Country Profile

An incredible artistic tradition, cloud forests, and unique culture are just some of lesser-known aspects of Haiti. The first Caribbean nation to attain sovereignty, Haiti's once promising future has been marred by corruption, violence, and poverty. Haiti continues to be plagued by issues of personal security, economic decline, and questionable governing.

In February 2006 a new government was democratically elected. President Preval along with a parliament can be an asset for a new beginning in Haiti. The government is collaborating with the UN peacekeeping forces to act upon the economic and social problems of Haiti. Much is to be done.
According to newspapers and people on the streets and market places, the socio-political situation has not improved yet.

In such an unstable macro context, long-term development takes on new meaning. CRWRC has been working in Haiti since 1975. In recent years, CRWRC has joined forces with other Christian Reformed Agencies in Haiti and works under the name of Sous Eswpa, which means "Source of Hope."

Despite the unstable environment of Haiti, Sous Espwa's work with partners continues to bear fruit.

Fast Facts

Population:  8,706,497 (July 2007 est.)
Area Comparative: slightly smaller than Maryland
Literacy rate: 52.9%
Life expectancy: 57.03 years
Population below poverty line:  80% (2003 est.)
Gross Domestic Product per capita:  $1,800 (2006 est.)
Religions:  Roman Catholic 80%, Protestant 16% (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal 4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%), none 1%, other 3%
Languages: French (official), Creole (official)

(From the World Factbook. Click here for more information on Haiti.)

CRWRC Partners in Haiti

Program for Training Diaconal Organizations (PWOFOD)
PWOFOD works with churches in urban Port-au-Prince neighborhoods. Through PWOFOD programs, church deacons are trained to reach out to people in the community. PWOFOD also helps churches start small-loan programs for business owners, and literacy classes for adults.

Christian Center for Integrated Development (SKDE)
SKDE focuses on communities in poverty in the rural parts of Haiti. SKDE helps people form community groups – called cooperatives. Through these cooperatives, SKDE provides adult literacy classes, agricultural training, and business support.

Union of Baptist Churches in Haiti (UEBH)
UEBH has a variety of ministries. CRWRC works with two of them. Through Federation of Youth Associations (FAJ), CRWRC is working on innovative and dynamic young adult ministries. This includes training on civic education, HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, spiritual formation, and entrepreneurship.

CRWRC also works with the Theological Seminary of Port-au-Prince (STEP). STEP is located in a very poor area and its leadership wants to improve its ability to meet the needs of people in the community. To get started, they identified three neighborhoods where they would focus their attention. They researched what was already happening there, and developed a community map. Now they are starting to work in the community in heath, literacy and micro-credit.

Haitian Partners for Christian Development (HPCD)
HPCD works alongside local business people and professionals to help them improve their businesses and create jobs for the unemployed poor in Haiti. This program includes providing entrepreneurs with training on marketing and quality control. It also includes start-up loans at a low-interest rate.

In addition to this support, HPCD provides a “business incubator” location where new businesses can share space and infrastructure with other businesses.

Christian Reformed Church of Haiti (ECRH)
The CRC of Haiti is involved in youth ministries, developing church leadership, evangelism, women's programs, diaconal training, and radio broadcast. CRWRC supports the ECRH by providing advice and consultation to its deacons. Through this support, ECRH is able to better meet the physical and spiritual needs of people in the communities around their churches. ECRH is also involved in civic education in the context of the upcoming elections, and being part of the AIDS prevention program.

Ministry of Christian Development (MDK)
The MDK offers a three-year program to provide practical and theological training to pastors, deacons, and church leaders for the benefit of the churches and communities they serve. MDK also works at developing and distributing simple Bible study and discipleship materials in the Creole language.

MDK was formed from three programs that had formerly been run by Christian Reformed World Missions. When MDK made the shift to functioning as its own agency, they asked CRWRC to come alongside them to offer advice and support, especially in the diaconal training and the AIDS prevention.

Relief Projects

CRWRC is constructing 10 new homes to replace dwellings destroyed by floods.  These new homes will be relocated at a safe distance from the river to make them less prone to future floods.  Beneficiary families are participating in the construction.

Securing the purchase of the new lands away from the river was time consuming.  The original has lost his papers in the flood and receiving new documentation from the Government of Haiti took a lot of time.

We are partnering in this response with the Union des Eglises Baptistes d’Haiti (UEBH) or the Union of Baptist Churches in Haiti. UEBH is an on-going partner in CRWRC-Haiti programming

CRWRC Staff in Haiti

Andries (Ad) de Blaeij (Netherlands expatriate, full-time)
Ad and his wife Coby are from the Netherlands. They came to Haiti in 1982 where Ad served with Parole & Action, the local partner of a Dutch organization, Woord & Daad. He started out by teaching agriculture in a vocational school, and later worked with peasants in small-scale agriculture projects (irrigation and soil conservation). During the nineties he gave leadership to the organization as its director. He facilitated their phase-over to national leadership, which was completed in 2002.

Ad joined CRWRC that same year, 2002, coming with 20 years of experience in training, agriculture, and management. His education includes an M.S. in tropical agriculture from Wageningen Agriculture University, and he has multi-lingual abilities in English, French, Creole, and Dutch. Ad’s primary responsibility with CRWRC is to help partner organizations with their organizational development, but also to accompany them as they get involved in various kinds of community development. One partner, PWOFOD, trains deacons within urban churches. Another, SKDE, works mainly in rural communities training them in cooperatives. Both organizations combine their basic trainings activities with literacy and micro-credit. The churches and leaders these partners work with play a key role in modeling what it means to be Christ’s hands and feet in the community.

Ad and Coby are blessed with five children and two grandchildren. Two daughters and a son are married and live in North America. Another daughter is studying in the Netherlands. Ardjan, their youngest son, lives with them in Haiti.

EMAIL: addeblaeij@fastmail.fm

Leanne Talen Geisterfer (US expatriate, LAMT team leader)
Currently, Leanne is the Latin America Team Leader, based in Haiti, where she was last working as a program consultant. Her academic training includes a BA in Spanish, with certification in elementary and bilingual education, along with an MA from Michigan State University in educational administration and literacy. Leanne’s passion is adult literacy and learning, so her focus as a program consultant was on literacy and the training aspects of partner agency programs.

Leanne’s first experience outside of North America was a year of study at the University of Madrid. While there, she was “hooked” on cross-cultural living and not much later met Caspar, who had just returned from a summer in Kenya. The mutual love of exploring God’s vast world was an attraction. They began working with CRWRC in 1982 and have served in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Caspar is currently working on an M.Div. degree from Calvin Theological Seminary. Their son Reuben is currently studying in Canada. 

EMAIL: leanne@fastmail.fm

Lesly & Kerline Jules (Haitian national, full-time)
Lesly joined CRWRC in April 2002. At that time, he worked the Federation of Youth Associations (FAJ) of the Union of Baptist Churches of Haiti and with HPCD, which is a chapter of Partners for Christian Development. HPCD is engaging entrepreneurs to act as mentors while promoting job creation and business ethics in Haiti.

In 2003, CRWRC and HPCD became involved in the Million Mentors program that is involving two other CRWRC partners in a program to promote business associations, mentoring, and job creation on a larger scale. Because of Lesly’s background and passion for business development he was a natural candidate to take a larger role within that program.

Lesly’s first cross cultural experience was in Mauritius (Indian Ocean) where he completed a master’s degree in Entrepreneurship. Before that, he graduated from the State University of Haiti in Economics and Development. He worked as a freelance management consultant for major NGOs and private corporations in Haiti. He is a business teacher at Quisqueya University of Haiti and the author of the book Guide to Business Creation in Haiti.

The Jules family is a young couple working for the advancement of the Kingdom of God in Haiti. Lesly’s wife, Kerline, works with vulnerable children, helping to provide them a wholesome environment where they can grow and serve the Lord and the country.

Hubert Normil (Haitian national, full-time)
Hubert Normil began working part-time for CRWRC in July 2004, as a consultant for our partner, Union of Haitian Baptist Churches (UEBH). Now Hubert is working full-time with CRWRC as manager of the HIV/AIDS project financed by USAID and CRWRC matching funds. He coordinates HIV/AIDS programs for many partners of CRWRC in Haiti. Regarding the ABY project, he is working with MDK, ECRH and UEBH-FAJ. Regarding the OVC project (Orphan Vulnerable Children), he is working with SKDE and PWOFOD. A new project, POP, Prevention OVC and Palliative care, was recently added to the existing projects. CRWRC is part of two components of POP, OVC and Palliative care.

Hubert was born in La Gonave, a beautiful island of Haiti. He is married with Neselie and has two sons Paul-Berly and Léo-Nil. He has a master’s degree in local development, from the University of Lyon, in France. He has worked for other development organizations, including the Free Methodist Church in Haiti, managing their solar cooking project. In the past, he worked for World Vision as a project facilitator. He occasionally would give seminars for other NGOs on topics like project management, monitoring and evaluation, and community development.

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