Still working despite the Pandemic

It’s July, we should be leaving for Haiti this week. But of course, the COVID-19 Pandemic has stopped us. The impact of this pandemic is so far beyond just the medical impact. Many organizations have been unable to continue providing aid in Haiti. So many are hungry. There has been more political unrest.

But we continue to do what we can, grateful for your generosity and support. We are still running a “soup kitchen” of sorts, providing hot meals twice a week to the very poor in Cap Haitian. We have been able the last few months to supplement this with bags of food to families, an AIDS patient group and blind adults.

In addition to the feeding program, we’ve been asked by our team in Haiti to still do a building project even though we can’t go down and work side by side. The project on their minds and that has rallied huge community support is the creation of public toilets. Most people who live in the neighborhood of Bel Aire in Cap Haitian do not have running water. They live in small garage-like houses built into the side of the mountain. They walk either up or down the mountain to get water from public wells. Most people do not have access to even a rudimentary toilet (a hole in the ground). Often human waste is left out, or put in plastic bags and left in the gutter. The organization that we work with in Haiti has secured a land donation to build 4 public toilets. Their initial estimates is that this will serve the community and will be cleaned out in 3-4 years.

We are grateful to still be able to participate, even if it’s just with the gifts of funding in this good work.