Compassion in Haiti

[Lori Anne]

Haiti
I find it hard to describe Haiti. Words fail me. With 70 per cent unemployment and 80 per cent of its people living in poverty, Haiti merits its label as the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere. The capital city Port-au-Prince is the size of Sydney yet has few sealed roads. Only four-wheel drives can negotiate the rubble and pot holes, and wrecks of small cars line the streets. Electricity is irregular, as is the water supply. The landscape is barren, dusty, grey. Ninety-seven per cent of the trees have gone-the Spaniards and French taking all the Mahogany centuries ago, and the poor today using what's left for fuel.

And the houses ... Most Haitians build their homes over years, buying a brick or two when they have the money. Imagine your street composed entirely of incomplete, unpainted besser-brick and concrete shanty homes. That gives you an idea of Haiti.

Life for Haitian children is hard. One child in 14 never reaches their first birthday and another one in five doesn't reach the age of four. There are few public schools, and not enough teachers. Only 2 per cent of Haitian children finish high school. I've visited seven developing countries now, and in Haiti I came across something I've seen nowhere else-children without dreams. Even children in Bangladesh dream of becoming doctors or engineers or singers. Some of the Haitian kids I met desperately wanted a different life, but had no idea what that might look like.

But there's a wonderful paradoxical side of Haiti's story. Amidst the destruction and destitution, Haiti has riches that we in the developed world know little of. In the midst of their hardship and pain, Haiti is undergoing a spiritual revival.

Compassion programs are run by local churches, and all the churches we visited in preparation for Compassion Day 2008 had no less than 1000 members each. The Haitian Christians 'pray-in' every single meal and are thankful for whatever God provides (even if it's one potato shared amongst the whole family late at night). Even the most conservative churches run deliverance services and see Haitians released from demonic spirits and spells. The faith of the Haitians is passionate, persevering and powerful. As one pastor told me, 'In Haiti, every day is a physical and spiritual battle. You simply cannot win that battle without Jesus.'

I couldn't help compare my experience of Haiti with life in an affluent country like ours. While we lust after Plasma TVs and iPods, Haitian children sleep on cold cement floors. And while we so often fill our empty lives with trinkets, Haitian Christians are meeting God in profound ways.

It was then that I realised the developing world needs our generosity and we need the developing world's faith. A great exchange needs to take place-we give up the consumer toys for the sake of the poor, so that we might catch the faith that makes them so rich.

Compassion Day gives us an opportunity to do just that.

Sheridan Voysey

Author, Speaker, Broadcaster, and Creative Director of
Compassion Day

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[♀♥Lady Urania♥♀]

On top of all this they were hit by Hurricane Ike very hard. Which only made things worse for them, too.