CRWRC Continues Hurricane Response in Haiti
Christian Reformed World Relief workers continue to assess and respond to the needs of the thousands of Haitians whose lives have been disrupted by a series of hurricanes and tropical storms that have killed hundreds of people and battered the island in recent days.
CRWRC is currently joining with partner organizations in Haiti and has donated more than $30,000 at this point to feed, clothe and find shelter for people displaced by the weather.
Immediately on the heels of Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gustav, Hurricane Hannah battered Haiti late last week before edging north, stranding hundreds of hungry people on rooftops, wiping out crops, and killing farm animals. In this hurricane season alone at least 126 people have been killed.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Ike hit Haiti this week, killing at least 58 people on its way to ravage Cuba, according to news accounts.
Late last week, Andries (Ad) de Blaeij, CRWRC’s Country Director in Haiti, received a direct appeal for help from Gonaives, the fourth-largest city in Haiti and the hardest-hit. Floodwaters swamped homes and left two-thirds of the city covered in mud. In Gonaives, as elsewhere in Haiti, the population is suffering from lack of food, shelter, dry clothes, and dry charcoal to cook with.
Worse yet, even before the water recedes, there are growing concerns of what the flood's impact will be on the food shortage, rising prices, and loss of crops.
Fields, already saturated by Tropical Storm Fay's attack, have washed away. Rain rushed down mountains, flooding lower areas, plains, and valleys. With eight of ten provinces flooded, Haiti's President Rene Preval has asked for help.
CRWRC—the emergency relief and development agency of the Christian Reformed Church in North America—has already committed relief funds and will provide more resources as soon as they are available. The response will likely include food items, emergency supplies, temporary shelter, and targeted supplies to assist with repairs to homes.
CRWRC has been in Haiti since 1975 and currently works with other Christian Reformed organizations under the name Sous Espwa (Source of Hope) from offices in Port-au-Prince.
Ken Little of the CRWRC told Mission Network News that have at least six development projects connected with church partners in the affected areas. "One of our larger responses will be in Gonaives area, which was really devastated by the floods. We're helping a partner by the name of 'Ebenezer Mission' as they care for over six hundred refugees that ended up in their school yard and in their hospital yard."
Heather DePooter, a Christian Reformed World Missions' employee in Haiti, writes in her current newsletter that the capital, Port-au-Prince, received a great deal of rain. "The south coast of Haiti got even more rain, and the road to from Port-au-Prince to Jacmel in the south is impassible due to the mudslides and boulders in the mountains." DePooter, a school teacher, says that many people lost everything in the series of storms.
While nearly all areas in Haiti have been hit by now, partners have their zones where they normally work. Their network of churches and communities, and leaders helps them to do an effective implementation of the emergency aid. Due to the limited capacity of its partners CRWRC decided to have several small emergency projects with its main partners:
1. Ebenezer Mission, Gonaives, is an indigenous mission providing education and health services. CRWRC and Partners Worldwide have been providing emergency relief through Ebenezer Mission since tropical storm Jeanne in 2004. CRWRC will provide 600 refugees with food and clothing totaling $10,000.
2. SKDE is a CRWRC partner specializing in training village residents through community cooperatives. This infrastructure will be used to distribute hurricane relief. In Petit Goave, CRWRC will distribute food supplies worth $5,000, and in Gonaives, another food distribution totaling $ 5,000 for 300 people.
3. The Christian Reformed Church of Haiti (ECRH) is a CRWRC partner denomination with congregations throughout the country. ECRH is preparing a $5,000 food distribution in Cayes, Jacmel and Port-au-Prince to 150 families.
4. Through UEBH, CRWRC has a community development program in Fort Mercredi, a poor neighborhood in Port-au-Prince located on the side of a hill and subject to mudslides. A $5,000 emergency intervention is being prepared there.
5. CRWRC partner, PWOFOD, works with protestant denominations to train deacons, teach literacy, and offer micro-credit loans. PWOFOD will intervene with $5,000 in emergency food and clothing for 130 families in the Croix des Bouquettes area.
6. MDK, a CRWRC partner specializes in leadership and deacon training. MDK is searching out damage done in Meyer, an area in the mountains close to the south coast. CRWRC will respond here with a food distribution of $5,000.
To donate or to learn more, visit:
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
Christian Reformed World Missions
