16327: Raber: Helping the poor

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P&M Raber <raber@valkyrie.net>

I would like to say a few words in defense of the many non-governmental
organization that attempt to alleviate suffering in Haiti.

First of all, those types of organizations in any country tend to become
necessary when government leadership drops the ball in matters of social
services and economic development.  Non-profits are not the cause of
under-development but a symptom of it.  It is easy to sit in a well-off
country
or at a computer and talk about teaching people how to fish and to be
critical
about relief organizations because they are not doing anything to improve
all
of Haiti teh way each of us think is best.  When you are one of the
"haves" and
you must live facing  the misery of teh "have nots" day after day, only
the cold hearted will sit there and do nothing.  Many (foreigners or
diaspora)
who visit Haiti come back broken hearted and even though they cannot do
anything for the country as a whole, they feel compelled to help
Dieusibon,
Jean-Baptiste or Marie-Carmelle.  Be assured that those needy people
trying to
survive day by day could not care less about what someone outside the
country
think of ANYONE helping them.  For the one being helped it makes all the
difference.

If anyone feels like helping one individual, one hometown, one orphanage,
or
one existing relief organization in Haiti, they are acting from the heart
and
are helping actual people who are forever grateful. Helping others should
not
be seen as some kind of massive public development program. People who
have the
means to help should also look into their own hearts and ask themselves
whether
they are using this type of reasoning so they can continue to do
nothing. Governments are to be in charge of things on a large scale.  The
reality is that the Haitian governments are historically mostly concerned
about
staying in power.   Decent people cannot stand by and watch.

Compassion does not need to result in some type of long term progress.
Look at
what the order of the Sisters of Charity (Mother Teresa's order) does.
All
they do is show love and compassion to the poorest of the poor.  I have
visited
their place full of dying AIDS patients at the bottom of Delmas.  Although
they
often receive not even the drugs they need (because they are not
available) and
will be dead shortly,  those people are extremelly thankful and grateful
to be
loved, touched, bathed, and fed by the sisters of charity.
Yes some groups abuse the funds they are entrusted with. Yes some program
directors abuse their power and mistreat people.  However, that does not
mean
that someone wanting to help should use this as an excuse.  It only means
that
one must do a little research to ensure that an organization is worthy.

I have read some postings critical of Food for the Poor.  I want to tell a
story that involved many different relief groups including Food for
the Poor  It is a story of a woman called Giselle.  Here is how I came to
know
Gisele.  It was early in 1996 and I walked into the clinic I was working
at to
find the staff holding this most beautiful newborn baby girl.  The problem
is
that she was actually 9 months old.  I was informed that her mother worked
in
the mission school bathroom handing out paper and making sure the kids
used the
toilets properly.  She had missed many days of work due to other sick
children
and she kept the baby in the grass of the fenced-in clinic so she could
work.
Gisele had 5 children. She had 6 but one had died of malnutrition.  One
lived
with his father and she had the other four including the baby.  We took
the
baby to the hospital and all her blood and stool tests came out normal.
He
mother had weaned her after a breast infection and was feeding her who
knows
what.  Instead of going into malnutrition, the baby had just plain quit
getting
any bigger months before.    About that same time, many hospitals were
becoming
"formula free" so we were able to obtain lots of formula for the baby (who
is
now a beautiful intelligent but still petite 8 year old) from both the
Baptist
Mission and the Haitian Community Hospital.  Gisele eventually lost her
job.
The problem is that she had a girl with mental retardation whom she had to
tie
to the bed at home while she worked.  The girl would escape and almost get
run
over.  She was making many trips to government social services in town,
government psychiatric and special education places and missed too many
work
days.  The government places were not able to help.  I contacted the
Haitian
nuns at Signeau near Leogane. They ran a governent owned indigent old
people's
asylum and I had noticed some handicapped children there.   All the
government
does is pay some of the employees, the nuns are left to fend for
themselves
and do wonders with very little.  The place is claner and nicer smelling
than
an American nursing home.  All get bathed daily and fed twice daily.  Hair
is
braided.  They are helped by many Haitian business people.  I know that
when
their inverter was stolen (imagine taking care of 200 old people in the
dark),
a new one was donated and installed by a prominent business in town.
Anyhow,
back to Gisele.  Gisele cannot read and write. She is not very smart but
she is
very cheerful and a very hard worker.  We gave her a little start up sum
and
she started supporting her family selling a little bit of everything by
walking
miles everyday selling.  Then came time for her to pay rent and she ended
up
pregnant again.  This time I talked to her about getting her tubes tied
after
the baby and she was all for it and had it all arranged at the nearby
hospital.  Unfortunatelly, she became severely malnourished, swelled up
and
ended up in the hospital for weeks. Her 13 year old son was like a man
taking
care of her beautifully.  She miscarried.  For a number of weeks after
being
released, an Episcopalian priest gave her some food aid and when she
became
healthy she had her tubes tied for free croutesy of some US funded
program.
Thing were going as well as they could for her when about 3 years ago, a
big
lavalas rain carried her home (if you could call this a home) and
everything
inside it.  Well I had heard that Food for the Poor helped people with
housing.  It did take several trips and lots of wasted hours but
eventually all
the materials to build Gisele a two room block house with tin roof was
donated and we found funds to put it all together.  Let me tell you that
you will not
hear Gisele say anything bad about Food for the Poor.  They came out to
see
the site both before and after the home was built.   When I spoke to some
of
the people at Food for the Poor ( I later went there to get help for a
little
community school were the children who have NOTHING-including Gisele's
youngest
girl), they told me why it is so hard to apply and get help:

Many of the applications are very poorly written and sometimes harldy
legible
(I saw quite a few of those).  There are no references to check and If the
places are way out in the sticks, it is difficult to send employees out.
Even
when applications are approved, containers full of construction supplies
or
school desks get "stuck" in customs months at a time due to corruption at
customs.  And most important of all, they get many more demands than they
can
supply so the best written applications that are the most verifiable are
most
likely to be approved.  Approval still involves lots of patience though.
When
the demand for the little school was approved, it took about 6 trips by
the
director of the school over 5 or 6 months before the supplies were
available.
One of teh days I was there, I was able to observe them serving thousands
of
lunches to unemployed former factory workers and their families near the
airport.  There was not rudeness observed there.

Postcript on Gisele:  about a year ago, her now 16 year old son was
accused of
stealing a radio and thrown in the local jail by the police for several
weeks
without judgment.  He was released weeks later when another boy confessed
to
the theft.  Gisele no longer has to worry about a roof over her head ,
about her handicapped child getting run over, or about getting pregnant
(or
infected) by yet another man offering to help her.  She continues to
support
her family by selling anything from Honey to used clothing form the
States. She
also has a garden somewhere and will share the first fruit of that garden
faster than any of us can check e-mail.  Think about this next time you
see a
need.

M Raber