By Martha Randolph Carr
Haiti
is a country that has defied change in the worst possible ways for all
of its existence. However, there are signs that perhaps there is hope
at last for the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Two recent
announcements have the potential to create some real and lasting change
for the impoverished Caribbean country. Last Thursday, a new female
prime minister, Michele Pierre-Louis was ratified after several stalled
attempts paving the way for the delayed senate elections and
desperately needed foreign aid. Ms. Pierre-Louis, 61 and an educator
comes from the Open Society Institute founded by George Soros, which
works to promote emerging democracies and human rights. Perhaps it was
worth the wait to gain such a fresh perspective in a country that also
survived Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier’s reign of terror.
The
other piece of good news came when the charity, Mercy & Sharing,
which was founded by American, Susie Krabacher in 1994 specifically to
aid Haitian children recently announced plans to double their footprint
in Haiti with a 16 acre, 38,000 square foot development in Williamson,
located about an hour away from Port au Prince.
The new
facilities, expected to open by end of 2009 will include another
orphanage, a feeding center expected to serve 500 people per day, a
hospice for terminally ill and disabled children, a vocational school
with a capacity for 100 children and a primary school that will
initially teach 200 children and eventually expand to 500 students.
The
small country has known mostly violence since its inception when all of
the indigenous people were pushed into extinction and replaced by
African settlers. Since then most of its rich natural resources have
been destroyed with only 7 percent of the original forest still
remaining leading to soil erosion and loss of minerals as well as
extensive contamination of the water supply. None of the country’s
water is considered potable.
Haiti sits across a spit of ocean
from Cuba and Guantanamo Bay and only 750 miles off the coast of
Florida. Malnutrition, disease, lack of education and unemployment have
been staples of Haitian life along with a steady stream of violence.
In
April, deadly riots over food shortages lead to the government ousting
Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis without thinking of the
consequences of having no one to name in his place. For months, no one
was legally capable of signing for foreign aid as the price of rice
continued to rise. Mercy & Sharing, which already operates feeding
centers in Port au Prince watched as greater numbers of people
struggled to eat. “People who could have afforded rice two years ago
can’t buy it now. The price has doubled,” said Krabacher. But the
outside world could do very little as they watched two previous
candidates for prime minister fail to achieve a majority vote and a
stalemate continue as the populated went hungry.
One of the
greatest hopes Krabacher has from the new projects, which will cost
$1.7 million from donations is that out of the children they are
helping to raise will come Haiti’s future leaders. Krabacher has a
little experience with starting from where you are with what you have
to offer. She began the charity with an idea, a 10th grade education
and limited savings and has helped to build facilities that already
include orphanages, a hospital, day clinic, feeding center and schools.
They are the most successful charity operating in Haiti today despite
death threats and corruption in areas where other charities have given
up and left town. Krabacher, along with her husband, Joe, an attorney
in Colorado, even pay for all of the charity’s administrative costs out
of their own pockets so that 100 percent of all donations can go
directly to the projects in Haiti.
There’s still a very long
road ahead before Haiti turns any kind of corner toward
self-sufficiency or even the promise of peace for its people but at
last there are signs that progress is being made.
Martha
Randolph Carr’s latest book, A Place to Call Home about the reemergence
of U.S. orphanages is available wherever books are sold. If you’d like
Martha to come and speak to your group visit: www.newvoicespeakers.com.
Author’s email: Martha@caglecartoons.com or visit
www.martharandolphcarr.com. If you’d like to learn more about Mercy
& Sharing go to www.HaitiChildren.com.
©2008 Martha Randolph Carr. Martha’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. newspaper syndicate.
Technorati Tags: 
