haiti update - january 6, 2011

“Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.

If clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie. Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.” Ecclesiastes 11:1-6

Hi! The year has gone quickly and a lot has happened here in Haiti. It has been a year dealing with different disasters. Here at Coram Deo we have always been busy trying to find medical help for people and this past year has multiplied the medical needs of the people here in Haiti due to the earthquake and cholera epidemic. We give the Lord thanks for all the visitors who came to Haiti to help us rebuild the dormitory and outside walls and to do repairs as well as distribute aid to those living in the refuge camps.

Medical teams came and were able to treat on average 1,000 people in a week’s time. Thousands of people have been helped by the efforts of these medical teams. We pray that medical people continue to come and help Haiti. The needs are still great. We rejoice that even in the midst of the earthquake damage the hydrocephalus program was able to continue and that neurosurgeries were held in May and again at the end of November. Pray for the work of Project Medishare and Healing Hands who co-ordinated these surgeries. We were able to participate in providing meals to the families and children who were in the hospital. A benefit of the larger dormitory on our property is that we are able to house visiting families. Right now we have 2 mothers and their hydrocephalus children staying here for the next several months while their children go to physiotherapy and receive good nutrition.

Our school program here at Coram Deo has expanded. We now have children from Kindergarten to Grade 4 as well as handicapped children attending classes here. 60 students attend. Several new additions to the program came from contacts of families that live in the refuge camps. The needs of the people still living in the camps are great. They don’t have the financial means to pack up and move to another location. There is nowhere to go and they need a helping hand. Mission schools like Adoration Christian School and Christian Light Ministries assist some of the children that we help. We also made contact with government workers and were able to place students in a national school in the neighborhood. In this way more students can be helped. We sponsor 25 children at outside schools. It is important that those who are new amputees because of the earthquake continue to be able to attend school. Our focus is especially to help handicapped people advance.

With the fund raising for earthquake relief through Mission of T.E.A.R.S, we were able to see Christian Light Ministries being assisted with the construction of their school building and also a program being established to help girls who were raped in the refuge camps. HIS Home for Children is running this program. This group of 25 girls have been removed from the camps with the assistance of Haitian Social Services and will now have a home where they will be looked after and educated until they are 18-years-old. Eglise de Dieu Vivant, which is located in front of our house, was destroyed during the earthquake. We were able to assist the church with funding to reconstruct the church. The roof remains to be built. It is good to see all the work that is being done. We hope to continue to do other construction projects in the future.

We are thankful for all the financial donations and humanitarian aid that we have received during the year. There was only one instance where the aid wasn’t received. A container from Chatham that had supplies for us and another mission was sent to Haiti. The container was delivered to Cabaret. We were never contacted when it arrived and when we did make contact the pastor at the mission in Cabaret told us the container hadn’t arrived yet. Please pray for collaboration amongst the missions and their supporters and that we can equip each other to do the tasks that must be done. One of the biggest problems here in Haiti is that there are thousands of organizations each doing their own thing. Collaboration amongst all the missions needs to be in place for Haiti to be rebuilt. If not more problems like the situation in Cabaret will occur.

It has been a year of difficulties for Haiti and there was hope that the presidential elections would bring positive change. We had planned to bring a couple of the handicapped people here to their voting bureaus on voting day but in the end they didn’t want to go. We went out that day and saw all the problems going on with the voting process. We were also there when the protest walks were held and when the days of protesting in the streets occurred. We saw a lot and were witness to what the Haitian people are going through. They had the hope that there would be a good election and instead it was tarnished by fraud. Pray for the electoral process. Today, the country is at a crossroads.

I will try to get back to a weekly Haiti update. It has been a busy time of dealing with different crises all at the same time. If you would like to see photos of the work and events going on here in Haiti you can access my blog at www.haiticoramdeo.blogspot.com.

That’s all the news for today. Have a good week and thanks for your support!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo