Luke and Larry visited Haiti last month. I am generally scared of feelings, so whenever they come back from a trip I find myself making coffee or hiding in the bathroom while the stories roll out. This time, I successfully avoided having to feel anything until I was asked to write this post. BAM.
It seems like I keep hearing the same phrases regarding Haiti over and over again, that “We don’t want to just be another organization on the ground cluttering the airstrips and eating the already scarce food…” and “We just want to support people that are already established in the their work…”. I have heard people say that they think Haiti is “just too hard-core” to be their first developing world experience. I have heard people say they can’t justify spending the airfare when the money could be used in other, more effective ways.
I have heard these arguments again and again, and they are powerful. But when Luke and Larry come back from their little, tiny, modest trip to Haiti and there are 95 children that don’t have to walk through fecal matter anymore to get to the kitchen, I can’t help but think, maybe these arguments are not quite spot on.
While they were there, one very small life gave up her rights here on earth due to the conditions at El Bon Samaritain. Consuming food or water contaminated with fecal matter is the number one cause of disease in Haiti, especially among children. Luke and Larry’s work there will help protect the children of El Bon Samaritain from dying of easily preventable but excruciating diseases. Luke’s letter tells the story…
This July was a great and exciting month for Mercy League Haiti. About a month ago, Shane Mattenley (the founder of Mercy League International) called and asked if I would go to Haiti and lead a group of humanitarian student workers from UNC Charlotte. Of course I said yes, and it turned out to be a very memorable 9-day work trip for us. Our team consisted of the twelve-member team from The UNC at Charlotte, Larry Reeve, and myself.
Our project setting was the Good Samaritan Orphanage in Croix des Bouquet, the home of Madame Paul St. Virlus. Madame Paul is the 63 year-old Haitian lady whom I have spoken of many times, and who runs the home for children and has done so for more that a decade.
Our objective was to build a composting latrine unit that would enable the 90-some-odd children who live with Mme. Paul to have a sanitary place to take care of their “necessaries.” More than just sanitary, we wanted to make it nice, neat, and finished so that it would look like something that should be kept clean. The place they are using at present is very unsanitary in several respects: 1.) it is located entirely too close (about 30 feet) to the cistern which stores the water supply for the orphanage, 2.) its crude design makes it hard to keep clean and rain water frequently washes the contaminants out onto the ground where little bare feet can walk through them exposing children to all manners of illness. When we arrived, the toilets were in horrible shape and the children were walking barefooted through untreated fecal matter. (Mme. Paul is a very devoted caregiver for the children but she is understaffed and was greatly in need of someone to come alongside her and help her with a sustainable solution to this problem.) So, our goal for the week’s work was to totally eliminate the usage of the present facility and endow Mme. Paul with a new composting facility that would be far more sanitary and sustainable.
In the weeks time while we were there, we actually accomplished the following: digging and pouring concrete slabs for the latrine unit and the bath house, digging a small septic tank and drain field that the showers and latrine urinals will drain into, laying block, framing floor, pouring concrete slab for the floor, forming concrete benches which will function as as toilets, plumbing of latrine and bath houses, framing of walls and roofs of bath house and compost storage shack.Shifting gears a bit, I want to tell all of you about an unexpected event that was a very poignant experience for all of us…Larry and me as well as the whole UNC Charlotte team. On the first several days of our trip, we were privileged to get to meet Manuel and Juani, two wonderful missionaries from Spain. They were living on the grounds of Mme Paul’s orphanage and helping out with any and all work to be done. Manuel and Juani were in the process of adopting two little girls, about 2 years old and the other only 4 months. While we were there, we discovered that the youngest girl was very ill and had three different sicknesses: malaria, anemia, and intestinal parasites. Time will not allow me to give a merited telling of the story but, in short, we arrive one morning and walked onto the scene of the youngest girl, baby Elizabeth, dying from complications of her multiple sicknesses. She passed away within hours. For the rest of the morning the team divided up between making a small casket and digging the grave for baby Elizabeth. The parasites were likely caused by the unsanitary conditions that often present in Haiti. It is precisely because of these conditions that we went to build a new and safer latrine facility for the children.
The trip was a very fruitful one and we accomplished much toward the end of getting the orphanage cleaner facilities but unfortunately, we were stopped short of our goal because we ran out of time. But, we are planning on a follow up trip within the month to finish out the project and train the children how to use the latrine facilities. We would love for you to make a consideration of a one-time donation towards getting this project finished out. Better yet, please consider pledging a monthly gift to partner with us in continually improving the living standard of these little ones.
Thank you all for stopping by and being a part of our work in Haiti, please pray for us.
