Responding to the Haiti Earthquake and Looking Forward at Disaster Preparedness

In the wake of the August 14th earthquake in Haiti, many people have asked how they can help. When considering how to help, it’s important to understand the bigger picture. This post looks at three stages of disaster response and gives some ways you can help with each stage. 

After a disaster, the immediate need is RELIEF, defined as “urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering.”  Relief may include emergency medical care, food and shelter for those displaced. In regards to the recent earthquake in Haiti, there are several organizations that are providing immediate relief. If you would like to give to this effort, here are a few to check out:

• HERO

• HaitiOne

• Haiti Air Ambulance

These organizations and others are currently providing medical care for those injured, advocacy and family support for those transferred to hospitals in Port-au-Prince, tarps, tents, food and supplies to those displaced, and trauma therapists for those suffering unbearable losses. Follow @HEROClientRescue to see what they have been doing. 

After a few weeks to a month, relief is no longer the appropriate response and the need becomes to REBUILD. When a disaster such as an earthquake or a hurricane hits, there are often thousands of people displaced. Rather than packs of rice and a tarp to sleep under, the needs become rebuilding homes and restoring social structures. Extollo International is a Christian organization that provides training in high-standard construction and is working to bring better building practices to the country.  In addition to buildings, social reconstruction is also needed. Local NGOs, churches and other social organizations are key to helping the communities rebuild, and rebuild stronger. 

Once a community has rebuilt, the need becomes DEVELOPMENT. This stage is focused on improving the “normal” and looks well into the future. Development may include job creation, economic development, and strengthening social systems. Also a part of development is PREPAREDNESS. This includes creating strategic plans for future disaster response and educating and equipping response teams. 

Project Living Hope has continued to emphasize DEVELOPMENT through our mission to Empower Haitians to Build a Stronger Haiti. PLH programs in athletics, job skills training, and community development all work towards this goal of development by working to create stronger communities, jobs, servant leaders, and a united effort. The fourth key area of PLH is disaster preparedness. This program has responded to urgent and widespread needs in our community through food assistance, job creation and partnerships with local churches. This program is ready to grow to provide disaster relief, rebuilding and development to help families and communities affected by natural and man-made disasters. The program will focus on community preparedness before disaster hits and partner with organizations already working in relief and rebuilding efforts.

PLH is starting to put together a small committee to head up the development of the PLH disaster preparedness program. This committee will help develop a formal written plan which will outline the process of training locals, stocking emergency supplies, carrying out disaster response plans, and using our campus and facilities to best support these efforts. If you have knowledge and experience in the area of disaster preparedness, we would love to speak with you about an opportunity to serve on the committee. Email us at info@plhope.org.

How you can pray: 

• Pray for the displaced. Thousands of people are still unable to return to their homes as aftershocks continue daily and engineers have not yet cleared buildings for reentry. 

• Pray for those who have lost loved ones. The earthquake occurred around 8:30am local time, so thankfully most people were up and out of their homes. Many people, however, had loved ones back at home or in other locations who were killed by collapsed structures. 

• Pray for the relief workers as they work long days and nights to provide care.

• Pray for the local organizations, churches, and communities in the affected areas that they can work together to bring fast and effective rebuilding and development. 

• Pray that in the wake of this tragedy, God can be seen at work and His love, grace and provision are felt by all.

FIRST RELIEF VENTURE - WORKING AS A COMMUNITY

Athletics, job skills training, community development and disaster preparedness. These are the four areas of Project Living Hope’s work. This past fall, a disaster hit PLH's Haitian community for the first time since we began our work in Camp Marie. The political situation in the country created what Haitians refer to as “Peyi Lok” or “Locked Country.” During this time, individuals could not get to work, kids could not go to school, prices rose and resources became hard to find, much less buy. The time came for PLH to join with community leaders to devise a plan for relief. What followed was 6 weeks of collaboration and partnership between PLH leaders and Haitian staff, local leaders and pastors, and you, the PLH champions. Together, you raised over $17,000. Your generous giving financed the plans which were carried out through unified effort within the community of Camp Marie. We are proud of how our Haitian staff stepped up to manage this project and how the pastors, farmers and working individuals came together to accomplish something that benefited all. It is never our goal to bring attention to PLH and what we may accomplish. It is our goal to support and empower local leaders and the greater community to accomplish great things for their community. We appreciate all of you who stepped up to support and pray for this project. We appreciate the nine churches who carried out the purchase and distribution of food and facilitated the agreement with the farmers. We loved seeing God bring together the community of Camp Marie and the community of PLH champions to accomplish all of this.

ATHLETIC CAMPS FOR KIDS

Kids were happy to participate in six weeks of organized soccer and basketball training where they were able to play a game they love, practice new things, develop their skills, and learn from trained coaches. We hired three local soccer coaches and three young men who participated in our basketball coach training to organize these camps for the kids.

I want to say thank you Project Living Hope. Right now, I teach sports and Bible to children in my community. I work  very hard to change my community because sport has the power to change Haiti. I am a Life Coach. I work for God. May God continue to protect you and give you strength.

Coach Robenson Beauger

ENGLISH CAMP FOR KIDS

With school being canceled for several months, we saw a need to provide kids in the community with an opportunity to learn and participate in consistent activities. We hired three students from our English class to lead English kids camp for six weeks. Angelot, Rival, and Snyson did a great job providing the kids with a fun, positive learning environment. Together, the children learned about the alphabet, numbers, family, the calendar, and more.

All the kids in Camp Marie are very clever, even if they are also talkative. They are very funny.

Rival Asseil

EMPLOYMENT

Through this effort, 120 individuals from the community were able to earn a much needed day's wage by working on the PLH land. This pay helped them purchase food and other essentials for their families during this difficult time. Each work day, individuals came together in unity, worked hard to accomplish a task, and walked away with the means to provide for others and the knowledge that they had done honest work.

This is the first job I’ve had like this. They pay you well.  They give you food. It’s a good job.

Fritz Jean Louis

FOOD RELIEF

The nine churches of Camp Marie and 45 local farmers came together with PLH in a unified effort to help alleviate some of the food needs within the community. Your generous giving allowed for the churches to provide 1,100 families with food packages. The 45 farmers have planted beans, tomatoes, potatoes, okra, and other vegetables and will be giving 50% of the harvest back to the community through the oversight of the local churches.

We are happy for the great work you are doing in the community. We in the church are delighted to say thank you to everyone who is involved in this great project and for this beautiful help you gave us. We were very happy when we received this help, because the economic situation in the country is very difficult at this time. We did everything we needed to do, and each person was happy when they received the provisions. We ask that God bless you for the good work this project is doing in our area. 

Pastor Jean Ernest Gracia

DISCIPLESHIP

Discipleship is a key focus of Project Living Hope. We train, equip and empower our staff and coaches to grow in their faith so they can share their faith with the people we serve. We choose strong Christian leaders to serve in our ministry who are excited about their faith and want to use their gifts to bring others to Christ.