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In a previous post, I wrote about meshing the China my mind imagined and the real China I’ve come to know and love. I struggled with the poverty I witnessed in our daughter’s home province, but determined that I would do something to help.
When the time came for us to visit Haiti, I found nothing could have adequately prepared me. As I had done while waiting to travel to China, I read books about Haiti’s history and culture, studied the language, familiarized myself with the art and music, and studied up on the political situation. I went from having only a vague idea of where Haiti was to having quite a bit of Haiti trivia tucked under my belt. I have a close friend who served a mission in Haiti and who had regaled me with many stories about Haitian life. And I’d been to a “poor” part of China, and felt I had a good idea of what to expect.
How wrong I was.
Haiti was like nothing I could have envisioned. I expected to see poverty, but I didn’t anticipate how bright and alive and vibrant it would be. I expected to see sullen faces and misery all around me, and while I definitely saw misery and sadness, I also saw strength and enthusiasm and pride. It is those qualities that make it difficult for me to talk about the poverty. I don’t want to patronize the Haitian people. I hate it when I see Haiti referred to as “the poorest nation in the western hemisphere” time and time again, because while this may be a provable fact, it paints Haiti as pathetic and hopeless. It makes people feel pity and does not help them understand the remarkable history and culture of Haiti. The slaves brought from Africa to Haiti OVERTHREW the Europeans, for goodness’ sake! They beat them! They kicked them out! They triumphed! They declared independence and created their own nation! They formed a free Black republic!
Haitians are a proud and honorable people, and they deserve much more than our pity. But those who don’t pity them either ignore them or are honestly ignorant of their circumstances. They don’t want pity, but they do deserve our attention and our help. Without getting too far off on a tangent [rant], I believe the U.S. disregards Haiti is because they have nothing we need and at least at the moment, don’t pose a political threat. We’d rather spend millions a day in Iraq, right? But I digress.
So Haiti needs our help, and children in Haitian orphanages are particularly in need of and deserving of our attention and resources. Many children in Haiti literally do not have clothes and shoes. They eat one or two scant meals a day. Unemployment is insanely high, and people try to make ends meet by selling produce, baked goods, pharmaceuticals, auto parts, furniture, and anything of value that has been picked from the trash. Families live in literal shacks made of scraps of wood, cardboard, and corrugated metal. They live without running water and what water they have is contaminated. They do without electricity or “steal” it, and I use quotation marks because I don’t know if it can fairly be called stealing given their options (or lack thereof). Infrastructure is virtually nonexistent. Political problems abound. Children go without schooling because of the cost, and medical and dental care are luxuries reserved only for the upper echelon. There is no middle class.
Imagine trying to raise your family on $600 a year. $600 earned through hard, manual labor over long hours a day in sweltering heat and humidity. Imagine not being able to afford for your children to go to school, and imagine one of them has, oh, I don’t know… a club foot. Something that can be easily managed surgically in the U.S., but without treatment, causes a severe disability. Imagine your whole family has giardia and ringworm, that you’re always hungry, and that all you ever eat is beans and rice with the occasional bit of goat and piece of fruit. Imagine that your life expectancy is 53, and that you’ve lost at least one of your children. Your parents are dead. You have no hope of your life ever being any different than it is now. No hope of breaking the cycle of poverty. So many people in Haiti live under these conditions that the thought is chest-crushing. It almost seems easier just to forget about it. It’s too painful to consider, and there’s no way to make a real change for the better in Haiti. It’s just too much.
Well, it’s not too much. First, people simply need to give a darn. Notice them. Pray for them. Beyond prayer, your pocket change can make a huge difference. Did you know that for about $11 a month, you can send a Haitian child to school for a year? I don’t know many people who can’t spare $11 a month. You can, can’t you?
If you spring for more than $11, there are oodles of opportunities to help. You can donate toward the building of an orphanage. You can help buy beds or equipment. You can arrange to donate baby formula and send it with a group traveling to Haiti. You can visit Haiti as part of a volunteer trip and help care for children or help literally build an orphanage. This isn’t just something “other people” do. You can be one of those people.
Here are my favorite charities benefiting children in Haiti:
Foyer de Sion is the former home of our Haitian children. It is run by an LDS bishop and his wife, and some of their extended family. They have begun construction on a new orphanage building which would allow children from three facilities to be housed under one roof, but work has stalled due to lack of funds. Every little bit truly, truly matters to them.
Sponsor a child to attend school
Volunteer opportunities (including building, childcare, medical)
Healing Hands for Haiti brings rehabilitation medicine to Haiti.
Haiti Innovation addresses the HIV epidemic in Haiti.
Yéle Haiti is Wyclef Jean’s charity. A variety of programs and projects are sponsored.
Further Reading:
Haiti Adoption Blog
Wyclef Jean HonoredHaiti Adoption Forum
Haiti Adoption Forum
Haiti Adoption
