January’s earthquake - an event that changed the nation of Haiti. More than 200,000 people died, and over a million more were made homeless. Six months later, is the nation on the road to recovery?
Current conditions
There are still 1¼ million people living in camps. The scale of the disaster has challenged humanitarian organisations in providing even basic services, and reconstruction has been slow to begin.
MAF pilot Will White shares, ‘Thousands of people are still living in “tents” - more like tarpaulins (tarps) than tents in some places. When flying out of Port-au-Prince you see pockets everywhere throughout the city of blue tarps and tents. We are into hurricane season. These tent cities are pretty bad when it rains - with water, mud, trash and who knows what rushing through them. There is also a high level of crime and violence. With no doors to lock anyone can walk in and attack or steal. Sewage is also a major issue.
‘There has been no noticeable major cleanup of the city. You see people with sledge hammers breaking up cement and hauling it off in a wheelbarrow. That takes a long time for a building. Rubble gets pushed out in the streets and blocks traffic. On occasion you will see a front end loader scooping up rubble in the street and hauling it off.
'Just recently there was a slew of news stories online about how the rebuilding has “stalled”. STALLED? It never started!’
Serving outlying communities
Over half a million Haitians have left the capital, and continue to do so, returning to their villages. This has added enormous strain on an infrastructure that's already non-existent, particularly in outlying areas.
MAF is flying in and out of these areas, taking food stuffs, medicines, and everything that's needed in the interior to help sustain this group of people. We are also flying in doctors, mission teams and pastors.
With the immediate aid effort over, MAF has transitioned out of the emergency relief phase, but continues to fly missions, aid groups and NGOs serving those in need.
‘MAF has been busy’, reports Will White. ‘The earthquake has brought in a lot of new groups working in Haiti. We used to do one or two flights to Jacmel a week but now it is not uncommon to get over there daily.
'Teams are coming in with a lot more cargo on the airlines, so teams that could fit in one or two [MAF] charters are using two or three. The new Caravan will be a huge help with those teams.'
Opening spiritual doors
MAF's mission is to spread God’s love by helping to meet both physical and spiritual needs in hard-to-reach areas.
Joyd Boyd, of MAF USA, reports, 'The Lord has opened a door of opportunity spiritually, where tens of thousands of voodooists in Haiti are asking huge questions about their beliefs. So the opportunity for the Gospel to be preached and taught is unprecedented in Haiti.’
Will White points out, ‘One of the greatest needs is still leadership training and developing the local church. A lot of teams like to do evangelism but do not focus a lot on training or development.’