All posts tagged: Haiti missionaries

Haitian aid workers worry American Christians donors could worsen crisis

Haitian aid workers worry American Christians donors could worsen crisis

(RNS) — As the security crisis in Haiti continues, the humanitarian aid group Haiti Family Care Network is urging U.S. Christian donors to refrain from worsening the situation by donating to orphanages and to redirect their efforts instead toward initiatives helping parents support their children. “There are actually better ways to care for the needs of children than building and supporting orphanages,” said Heather Nozea, chair of the network, which is part of Better Care Network, based in Guatemala. In 2021, five humanitarian organizations created Haiti Family Care Network to change how relief for children works in the impoverished, often chaotically led nation. In 2011, the year after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake killed some 300,000, mostly around the capital, Port-au-Prince, orphanages proliferated from about 300 to 754, despite their failures to provide appropriate care for children. “Everyone assumed that the best way to respond was by building and supporting new orphanages and it became a solution to problems without actually addressing the real problem,” said Nozea, who has worked in Haiti for eight years for …

Haiti’s crisis is at a tipping point. The world needs to help.

Haiti’s crisis is at a tipping point. The world needs to help.

(RNS) — For nearly three years, since the assassination of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, in 2021, the country has been run by lawless gangs, whose haphazard rule has exacerbated the poverty left by an earthquake in 2010. Recently, a surge in violence among these gangs has thrown crucial sectors into chaos, particularly impacting the health care system, educational system and child nutritional status. The current food crisis is grave, with at least 115,000 children in Haiti expected to suffer from life-threatening malnutrition this year — a 30% increase over 2022. Approximately 40% of them reside in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince, which is significantly affected by gang violence obstructing critical food supplies. Most faith-based nonprofits serving in Haiti have had to cease or decrease operations due to the danger the gangs pose, as shown by the kidnapping of multiple aid workers and missionaries. Meanwhile only 1 in 4 health facilities today remain reachable, leaving a significant portion of the population without proper medical care. This poses a lethal threat to malnourished children who are already …