“To show partiality in judging is not good; whoever says to the guilty, “You are innocent – people will curse him and nations denounce him. But it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and rich blessing will come upon them. (Proverbs 24:24,25)
The political uncertainty caused by a resigning prime minister and political bickering in the senate and parliament in the ratification of a new prime minister, Laurent Lamothe has also brought about an increase in insecurity on the streets. People are getting robbed after exiting a bank and some are killed by thieves riding on motorcycles, which is the most common form of transportation used by the thieves. There have been some incidents where nothing has been stolen but the only purpose of the crime has been an assassination for one reason or other.
Last week, 3 policemen were assassinated on the streets. Walky Calixte, a member of the traffic police was allegedly killed by those close to a Member of Parliament. A nephew of the parliament member, who also served as his bodyguard was arrested for having a weapon, without the appropriate paperwork. In anger, someone told the policeman that he would be killed for arresting him and last week this happened. Fellow police officers in anger went to where the parliament member was giving a radio interview about the incident and the officers barricaded the street and shot up the parliament members’ vehicle. Nobody was in the vehicle at the time. Roseanne, a friend who lives in Cite Soleil came to the house early Saturday morning to tell us that she heard that over the radio people were being told to stay at home on Monday, because there were going to be protests over the policeman who was assassinated. Today, we had one teacher who did not come to school and one who walked on foot from the lower Delmas area. We also have fewer students in school today as parents have kept them at home. Pray for protection for the Haitian police as they try to give the country security.
One of our Coram Deo family, Johnny Jean, is a young man whose ambition is to be a member of the Haitian military or police. He registered for both. Yesterday was an examination day for those interested in applying for the police force. Over 28,000 applications are on file for this next round of police training. Yesterday, Johnny arrived at 5:00am at the Lycee testing site. He and the other applicants waited in the sun until 3:00pm, when they were let inside to write the exam. The exam was supervised by UN police as well. The academy will choose from the applicants who passed the written exam to go on to the next stage of the recruitment process. Pray for Johnny as he pursues his dream of being involved in bringing security to the country.
The increase in crime has also affected our area. On Saturday evening, Reginald came to the house to say that there was a terrible odour coming from a home in the Cite Aux-Cayes area. When we arrived, the police were there and they were waiting for a justice of the peace to arrive before breaking into the home. It looked suspicious because the house was locked from the outside with a padlock. The body was that of a 13-year-old child. He lived with his sister and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend and sister had an argument and things got heated and the sister was able to get away but the boyfriend killed her younger brother. He then shut the door and padlocked it. This incident happened on Thursday evening. What really was terrible is that this all happened and nobody contacted the police until Saturday evening. I don’t know if they were scared of the guy who killed the boy or just didn’t realize what had happened. The house is located in a narrow corridor within Cite Aux-Cayes that people would walk through to get to their homes. The killer is still at large. Pray that he is found and that justice is given for the crime that he committed.
In the Rte. Frere area of the city a young man was buying a pate. While he was waiting, a man walked up to him and shot him in the stomach. The man died and the shooter was arrested. The shooter talked with the father of the young man he killed. He told the father that it was an accident and that he had shot him by mistake. He thought he was somebody else.
There is more going on with insecurity but I don’t want to write the entire Haiti update about violence.
The Timothy Leadership Training Seminars are being held again at the Christian Reformed Missions Centre from May 2-4 . Pastor Pierre and the 7 other pastors/church leaders will now take the 2nd course in the Timothy Leadership Program. Another 9 pastors have approached him expressing interest to take part. They will register for the 1st course in the series of leadership training courses. If they are accepted into the program there will now be 17 pastors/church workers involved. It is great to see their enthusiasm and the growth of the Timothy Leadership Program. Pray for the staff of Christian Reformed Missions who will be teaching the courses, and for those who will be participating.
Haiti just launched a massive vaccination program this weekend for children from infants to 9 years of age. There were health workers on the streets yesterday telling parents to get their children vaccinated against polio, chicken pox, measles, diphtheria, meningitis, pneumonia as well as Vitamin A and albendzole. Their goal is to vaccinate every child in the country against polio with the goal of eradicating polio from the island and a 95% coverage with the polyvalent injection. This would mean vaccinating over 2.5 million children for 100% coverage.
Recently, a vaccination program against cholera was launched for 100,000 people in the slum areas of Port-au-Prince where sanitation is poor and also in the Central Plateau area where the cholera was introduced. This vaccine will protect the people against cholera for a 3-year period. With the rainy season starting, cholera has now began increasing again. There is a Medecins Sans Frontieres Cholera Treatment Center located nearby on Delmas 33. Pray for all the vaccinations that will be given. It is good to see these efforts being made to improve the health of Haitian society.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good week!
Karen Bultje
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