The Crisis in Haiti Didn’t Start on Tuesday

In the midst of disaster, it is easy to respond. Haiti is all of a sudden the spotlight of tremendous amounts of emergency relief, volunteer groups, action alerts, pleas for donations and promises from governments around the world.

However, we must remember that the crisis in Haiti didn’t start on Tuesday, January 12th around 5pm. It started hundreds of years ago when West Africans were kidnapped from their countries and brought to the other side of the world to live in servitude. As Tracy Kidder points out in his New York Times editorial, the crisis in Haiti continued as Haitians were punished for claiming their freedom from their French colonizers. Since then Haiti has continued to suffer, partly because of aid policies that keep them dependent on foreign assistance.

Some would argue that the poverty and oppression in Haiti is irrelevant to the current crisis. While it is certainly true that oppression didn’t create the earthquake, oppression made this earthquake significantly worse. Why did so many buildings topple so easily? Because there were no resources to build structurally-sound buildings. Why wasn’t there an emergency response plan? Because the government and aid groups were dealing with the daily crisis of abject poverty.

No, the crisis in Haiti didn’t start this week, and it wasn’t and never was caused by an act of God, it has been engineered by the hands of man over hundreds of years.

This means we have to respond to the crisis with both a short-term strategy and a long-term strategy. Of course, governments, aid groups and individuals must dramatically increase funding for aid efforts to rescue survivors, treat the injured, bury the dead and begin to rebuild the country. However, as much as possible, this should be done with local people in the lead. We must support local efforts and local organizations.

Emergency relief can be done effectively by local people, with support from the international community. The recent hurricane in the Philippines demonstrates this fact.

Haiti is riddled with organizations run by Westerners who use top-down, prescriptive solutions which continue to create a cycle of dependence. This earthquake cannot continue to feed this cycle. Haiti needs this cycle to be shaken by this earthquake, breaking the dependence, and freeing them to rebuild a new future marked by independence, self-sufficiency and empowerment.

Outreach International has been empowering children and families in Haiti since the 1980’s. We have 90 schools that serve over 9,000 students. Some of these schools were damaged and destroyed in the earthquake. Worst of all, school was in session when the earthquake hit. We don’t know yet how many students and teachers were injured or killed during the earthquake, but expect there was a significant loss of life. We will be working to deliver aid in a way that empowers Haitians. Our staff members in Haiti are not Americans who will leave when the rubble has been cleared, but Haitians who are there to stay. Our commitment is to continue to help Haitians break the cycle of dependence and oppression that keeps Haiti poor. 

So, when you are choosing which organization to support with your donations to Haiti, please choose an organization that is empowering Haitians.  

 

 

Posted By (Stephen Donahoe) on Jan 16, 2010 12:00 AM CST
categories: Advocacy  Aid  Current Affairs  Development  Emergency Relief  Haiti  Politics 

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