Three months after a powerful earthquake devastated the island nation of Haiti, aid money continues to flow in from all over the world to help the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, including millions of dollars from dioceses across the United States, including nearly $1 million from the Diocese of Providence.
In addition, relief workers have descended on the capital, Port-Au-Prince, which lay in ruins following the Jan. 12 quake, which claimed 230,000 lives, and displaced more than 1.1 million people.
Now, Haiti is at a crossroads. While aid continues to flow in, providing people with food and temporary shelter, a long-term plan is sorely needed to position the country to best meet the future needs of its people.
During a recent visit to the United States, two of Haiti’s leading Jesuit priests said that the development and reconstruction of Haiti will succeed only if the Haitian government, with involvement of the wider society, takes on a broader decision-making role in international bodies such as the United Nations and the World Bank.
The two Haitian Jesuits—Father Kawas Francois and Father Wismith Lazard—noted that access to education and literacy training will give Haitians the ability to become involved in decisions directing their future as the country recovers from the disaster that destroyed the nation’s capital and much of the surrounding area.
The priests emphasize that it’s important for schools and the church to educate young Haitians and improve literary rates.
Father Lazard said the country's reconstruction will best be managed by Haitians as long as the process is transparent, decision-making is decentralized, decision-makers are held accountable and projects are sustainable. He said centralized decision making in Haiti's past led to corruption and the siphoning off of aid by government officials.
The Jesuits also are promoting the need for increased security for the country, especially for people remaining in hundreds of makeshift tent camps in the earthquake zone. Women are particularly vulnerable, said Father Francois, president of the Jesuit Interprovincial Committee for the Reconstruction of Haiti.
In one such camp, approximately 50,000 have been residing in tents at the Petionville Golf Club, which is in an affluent suburb to the north of Port-Au-Prince. There is a great fear for the safety of those living in these conditions, especially as the spring monsoon rains begin to pour in from the Caribbean Sea.
In addition, camp residents experience random violence, crime and assaults, the priests said. The lack of adequate food and clean water, nonexistent sanitation facilities and the unending accumulation of trash, which attracts pests and is a breeding ground for disease, compound the difficulties facing people who lost their homes in the earthquake.
By bringing such tragic stories to the United States, Father Francois and Father Lazard said they are hopeful that the Caribbean nation will begin to see significant changes sooner rather than later.
Additional signs of hope for Haiti are present in the numerous organizations that have long made Haitian relief a priority. Organizations with local parish ties such as The Haitian Project and Haiti Outreach have been ministering to the needs of the country’s people for more than two decades.
Catholic Relief Services has taken a leading role on the world stage in providing timely assistance to Haiti, and has been the recipient of numerous fundraising drives by parishes and schools across Rhode Island. CRS has initiated several relief projects in Haiti, and is spearheading a drive to relocate those residing in tent camps to smallwood-framed homes that will protect them from the elements. Also, at the Petionville camp, CRS?is providing bags of rice, sugar and containers of oil to families so they will have enough to eat.
So, despite the passage of three months since the disaster, the need to assist Haiti has not diminished; it has only become stronger, as the nation continues to dig out and position itself for a better future.
