Humanitarian Crisis - a note from our board president
Today is a terrifying day to be in Haiti. What has been a food insecurity crisis for over a year has become a full blown humanitarian crisis of historic proportions. Today the protests for the ouster of Haitian president Moise are scheduled to culminate in anarchy. We have received reports from several communities across Haiti where no one can leave their homes without fear of robbery and death. The community where Lespwa Lavi is based, Verrettes, is in the central Artibonite region of Haiti, which means it has been completely cut off from all resources for 16 days. All roads are blocked. There has been no gasoline or diesel coming in for those 16 days, which means no electricity or fuel for cooking. No electricity means no phones or internet to keep in contact with the outside world. Cooking can be only be accomplished with wood fires. Almost all food is imported, except for a few crops such as plantains and bananas, so now there is nothing left to buy. There is absolutely zero access to healthcare or medications at this time. Can you imagine? In a community of 60,000 people, what happens when the children and elderly fall ill?
The church at Lespwa Lavi has an emergency food supply which they have used sparingly. This week, we received this report from Pastor Dony,
"Sunday, if we didn't bring food at the church we would have had to sing a funeral of a child. A child fall two times next to the church. He was like he was dead. We didn't know what to do...we quickly fed him. He felt so much better after he ate. We later found out he has not eaten in 2 days. "
At least 90% of the children in Verrettes were already suffering from mild to severe malnutrition prior to this crisis. At Lespwa Lavi, we have been waiting to officially announce a partnership with the HaitiOne nutrition program through Convoy of Hope to provide 100% daily nutrition for the children in our sponsorship program. Thanks to this partnership, we do have a month’s supply of food waiting at Convoy of Hope’s distribution center. Unfortunately, until there is fuel and an end to the violence and complete chaos on the highways, we cannot get it. There are no other ways to reach Verrettes.
A four-year-old girl who was found near the church.
Lespwa Lavi is poised to bring change and hope to Haiti. Our new facility design includes emergency food storage that will be capable of handling crisis situations such as this in the future.
With your support, together we can ensure this desperate situation never happens again.
Right now, stop and pray. The Lord is the only one who can open the doors for the children in crisis today. Pray for our community of Verrettes. Pray for the government of Haiti. Pray for the roads to open. We are ready.
Then give. It is because of our generous supporters that the church had some emergency food supply to save a child on Sunday. We cannot continue without you. If you would like to build our emergency food storage facility, please select “Construction” on our donate page.
Subscribe to our newsletter to continue to receive updates and follow our Facebook page. We are so grateful for the miracles we will continue to see.
In Christ,
Nika Pierre-Louis