In Haiti, Holy Week ‘is a symbol of going from bad to good’

["Lesley Crosson" <lcrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

In Haiti, Holy Week ‘is a symbol of going from bad to good’

By Chris Herlinger
Church World Service

Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 21, 2011- - It’s Holy Week in Haiti - a
time for prayer, reflection, taking stock and looking ahead.

The quiet and calm of the week are welcome. Following the commemoration
of the first anniversary of the January 2010 earthquake three months ago
and the recent presidential elections, a respite is probably needed.

But Easter is a reminder of the continued work needed to rebuild Haiti
- work that still requires a commitment to the Haitian people by U.S.
churches and their members, say Church World Service Haitian partners
and beneficiaries.

Easter, said Polycarpe Joseph, head of the Ecumenical Center for Peace
and Justice, is a reminder of the need for "Christians to come
together."

"It’s a symbol of going from bad to good. For Haiti, it’s a
reminder of the need to leave the cycle of underdevelopment and embrace
true development," Joseph said in an April 20 interview. "It’s a time
to move from violence to peace, to move from division to
reconciliation."

"Democracy, development, peace and unity: it’s all one dream," he
said.

Herode Guillomettre, president of the Christian Center for Integrated
Development, a CWS partner known by the Haitian Kreyòl acronym SKDE,
agreed, saying it’s important for CWS and its supporters "to continue
to stand behind the Haitian people, by developing a relationship that
goes ‘beyond
partnership.’"

"We need to support a vision of the Haitian people so they can be
actors in their own development and stop the cycle of dependency," he
said earlier this week, underlining the need for CWS and other
international humanitarian groups to continue advocacy efforts “for a
new Haiti.”

"You can’t have tent cities forever," Guillomettre said of the
ongoing living conditions for hundreds of thousands in Port-au-Prince
and other locales.

Among the long-term initiatives CWS is supporting in Haiti are:

++ Continued support and expansion, working with SKDE, for 13 food
cooperatives providing food security for more than 3,000 members, in
northwest Haiti.

++ Ongoing support for programs run by the Ecumenical Center for Peace
and Justice, known by its Kreyòl acronym FOPJ. These include initiatives
for vulnerable Haitian children in Port-au-Prince, including *restavek*
children (domestic servants), former gang members and teenage mothers.

++ Support for 1,200 persons with disabilities and their families in
metropolitan Port-au-Prince. These persons have received six-month, $75
per-month grants and 30 families have received assistance in repairing
damaged housing.

Among those who have received support in the disabilities initiative is
Anne Suze Denestant, one of the beneficiaries of the CWS cash assistance
program.

Denestant, 26, lost her right arm in the quake. She acknowledges that
life has been extremely difficult since the quake: living in one of the
tent cities, losing family members, trying to support herself, adjusting
to a disability.

"We’re still not where we want to be," Denestant said of Haiti 15
months after the quake.

But she thanked Church World Service for the cash assistance which
provided some income for a time. With the cash assistance, Denestant was
able to sell cosmetics and other items in an open-air market. Denestant
called the program "good work" on the part of CWS.

"I hope they continue to do the same good work," she said.

Chris Herlinger is a Church World Service writer based in New York.


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