6th June, 2010

ALEX DAY

At the end of April, I went to Haiti for four weeks with the organisation I work for, Samaritan’s Purse, to evaluate our work there.

“A beautiful country in a complete mess” is how Mac, a Haitian man I met living an internally displaced person  camp, described his own country. I would agree.

REBUILDING LIVES: Haitians are slowly rebuilding their lives out of the ruins. "(T)he Haitian people are resilient. Life is, as far as can be expected, returning back to some sort of normality. And there are stories of hope."

The most noticeable effect of the earthquake, as you drive through the capital Port-au-Prince, is the collapsed buildings. Buildings which were seemingly picked at random as to which should stand and which should be left as a piles of rubble.

However, the underlying destruction - the destruction you only sense from talking to people and hearing their stories - is in people's own lives. Everyone I spoke to knew someone who had been killed in the earthquake. Family members, friends, colleagues – all lost in an instant.

But the Haitian people are resilient. Life is, as far as can be expected, returning back to some sort of normality. And there are stories of hope. The churches, despite their own loss and grieving, are growing and are having an impact in their communities.

Pastor Bilda, the head of Council Evangelique Eglise Haiti - a church umbrella group in Haiti - described his vision for the local churches in the rebuilding of Haiti as “changing the minds of the people, so they know that they can make something of their lives themselves.” The local church can play an important role in changing their community’s attitude from one of apathy and despair to one of responsiveness and hope.

Samaritan’s Purse is working in the areas of transitional shelters, rubble removal, water and sanitation, food, sustainable livelihoods and medical aid. The work is progressing well and lives are being changed because of it. Communities are grateful for the support and amongst the smiles, expressions of thanks and hugs from community members, the most touching expression of gratitude was the sign below, which one community had made.

Please pray for the ongoing work of Samaritan’s Purse and the local church in Haiti, who, despite great difficulty and challenges, are achieving much in the ‘beautiful but messy’ country of Haiti.

~ www.samaritans-purse.org.uk

Alex Day is a project coordinator at Samaritan's Purse in the UK.

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