Haiti: How the CRC is Helping

Ad de Blaeij had been working for a Dutch aid agency in Haiti for several years when he had the chance to visit a Christian Reformed World Relief Committee agricultural project in a rural part of the poverty-stricken—and recently earthquake-ravaged—Caribbean country.

The ex-patriot from the Netherlands characterizes the experience as causing a shift in this thinking on how to best do relief work in a Third World country. De Blaeij and his wife, Coby, came to work in Haiti in 1982.

Instead of simply doing the work on projects for Haitian farmers, CRWRC has the philosophy of standing side-by-side with the farmers, teaching and training them how to better grow crops and then letting them go about implementing the changes. In many ways, de Blaeij was used to a more traditional approach to missions: Providing relief for Haitians without necessarily teaching or working closely with them to make their lives better.

"It really changed my way of looking at things. I saw that CRWRC had found a good way to translate Christian values into Christian mission," says de Blaeiji, who now works as the country consultant in Haiti for CRWRC. His primary responsibility with CRWRC is to help partners with their organizational development, but also to accompany them as they get involved in various kinds of community development.

In recent weeks, de Blaeij he has been very busy coordinating a range of relief efforts following the Jan. 12 earthquake.

"We are working with the people to improve, change, and transform their communities. What we are doing, we are doing altogether. Our main job is to work with and to help empower our partners. We don’t always have to give theological explanations for what we do, but we do have to bring God into whatever we do."

Although de Blaeij was speaking of his own experience that led him to phase out of his former job and to start working in 2002 for CRWRC, he was also describing the overall approach that the agencies of the Christian Reformed Church in North America are taking as they help in a variety of ways in the aftermath of the massive earthquake that hit Haiti on Jan. 12.

CRC missionaries, teachers, relief experts, volunteers and a range of partner organizations, including members of the CRC of Haiti, work under an umbrella organization called Sous Espwa. Right now, these CRC workers are exemplifying through their programming in many communities across Haiti the spirit of building self-respect and self-sufficiency that initially attracted de Blaeij to CRWRC.

"We are all doing many things following this earthquake," says Howard Van Dam, the Haiti country director for Christian Reformed World Missions. "We have handed out tarps and food, helped to locate people, purchased tools and wheelbarrows, and obtained temporary housing and office space for our partners. We are also mobilizing the churches to respond to this situation. We are dealing with a new reality since the earthquake. We have to ask ourselves, 'What does the new normal mean?' and what role can we play in helping to make things better?"

Van Dam's family, as well as the family of fellow missionary Zach Segaar-King, were evacuated from Haiti following the earthquake.

The quake killed about 250,000 people and leveled homes and buildings across the capital of Port-au-Prince. It also destroyed about 90 percent of the structures in Leogane, the town that was at the epicenter of a 7.0 intensity quake. Of the population of about 300,000, more than 40,000 people died in and around Leogane.

Rubble is everywhere in Leogane, as it is in many other communities. Small dump trucks have begun to arrive and Haitians are loading the trucks brick-by-brick. Along other streets, thousands of Haitians go about their daily business in an economy that is hand-to-mouth at best, especially following the earthquake.

Not everyone, though, is busy. Many Haitians sit on buckets, stoops, or along the side of the roads, expressions of hopelessness on their faces.

"What we like to help to do is break the cycle of poverty that Haiti experiences and is so painful to see," says Joel Hogan, international director for Christian Reformed World Missions. "There is a sense of people being resigned to their circumstances, lacking hope for the future."

About 30 years ago, CRWRC got involved in Haiti following a hurricane. Many of the Haitians with whom they worked joined the CRC in the Dominican Republic when they worked there. Many had crossed the border to work on sugar cane plantations. They returned home when that industry experienced problems and living conditions for themselves and their families became intolerable.

"Only the CRC offers some of the programs that help the Haitian people," says Romelus St. Yves, general secretary of the CRC in Haiti, which has more than 20 churches scattered across the country. Some churches buildings survived the earthquake, but many didn't.

"The CRC of North America is one of the churches in Haiti that changes the thinking of people and offers lots of educational opportunities and training to people in the communities," says St. Yves.

CRC members across North America have responded in an unprecedented way, donating more than $9 million to help the church continue its role in the rebuilding of Haiti. "Their generosity is immense and very much welcomed. There is so much work that needs to be done in Haiti, and this will help," says Leanne Geisterfer, Latin America Team Leader for CRWRC.

Across the country, CRC personnel are working to spread the Gospel message through radio programs, continuing its work in literacy and HIV/AIDS education, providing pastoral counseling to those who have been impacted by the quake and discussing ways in which the many schools destroyed in the earthquake can be rebuilt in order that young people can return to learning.

"You have to put investment into education for the children… We hear over and over the cry of the parents that what they want is a good and accessible education for their children," says de Blaeij.

On a more immediate basis, the International Disaster Response Team for CRWRC is working in several villages outside of the coastal town of Leogane, located about 20 miles east of Port-au-Prince. Following the CRC’s long-standing mission of offering assistance while at the same time working to help people become self-sufficient, the team is busy helping to rebuild, with the help of the residents, shattered lives and homes and water systems that were damaged by the quake. Several local Haitians have been hired by CRWRC to help in the rebuilding.

"We see ourselves as doing God's work," says Toni Fernhout, a Canadian CRC member who is serving with her husband, George, as an International Relief Director in the Leogane area.  They are from Edmonton, Alberta. "We want to give people dignity and walk with them through the hard times….We believe that God loves all people and wants us to show His love to all people."