2017
On February 29th, Mary Ellen and I, along with fellow Helping Haitians in Need Board members Jerry Ritzman and Steve Hancock, travelled to Haiti for a four-day trip with our friend and partner Pastor Eddy Buissereth. Upon arrival, we immediately left Port-au-Prince for the one-hour drive west to Leogane. Port-au-Prince is a truly bazaar and difficult city. Virtually all activity occurs along the congested streets. Due to the lack of consistent electricity, there does not appear to be any traffic signals and the “rules of the road” are pretty nonexistent. The streets of Port-au-Prince are strewn with mounds of garbage and a general haze of dust permeates the air.
We spent Sunday night at a guesthouse run by Family Health Ministries; a US based nonprofit which runs a clinic catering primarily to women’s health and obstetrics. An armed guard let us onto this very nice property. Running entirely on generators and batteries, we had lights, running hot and cold water, Wi-Fi, and even air conditioning during the night hours. We were also treated to a very nice dinner and breakfast.
On Monday morning we drove about 30 minutes south to visit with people from the Haiti Reforestation Partnership, an initiative run by the nonprofit CODEP. Deforestation is a major problem in Haiti due to the locals cutting down trees for producing charcoal, one of the few marketable commodities. CODEP administrator John Winings and his Haitian staff graciously gave us 4-5 hours of their time where we saw the process of planting and fostering seedlings, tiered planting of trees, their local school, and also a visit with a local cooperative loan agent. This model of helping people towards some form of commerce and self-sufficiency is a paramount goal of HHN in working with our small rural community.
We left this area around 2:00pm for the three plus hour drive to the south coast of Haiti. While this distance was only about 75 miles, infrastructure and road conditions are unbelievably challenging in places. Rutted, rock-strewn roads are often the norm. Our destination was a small “resort” near Cote de Fer, which is located only about 20 minutes from Pastor Eddy’s rural community of Puit Chacha. Access to this part of Haiti is truly challenging and upon arrival it was obvious that this resort hadn’t seen too many guests lately. We were ushered through a locked gate by an armed guard to a resort that at one time was probably very beautiful as it is located on a nice beach with palm trees, a beautiful pool, etc. Unfortunately the conditions were fairly rundown…lack of recent landscaping and grass growing through the concrete. We were literally the only guests. It was an interesting evening, as we had no hot water, limited electricity, and few services. We should have known we were in for an adventure when we saw wild goats drinking from the hotel pool.
On Tuesday morning, after a delay due to Eddy having to take the car to Cote de Fer for a major muffler/tailpipe repair, we drove the 20 minutes north to Eddy’s foundation. The improvements to Eddy’s foundation, due largely to his perseverance and the financial help of HHN, were very evident. The dirt floor, tarp walled classroom has been replaced with a solid block and cement floored three classroom building. They now also have a three “toilet” bathroom facility when they previously had none. On the day we were there, the engineer was busy completing the interior ceiling for an expanded dormitory. We also got to interact with the approximately 50 students as school was in session. Compared with our visit in 2015, I was greatly encouraged by the improved conditions. That said, the conditions are still very harsh by nearly any standard. At some point it would be very beneficial to establish some type of solar power to give the school and dormitory at least some additional functionality. Also, the local people still appear to have little, if anything, productive to do.
We left the Puit Chacha around 2:00 for the long drive to Port-au-Prince and our evening stay at the Marriott. After a couple of pretty tough days on the road, Tuesday evening was a most welcome respite. On Wednesday morning, we had a two-hour meeting at the Marriott with Pastor Eddy and his associate Pastor Marcellus. Pastor Marcellus handles much of Eddy’s business in Haiti while he is away working in the Turks. The Board of HHN has much to consider in terms of how best to manage our funds such that we are having the most long-term effective impact on our target community. Pastor Eddy’s thoughts and ideas on how best to serve the people of Haiti, is central to these discussions. All four Board members definitely felt that the time spent on putting together and executing this trip will be most beneficial in helping HHN chart it’s future path.
Paul Huber, President
Helping Haitians in Need
February 6, 2017