Agricultural cooperative members work together to plant beans in Colen/La Reserve, Northwest Photo: Margot de Greef
They call Haiti ‘the Pearl of the Antilles.’ It turned out not to be a fairy tale.
Haiti, a small country on an island tucked in the middle of the Caribbean sea, a country of natural beauty, mountains, beaches, sun. A country so much has been written about. Struggles did not end with independence. They had only just started. Somehow, the country could not manage to get a stable political situation with a strong government taking responsibility for its people. Blow after blow struck Haiti; poverty, hunger, lack of access to infrastructure and basic necessities, diseases, natural disasters.
On January 12, 2010, the already vulnerable country was severely hit by an earthquake. The world was shocked and reacted. Today, five years later, people ask again where the money went and what happened. We see a government that invests in road construction. We see many organisations working in many places. But above all, we see Haitian people work, live, invest, adapt, change, transform and most importantly: believe.
Church World Service still believes in good endings.
We believe in the rich resources of Haiti, a country very well able to produce enough to feed its inhabitants, but sadly hampered by subsidised imports destroying local production. We support agricultural production and food security programmes for 5,365 people in the Northwest department, the most arid province of the country, where through local partner organisations we support 12 agricultural cooperatives, community income generation projects (bakeries, community stores), development of small businesses through provision of microcredit, increased access to water through construction of 12 water cisterns, diversification and increase of food production with vegetables and construction of 12 co-op offices. We also helped repair 148 houses to receive victims from the earthquake who returned to the Northwest.
We believe in the past, the present and the future. We believe in children and in their fundamental rights to go to school, to play, to eat, to be with their family, to have a nationality, to be happy. That is why we will continue to fight against child domestic servitude and rebuilt four schools destroyed in the earthquake to allow 1,288 children to attend classes in a dignified manner.
We believe in autonomy and one’s fulfilment to be able to provide for her/his own needs. Sometimes something happens that puts us back and then we need a hand to get up and going again. That is why we contributed to the repair and construction of 181 houses in Ganthier and Boen. That is also why we included an agricultural component, providing seeds, goats and chickens for people to grow the land, consume and sell, and microcredit to run a business.
We believe in people’s strengths and possibilities, no matter what situation they are in. Therefore, we support integration of people with disabilities in church and society. We contributed to the repair of 213 houses of disabled people, damaged in the earthquake. We provided livelihoods to 573 disabled people to strengthen their businesses and allow them to make their own living. We helped them get access to psychosocial support.
We pray and we act. We do and we speak. Church World Service advocates on housing, child protection, and human rights, closely linked to its continued active programme in Haiti, in partnership with six local organisations.
A few months ago, new license plates were introduced. They changed. They made Haiti again ‘the Pearl of the Antilles.’
Margot de Greef is CWS’s Haiti Country Representative.
Read CWS’s Three-Year Plan for Haiti here.