But the story has another side: Haitians helping Haitians, say Church 
World Service staff and CWS partners in anticipation of this week's 
anniversary.

"One year after the earthquake, the situation in Haiti remains 
extremely grave and extremely serious. Overall reconstruction of the 
country has been much slower than anyone would have liked," said 
Aaron Tate, Church World Service's Haiti earthquake response 
coordinator. "Haitians are frustrated, and I'm frustrated."

In a country with so many problems, Tate said, "it's easy to blame 
the government, the international humanitarian organizations and even 
the Haitian people for the problems of the last year."

What is ultimately more useful, he said, is to continue work on 
"positive things that can multiply and build a new kind of Haiti."

"In the communities where we work, we see people trying to move on 
with their lives."

Burton Joseph, Haiti project manager, added that while criticism of 
humanitarian organizations is understandable in the current Haitian 
context, it deserves repeating that thousands of Haitians are alive 
today because of the initial and ongoing response of both Haitian and 
non-Haitian aid workers and the agencies they work for.

"Many people would have died without such assistance," he said.

Church World Service partners in Haiti also acknowledge problems in 
the last year. Polycarp Joseph, head of CWS partner FOPJ said 
top-heavy and top-down assistance without Haitian participation helps 
explain the current "frustration in the country." He and 
representatives from other CWS partners say the world has forgotten 
that Haiti needs sustainable development -- development that helps as 
many as possible and gives Haitians a voice in their future.

"Ultimately, people from outside can't do that," said Herode 
Guillomettre, president of the Christian Center for Integrated 
Development, a CWS partner known by the Haitian Creole acronym SKDE.

Guillomettre said 13 food cooperatives in Haiti's Northwest and 
Artibonite regions -- which receive support from SKDE and Church 
World Service -- are proof that Haitians are living lives of quiet 
dignity, working together toward the common good. The co-ops pool 
resources, raise and harvest crops, and provide agricultural credit to members.

They have also provided assistance to earthquake survivors of 
Port-au-Prince who have fled the Haitian capital to begin new lives. 
"It's the co-op that has helped us since we've returned from 
Port-au-Prince," Ophliase Joseph, 55, the mother of seven children 
and whose home was destroyed in the earthquake, said recently. While 
Joseph said she misses the family home in the Haitian capital, life 
in the "Hand in Hand" co-op, in Mayombe, Artibonite, has made her 
realize that she and the family need to put life in Port-au-Prince 
behind them. "We're all staying here," she said.

CWS-supported food co-ops are also meeting the challenge of providing 
food for their members and their families. "It means life to us," 
said Elvius St. Fulis a member of the "Hand in Hand" co-op.

The initial response by CWS included providing emergency assistance, 
such as hygiene kits, blankets, tarps, school kits and baby kits -- 
valued at more than $600,000 -- to more than 200,000 persons.

Now CWS is focused on several priorities as the response in Haiti 
continues. These include:

* Continued support and expansion for the 13 food cooperatives, 
which have more than 3,000 members.

* Ongoing support for programs run by FOPJ for vulnerable 
Haitian children in Port-au-Prince, including restavek children 
(domestic servants), former gang members and teenage mothers.

* Continued support for 1,200 persons with disabilities and 
their families in metropolitan Port-au-Prince. Six-hundred persons 
have received six-month, $75 per-month grants and 30 families have 
received assistance in repairing damaged housing.

Among those receiving assistance is Anouk Noel, 30. Noel's family has 
used the cash grant to purchase cosmetic items that family members 
have re-sold in order to support the family. The home Noel shares 
with her family has also been repaired, and Noel said the family is 
relieved to have returned to the home in November following nine 
months in one of Port-au-Prince's tent cities. "I didn't think we'd 
be able to come back," she said.
How to help

Contributions to support recovery work in Haiti may be made online or 
by phone (800.297.1516), or may be sent to your denomination or to 
Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515.

ACT Alliance  Church World Service is a member of the ACT Alliance, a 
global coalition of churches and agencies engaged in development, 
humanitarian assistance and advocacy.

Media Contact:

Lesley Crosson, 212-870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526, jdragin@gis.net