Sustainability

The deeper we are immersed in Haitian culture the more we see the unintended and destructive consequences of well intentioned NGO and missionary “hand out” programs. Even things given at great sacrifice, if they are received without cost, are perceived as having little value. Worse yet, the act of giving is corrupted by a spirit of entitlement.

Once entrenched in a relationship, this spirit of entitlement undermines all efforts to self sustainability.

This problem is not unique to Haiti. This problem is universal and predictable. It crosses all age, cultural, race and political barriers. It has no regard for poverty or wealth.

When we recognize the dynamics of this problem we realize that the act of giving takes on new responsibilities. When we give, we must be careful not to take on the receivers responsibilities; doing so robs them of their dignity and promotes the spirit of entitlement.

Every person has worth and value. Each has gifts and talents. Each has something to share and it is destructive to deny a person’s dignity by taking away their self esteem by assuming their responsibility with a superior and paternal attitude.

We have heard that it is in giving that we receive, it is the same for those we give to. In order to receive, they have the responsibility of giving also. If a gift is offered and it is grasped rather than received, it loses its true value.

So the how shall we proceed? The answer is not to ignore the original problem, poverty. And I am not saying that we ignore those in society who need and deserve help with life’s basic necessities. Instead it requires us to approach the problem with a new understanding, outlook, and attitude.

We must realize we are not responsible for the poor. It is not our job to provide for them. It is our job to be faithful stewards of the resources that God has entrusted us with. Our job is to help people that we are called to serve realize that they are people just like ourselves, with needs, dreams, hopes and above all gifts of their own.  It requires helping people recognize what gifts and resources they do have and to not focus on what they lack.

Sometime that means feeding the hungry and giving shelter to the homeless. But sometimes our job is to say no. Sometimes emergency relief is required, but once the “fire” has been put out, “handouts” become counterproductive.

With our children, while they were infants we only fed them until they could feed themselves. As they grew, we disciplined them until they had self discipline. Our main concern while raising our children was that they learned to take care of themselves. Likewise the same goal with working with the poor; it’s about relationships; it’s about helping individuals until they can help themselves and others.

Effectively creating positive and sustainable changes begins with building real and personal relationships with people, relationships where each person has responsibilities, each in accordance to what he or she has been given. For growth to occur, everyone must give their best. It is important and indeed necessary for us to share our resources with those in need. But is equally important that those in need share the gifts they have been given.

Without recognizing the dynamics of this problem, our best efforts are sabotaged from a gift of life and opportunity to promoting a dignity robbing attitude of entitlement.

True love requires, tough love, it requires saying “no”. Not indiscriminately, nor out of laziness on our part. But thoughtfully considering ways to engage those we serve with opportunities rather than handouts. This in itself does not immediately meet the definition of “sustainability”, but rather it plants the seeds that must be tended until they bear fruit. We need to consider how the opportunities that we provide will develop within the person skills, abilities, and an attitude of self reliance.

But there is a delicate balance between entitlement and empowerment, there is no magic formula.

As members of the human family, we have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters. We choose to be either givers or takers. We need to acknowledge that there is ultimately one race, human. Each of us is an important part, and our actions affect the whole. Sickness in one part affects the whole. If a bone is broken and ignored, the broken bone heals deformed and that affects the whole body. Likewise when we have a broken bone and we get medical attention but during the healing process we ignore the physical therapy, we never fully recover at the best, and at the worst lose use of the injured member. This relates to our work to work here because we need to feed the hungry, but unless we help them to develop an income, they will always be hungry. This is the reason we have changed our website domain name from “feedhaiti.org” to “partnerinhaiti.org”.

We have begun taking these positive steps towards sustainability,

Medical:

We have established a weekly medical clinic in Garcin. Before the clinic opened its doors, we explained to the community that this clinic took over a year to set up and that it belongs to the community. This means that the community has to support it. If the community does not support it, they will lose it.

On the first day of clinic we saw fifty-five people. Enough money was brought in to cover the cost of the medications we had to buy, pay Sr. Julian a stipend and cover her expenses.  One of the patience had TB, a very important discovery.

Because of donations of over the counter medications, we are able to give a discounted rate of about three American dollars, it includes the visit and the medications. Pregnant women are seen for the equivalent of an American dollar, we are hoping the women of this area can receive prenatal care and education.

While this is not fully self sustainable, it is a viable partnership; a very important first step.

School building:

We have been concerned about the state of disrepair of the main school at Kalabat. The roof leaks, the ceilings have partially caved in. Some of the shutters are broken and hanging from there hinges. The concrete steps have crumbled.

The building is less than 50 years old, but it has not been maintained. The community has asked us for help in building a new school. But that would require raising between $150,000 and $200,000 US.  We have had several meetings with the Haitian American community in Delray Beach, Florida.  Jean Elozian and his wife Merrisia have actively been working to raise funds for this project. To date they have raised over $1,000 US. However the objection of the community is that the people here in Kalabat have not maintained the school and that they had and so the building has fallen into serious disrepair. This is a legitimate concern.

The school was originally built and given to the people with no investment of their own. They have not felt ownership or responsibility. Now they feel entitled to a new school. Viewing this from the perspective of “hard love”, we are not willing to support a new, school. We are however willing to partner with the parents, school community and parish to do repairs. We have suggested that we will dollar match funds contributed by the community to buy materials for repairs.

The people here think of themselves as poor, that they have no resources. We are challenging them on this attitude. We have suggested that each student bring five gourds to school, about 10.6¢, if all 300 students participate, this will be enough to buy four bags of cement. We will match that with four more bags. With this cement and along with sand and gravel that can be collected from the river, repairs can begin on the crumbled and unsafe front steps. We have explained that as this process continues, we can take photos and show them to the benefactors of the Haiti Project and this will encourage the benefactors to contribute more.

We realize that this will take time, but when the repairs are complete, we believe that the community will have a nice school and they will take pride in their accomplishment. We believe that they will then maintain not only their school, but also more fully appreciate the other resources that they have.

Agricultural Association:

APWOKAPRIM, which stands for Association for the Commercialization and Production of Agriculture in the Parish of Riviere Mancelle, we help establish in March of 2013. The association has taken ownership and we no longer serve in primary leadership roles, but serve as advisors and facilitator.

In the fall of 2014 we organized and sponsored or cosponsored four workshops. One on worm composting, one on bio-intensive gardening, composting and bio-char, one on growing vanilla and one on increasing coffee production.

At the most recent meeting the association established a formal structure. This they accomplished with very little advice from us. With membership of over 500 people scattered over such remote and rugged terrain, formal structure will allow them to effectively communicate and develop their network. The meeting was led my Guy Marie, the agronomist whose salary we subsidize. He recently attended a week-long leadership training seminar and put his new-found skill to work chairing the meeting.

As we are moving forward we are continuing to search for opportunities build on these foundational steps.  As an example I was recently introduced to a local man who successfully raises goats. He has over 100 goats. After greeting him, I had Johnny, my Haitian friend who was translating for me, ask the man if he would be willing to come and lead a workshop for APWOKARPRM on raising goats. The man was thrilled and said yes.

Building relationships, building Haiti, step by step.

Bob