Pinchinat

This morning Chris and I went on a "date" to Pinchinat. We really haven't had any time to spend together since we've been here, so if a half hour in a refugee camp can count as a date - then that is how the day started. Gwen took us there. She hired a few of the ladies who live there to be the cooks at the soccer camp. So she needed to pick them up for work. We approached a huge wall with barb wire over the top. The wall had written in English, "We Need Canada". After going through the gate there were just rows and rows and rows of tents - green military tents. The ones without windows. Each tent had a number spray painted on it and each tent had one small cot in it and a few possessions. The tents are stifling hot - even for Haitians. The babies are covered in heat rash, and the families spend their days outside their tents in the rows between them sitting on small chairs. Micro commerce has started a bit. There was a tiny market in the middle of the camp. It is unclear how many people are in the camp - 2,000 at least.

I really thought it would be Chris who had a harder time. But I think it was me. I spent a lot of time in a Liberian refugee camp in Ghana, hearing war stories and doing a VBS. I've seen malnourished babies covered in flies. I don't know. This was different. Venezuela apparently "set-up" the refugee camp. I suppose that means that they provided the tents. And at one point there were six thousand people in the camp. So a significant number of people have "gone home", whatever that might look like. But those remaining have no where to go. Their houses were destroyed and they own no land to put tents on. Pinchinat is their home.

I guess my tears at this point are over my extreme, total, utter disappointment at international aide organizations. I was here after the quake - I saw what happened. I saw the World Food Program come and drop literally tons and tons of food at the doorstep of missionaries, or in the midst of crowds of gathered people, like at Pinchinat. Sure World Food Program can say on their website that they distributed X tons of food. Great. What does that mean for the long term? Basically their efforts fed a few in the short term. Dumping aide in tent cities encouraged slums. Dumping aide at the foot of missionaries caused security issues at the least. There was no training for the missionaries in safe distribution methods. Just hey, "you're white, you know people, pass this out." And I suppose it may have worked in some areas.

The problem is the total lack of coordinated efforts. Venezuela can say they provided tents for shelter, Planned Parenthood can say they provided thousands of condoms to slow the amount of STD's in Pinchinat, World Food Program can say the provided X calories worth of food, Doctors without Boarders can say they provided one day here and there of medical care, Unicef can say that they provided a water bladder that sometimes works. And these are all fine things. The problem is that people in Pinchinat are still hungry, still diseased, still jobless, still homeless, still living in conditions that Americans would never consider submitting their dogs to.

The solution - I don't know. But what I do know is that God chose to break Gwen Mangine's heart and give her a desire to provide holistic, long term care for the people of Pinchinat. And Joy in Hope, the small org that she works for is attempting to get a census of the camp, record the needs of each individual there, and try to get a list of the resources available in the area. The goal is to connect each individual with the individual care they need. So the girl with a cancerous mass on her neck can possibly see a cancer specialist, and the babies whose diarrhea constantly mixes with the mud - spreading disease - can have diapers, and the malnourished babies can have formula. Joy in Hope is a very small organization attempting to do what multi-million dollar orgs like the American Refugee Committee do, providing holistic care to refugees.

But the problem continues. In a few months it is rumored that large funding organizations like the UNDP and USAID will put out requests for proposals to fund organizations working in Haiti with millions and millions of dollars. And Joy in Hope won't see that money. They will be deemed too small, too young, too incapable to manage a few million dollars. Who will get that money? The World Food Program, Planned Parenthood, UNICEF. And they will pass out more condoms and provide more food and dig a few wells. They will add the stats to their websites. Great. And the people of Pinchinat will remain reliant on Joy in Hope to connect their specific needs with these resources. Joy in Hope will help and God will provide for the people of Pinchinat. I will write proposal for those funds on behalf of Joy in Hope. They will be denied. But I will write them nonetheless.