One year after quake, Haiti faces long road to recovery

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (ABP) — Despite unprecedented generosity by religious charities, the progress of recovery efforts remains slow on the one-year anniversary of a devastating 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti last Jan. 12.

"The progress is slow, maybe not as quick as other emergencies, but … we're moving ahead," Nicole Peter, the Haiti operations director for the Christian relief agency World Vision, told Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

World Vision has already spent more than $100 million in post-earthquake work, including shelter, water and sanitation, job creation, education and family support.

In all, USA Today estimated that more than $300 million dollars and thousands of volunteers powered by religious faith have poured into Haiti so far.

The North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, for example, steered more than $10 million to Haiti. More than 2,000 Baptist volunteers from 39 states and Canada joined with the two major Haitian Baptist organizations to deliver tons of food, build hundreds of temporary shelters, launch repair of 186 damaged churches and build 72 churches. Baptist churches in the USA have sent 150,000 Buckets of Hope, each holding a week's worth of food staples for a family.

Despite those efforts, an estimated 1 million Haitians still huddle in tent cities without permanent homes.

"This country was in desperate straits even before we had an earthquake, and it was literally devastated in the south," Tim Brendle, a former missionary to Haiti coordinating Cooperative Baptist Fellowship relief efforts in Grand Goave, said in a CBF video.

The Atlanta-based CBF has worked alongside partner organizations to provide food, shelter, clean water and medical care to earthquake victims and help with reconstruction of churches, schools, orphanages and homes.

"Perhaps what they need far more than our construction skills is our compassion, just to know that we care," Brendle said. "Every time a team comes here, sits down with them, works with them, takes on the job, it's an encouragement to these folks."

One CBF partner, BMS World Mission in the UK, is working to rebuild a hospital in a partnership called Haiti Hospital Appeal.

"There are real dangers of creating a dependency culture," Gareth Wilde, BMS mission resources coordinator, told the Baptist Times. "There also remains a significant probability that good recovery work will return Haiti only to what it already was — the poorest country in the Western hemisphere by some distance. Sustainable recovery should always be its goal."

American Baptists have given $2.8 million for Haiti relief through One Great Hour of Sharing, a relief program jointly funded by nine Christian denominations, including American Baptist Churches USA.

"In spite of economic recession and uncertainty, people have focused on things that really matter and have reached out in remarkable ways to our Haitian brothers and sisters," commented Reid Trulson, director of American Baptist International Ministries.

In addition to funds, hundreds of American Baptist churches sent health kits to Church World Service, volunteers traveled to Haiti to assist with rebuilding efforts or provide emergency medical treatment and churches around the world prayed for a better future for the Haitian people, said Lisa Rothenberger, world relief officer for American Baptist Churches.

Baptist World Aid, the relief-and-development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, has spent nearly $680,000 for critical help to Haitians over the one year period since the earthquake.

BWAid spent money on emergency relief, medical supplies and medical care in the immediate aftermath of the quake, and increased its grants for medical assistance after the outbreak of cholera in the northern Caribbean country in October.

In addition, BWAid is working with partners including Hungarian Baptist Aid and the Virginia Baptist Mission Board to help resuscitate Delmas 19, a depressed area in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, which was particularly devastated by the quake. A complex is being built on land owned by the Haitian Baptist Convention, one of two BWA member bodies through which the BWA is doing its relief work. The complex includes a school that will accommodate 250 students, and an orphanage.

Funds have also been provided by BWAid for the construction of houses, rebuilding of a school at the House of Hope Orphanage at Gressier, near Port-au-Prince, and to help to rebuild the female dormitory at the Northern Haiti Christian University, a school owned and run by the HBC, in Limbè, in northern Haiti.

The BWA expects to spend close to an additional one million dollars on relief, reconstruction and development costs as it continues its long term commitment to Haiti.

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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

Previous ABP stories on Haiti earthquake response

Baptists prep for immediate, long-term responses to Haiti quake

ABC, CBF plan multi-pronged responses to Haitian earthquake

Prominent Baptist pastor in Port-au-Prince confirmed among dead in Haiti

Haitian Baptist college president describes country 'in shock'

Baptist World Alliance rescue team arrives in Haiti

U.S. Baptists issue urgent fundraising appeals for Haiti

New evangelical group calls for cancellation of Haiti's debt

Baptist World Aid workers say situation in Haiti still desperate

ABC, CBF workers describe aftermath, future in Haiti

ABC seeks doctors, nurses for weeklong stints in Haiti