Update on Hurricane Efforts in Haiti

Many of the posts were on Facebook, but I'll try to begin to add to the blog and attach. Some people do not have FB and have asked me to post on the blog instead. 

This is the Thursday after the hurricane Matthew hit Haiti:

Ron spent most of the day seeking out access to supplies and cost of supplies. Time moves slowly here and most of the warehouses to get supplies are on the other side of Port au Prince near the airport (which is a long ways from us in the mountains). It does appear that stock of supplies for the most part will not be an issue. We are still trying to find sheet metal for the roofing and we have not purchased building supplies yet. We did purchase a chainsaw in order to help get into some of the areas we have not been able to reach. In Belot even, it is hard to access many of the people's homes. Nouvelle Terrain is even harder to access. We have purchased bags of rice also made food arrangement to transport rice and beans to the village. We're now working on gathering a scouting crew to hike into the more remote area and assess damage.

The church in Nouvelle Terrain

Unfortunately, that will probably not happen until Saturday or Sunday. We are though in touch with Pastor Saint Pierre. He says the church has collapsed, so they could not use the church to house people that lost their homes. The "church" was actually very much just an open area with a roof. It was not ever entirely enclosed. This is where we set up our tents when we hike in with medical teams and also when we hike in without teams and do education training and VBS.

Ron is making calculations to have a better idea of cost of repairing each home in Belot and then we will do the same in the other village. We have only touched the surface so far in Belot and have yet to do a complete assessment of the other village. It is not a simple process. These are remote areas that are hard to access even in good conditions. We have been in contact with Operation Blessing and hope that they may be able to provide some materials. Any help for these areas is greatly appreciated! Praise God for the cooperation of other ministries. Approval for these types of things in larger organizations tends to be more complicated, so pray that details can be reduced and organizations can work together to help those in need. Thank you to all that have helped and continue to help. Supplies of food and medications are being purchased so far.

Billy helping in Belot

Billy's family in Les Cayes: no news yet. Reports that I see in that area are not good. Destruction was vast. Many are without homes, food, water, etc. Crops destroyed and livestock killed. Billy's family are very poor farmers and in fact the reason he ended up in an orphanage years ago had to do with a drought one year that took out their means of living. Their children were starving and Billy was a younger child that was not able to work and help support himself and the family. He was placed in an orphanage so that he would have food. This is a very complicated problem that people should consider when they are "helping" in a time of need.

When the tsunami and earthquake hit the Indian Ocean in 2004, I worked for an adoption agency. Many people called the agency wanting to adopt the children that were orphaned or displaced. People wanted to help the children. I get that. I have a soft heart for kids and of course want to help children as well. When the earthquake hit Haiti, missionaries actually were arrested for trying to take children across the border into the Dominican Republic to "save" them.

Nouvelle Terrain medical clinic

This is Melissa, Steevenson, and Billy in orphanage

Please remember in times like these (natural disasters), children have families. Even if they were in fact orphaned by both parents, they have extended family. Many will relinquish their family members in order for the child to survive, but why are we as missionaries or mission organizations or humanitarian aid organizations opening up more orphanages to help children instead of helping the families feed their children? Or helping the children reunite with their family if they were separated?

Sheppard Family

We have 14 children, 12 of which joined our family through adoption. Seven of our children were originally adopted into the USA by well meaning adoptive parents that did not end up continuing to parent them. For the most part, they simply were not prepared to parent children with trauma histories. Most people "assume" that we are adoption advocates, but I'm not sure that I would use that term to describe ourselves anymore. Orphanages and adoption....it's heartbreaking to me. I see these options as band-aid solutions to a much bigger problem. I love all of our children and we are blessed to call ourselves family, but I would not choose for them to be separated from their first family. 

Please consider helping organizations that are on the preventative end of orphanages and/or adoption. For years before moving here, I used to work in processing adoptions from Haiti and from other countries. I worked in orphanages and saw the incredible need. I saw the mothers or family members bringing their starving children crying and begging the orphanage to take their child. We stopped referring children under a year old because such a high percentage of them did not survive. They were too far gone by the time they were admitted to the orphanage. Our son Steevenson was one of these very sick children that barely survived. He was hospitalized numerous times and just had difficulty recovering. He still has side effects from his years of starvation. The orphanage would put many of these children on an IV and a feeding tube and provide as best as they could, but it often was too late. Months later they would die. It was heartbreaking to witness and also heartbreaking to call the adoptive family in process and say their child passed away.

The loss of livestock and crops and homes and access to clean water produces this kind of outcome - families that simply cannot feed their children and the children will die. In what is normal everyday circumstances in Haiti, the children are already dying from severe malnutrition. We see children with bloated bellies and orange hair from starvation in these villages regularly.

The challenges are overwhelming. I fear that many people focus on statistics that the hurricane did not bring as much loss of life as expected. Many believe Haiti has been spared. I praise the Lord that much of Haiti was spared from the immediate effects of the hurricane. Some areas were not impacted really at all. And yes, it could have been so much worse. But I also think many people do not quite grasp the long term effects of a natural disaster such as this in a country with such limited resources to begin with.

Please continue to pray for Haiti in the days, weeks, and months ahead. If you feel called, consider donating to one of the many organizations on the ground in Haiti or to contribute to our efforts with the little villages we are involved with www.thechancetodream.com

Your continued thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated!!