Antonal Mortimé, the executive secretary for The Platform for Haitian Organizations for the Defense of Human Rights, is joined by Jasmine Huggins, right, and Martin Shupack, both of CWS, during a Jan. 12 prayer event to commemorate the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Photo: Chris Herlinger / CWS
Washington, DC – With calls to commemorate, remember and heal, the people of Haiti were affirmed and recognized today (Jan. 12) during a Capitol Hill interfaith prayer service, marking the fifth anniversary of the catastrophic 2010 Haiti earthquake.
“We’re here to commemorate the incredible courage and perseverance of the Haitian people in their rebuilding,” said Martin Shupack, Washington-based Director of Advocacy for Church World Service.
“We dedicate ourselves to prayer, advocacy and action,” Shupack added. “We dedicate ourselves to the year ahead of walking with the Haitian people.”
CWS’s earthquake recovery support has included repairing and rebuilding homes and schools; promoting agricultural production and food security; and livelihood measures to help disabled persons.
Representatives of CWS and other members of the Haiti Advocacy Working Group, an alliance of international development, faith-based, human rights and social justice organizations working together on issues related to U.S.-Haiti policy, participated in the Jan. 12 event, held at the Rayburn Office Building.
Antonal Mortimé, the executive secretary for The Platform for Haitian Organizations for the Defense of Human Rights, noted that while Jan. 12 has become an occasion of commemoration, prayer and reflection to remember “a humanitarian event without precedent,” it has also become a day for progressive forces in Haiti to call for change and reform within the country.
The estimates of those killed from the January 2010 event varies from 230,000 to more than 300,000. At least 1.5 million were initially displaced and more than 85,000 remained displaced as of September 2014, according to CNN.
Jayce Hafner, domestic policy analyst for The Episcopal Church, one of CWS’s member communions, took note of continuing challenges, including the fact that 85,000 Haitians still live in tent camps and 3 million people still don’t have ready access to food.
“Certainly, we should celebrate the victories we’ve accomplished with our international partners,” she said. “But before we tie a neat bow on the entire scenario, before we congratulate one another with a pat on the back and then turn our attention elsewhere, we must ask ourselves: have we entirely accomplished what we set out to achieve? Is Haiti healed? Is Haiti whole?”
More broadly, the five-year anniversary “is an opportunity to reflect on what humanitarian and development efforts undertaken by international organizations have, and haven’t, worked since the earthquake, and why this is the case” said Professor Robert Maguire, director of Latin American and Hemispheric Studies at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.
Lit candles commemorate those who lost their lives during the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Photo: Chris Herlinger / CWS
Maguire is a speaker at a planned Tuesday, Jan. 13, Haiti Advocacy Working Group roundtable on Haiti’s current political crisis and its impact on reconstruction.
The track record in Haiti has certainly been mixed, he said in an interview, “with the international community more effective in delivering immediate post-disaster emergency assistance than in working with Haitians and their organizations to expand and sustain economic opportunity and improve standards of living.”
“Indeed, despite widely voiced aspirations among donors to improve aid effectiveness by applying such principles as greater responsiveness to local priorities and the transfer of aid ownership to local institutions and organizations, post-quake development assistance mostly continued using a top-down, delivery model.”
“Too many aid organizations,” continued Maguire, “fail to address the stated priorities of Haiti’s poor and to achieve sustainable solutions that include incrementally strengthening Haitian organizations to which they can ‘hand off’ activities and responsibilities. Considering development as this kind of a process as opposed to a one-off project can help us do better than this.”
CWS continues its work in Haiti by working with partners and supporting food security programs in the Northwest region; initiatives to promote child protection; supporting ongoing emergency recovery, preparedness and response programs; and continuing ongoing advocacy efforts in Washington.
Aside from Church World Service, the Jan.12 event also included participation from American Jewish World Service and Islamic Relief, as well as the Episcopal Church and the office of Rep. Barbara Lee, D-CA.
Read CWS’s Three-Year Plan for Haiti here.