HA152 , Leogone, Haiti, September 23, 2010.
Haiti (MNN) — In the 5+ years since Haiti’s most powerful earthquake in more than 200 years killed more than 220,000 people, the re-start on life has been slow for the 1.5 million displaced.
Headlines from Port-au-Prince blared about the waste, the mismanaged
projects, and the pace of reconstruction. While some Non-Government
Organizations are scrambling to answer accountability questions, one
organization is moving forward to the next growth phase. “Compassion International raised
$31 million in our relief fund immediately after the earthquake. We
were able to hit the ground running as soon as the quake hit with our
relief and emergency response,” says Compassion International spokesman
Tim Glenn.
HA152 , Leogone, Haiti, September 23, 2010.
Because they work with church partners in the community,
Compassions’s network was firmly in place when the disaster struck. Not
having to waste time setting up a distribution framework allowed the
ministry to focus on immediate response in the days after the quake
reduced the city to rubble.
“Families were able to come to the local church for emergency
shelter, for emergency food, clothing, water, medicines–all of those
things. We were able to play a vital role in how the church was actually
able to be the Church in those communities, in a time of disaster.”
Compassion already knew where repairs were going to happen and what
kind. “The hundreds of church partners…have buildings attached to them
where kids actually attend school and attend our program.” Most of those
buildings were damaged or destroyed, so the rebuild was focused there.
Trial and error on the project led to the formation of a construction
company because “we had to get our buildings back up and build them to
international seismic standards to make safe places for kids,” says
Glenn. Their innovative urban development flew under the radar, but that
meant they were unhindered. “We’ve built 30 new schools throughout the
earthquake-ravaged area. We’ve built homes, we did emergency supply
kits. We did an income-generation loan program that helped launch 450
businesses.”
With a mix of reconstruction, infrastructure upgrades, and social
programs, these projects are aimed at building safer and more resilient
communities for the future. What that means, says Glenn, is “the
disaster office is closed. We no longer need it. We knew it was a
temporary thing. We anticipated it would be a 5-6-year work program for
that office.” Since all of the $31 million dollars have been spent,
Glenn explains, “Now we can put all of our efforts, all of our focus,
into doing what we do best, which is child development through
sponsorship.”
HA152 , Leogone, Haiti, September 23, 2010.
One last thing to keep in mind about sponsorship programs: they’re
one way the Gospel enters a community. Working with the church and other
believers, Compassion impacts the lives of nearly 80,000 Haitian
children and their families in the name of Christ.
The rebuild makes it possible for even more people to be introduced
to the influence of the Gospel. “It’s not just our kids, our Compassion
kids, who are going to those schools: it’s other kids in the community.
So now we’ve been able to expand our outreach and our ministry, to the
communities beyond even the kids in our program. Now all the kids in the
community have safe places to learn, to play, and to grow.”
Now that’s a success story.
Source: Mission Network
News
Topic: Disaster office closes as final promise is kept in Haiti
