Tent City Visit

Our team arrived in Haiti early this morning and met up with Brian and Waheed. It's hard to describe the feelings of actually being here. I knew when the plane landed that this is where God wants me to be. It is a land of beautiful people who have many struggles but who appreciate everything they have. Even being in the midst of the devastation, it's hard to imagine what daily life is like for many of these people. So much to do that it's easy to get overwhelmed but for me it's important to remember that each time we touch a life, we give them hope. It really is about relationships and love and the ability to provide moments to as many people as we can.

We're easing into it today and went out to one of the tent camps a little ways outside of Port au Prince. It's the first time for many of us to actually see a tent camp live and to be able to see their living accommodations. One of the goals for the day was to help families register so we can potentially find help for them from some of the larger organizations. Fortunately we had interpreters that were able to help fill out the forms and talk with each of the families.

Although it would be easier in some ways if we could speak their language, some things are truly universal ... the hug of a child, the welcoming smiles and the laughter heard as we played with the children. And the children really are just children who want to have fun and love to play. It was amazing how excited they were when we took their pictures and showed them. They began to follow us around the camp and pull more children into the pictures. Little boys posing and little girls just waiting to see how beautiful they are!

But it's hard to miss the truth behind their situation. They have no home, just a tent and in many cases just some tarps. The mothers are concerned for their children and want to provide them with food, water and the medical care needed. Hopefully we'll be able to help a few. Tomorrow we'll set up a medical clinic and care for those in need. Keep praying for us to be able to touch a few lives and that we will be able to realize why each of us has been called to be here.

Sue Arment

Ground reality

Above is a picture of a typical shelter in an earthquake victims camp in Port-au-Prince.
From this we get an idea how much help still needs to be provided to these suffering people. Perhaps many of us will have forgotten about the Haiti earthquake because it is no longer in the media as every thing has returned to normal again. But the ground reality is totally different we need to do a lot of rebuilding in the devastated capital of Haiti. We need your prayers and support to rebuild the lives of the people of Port-au-Prince.
We are working with a tent community about ten miles to the northeast of Port-au-Prince.
There are about 1500 families staying in this camp. They have formed a representative committee.
We are trying to connect this committee to other organizations by helping them with record keeping and linkage development.
Omaha Rapid Response

Haiti

Micro Financing in Jubilee Area.

One of our on going program with the community of Jubilee is Micro Financing in which we are building the livelihood by helping to start new businesses or strengthen their old businesses. This process goes in several steps like building relationship first and then getting their business plans and evaluate the plans with them. Picture below is showing one of our meeting with the community of Jubilee area who wants to start business.
Working with fishing community by providing help to get new traps and nets.

Omaha Rapid Response Team
Haiti

The lunchtime feeding program

Playing with the kids

The school/clinic building/location of feeding program

I am filled with mixed thoughts and emotions as I reflect on today’s happenings and the various conversations I have been a part of. For one, today was our last day of seeing patients, which involved turning many people away who were crowded expectantly at the doorway after our time was up. I am faced with the realization that the work here can never be completed, with the needs being endless. However, I pray that those we touched will have seen Christ through us and been drawn to him in some way to as enact a spiritual impact.

While we worked at the clinic, a group of the others finished putting on the first roof, then completed a second roof from start to finish.

After packing up the clinic, we played some games with the kids…football, tag, and the “giving out candy trying while trying not to be trampled by the stampede of kids” game. They have almost nothing, and yet have such huge smiles. I am humbled by my lack of contentment even though I have been overwhelmingly blessed.

We then visited a physician in town who is taking care of a guy recovering from large wrist wounds inflicted by wire tightened around his wrists. While the wounds are healing well, his mental condition seems to be deteriorating, and his fits of babbling made me ponder whether this could reflect bondage to demonic forces. We prayed for Christ to work a miracle in his life, restore his mental function, and heal his spiritual state.

The sounds and feel of Haiti now surround me, the wind in the trees, the mosquitoes buzzing around, the intermittent rumble of dilapidated trucks bumping along the rocky roads, and the distant throb of Hatian rock music…another day in the Hatian life, and the promise of challenge and adventure again tomorrow.

-Dan R.

Working on Roof

We worked on the roof of a home in Jubilee area. The family of this home did not have any resources to rebuilt the roof .They had very tough time in recent rain because ten sheet roof has several holes due to rusting .
Initially we remove all old rusty ten sheets from the roof.
We also changed some of old traces with new one and started to rebuild the roof with new ten sheets.
Tomorrow we will finish the work on this roof.
Kids feeding program and running medical camp with Emory team are other highlights of the day.

Omaha Rapid Response
Haiti Team

Haiti Team

Brian with Waheed checking out the rebuilding of a home.

Brian and Waheed are arriving in Haiti this morning with a small assessment team. They will be checking out what we can do in Haiti over the next few months.

There are still many more people wanting to go to Haiti and several people wanting to return to help again.

CARING FOR OUR WIDOWS

We are building a home for this widow, who is the mother of Raheem Shah a young married man who got paralyzed in the earthquake of 2005. The widow had no land for building a home and has no source of income. For the house we were able to get land from a relative of hers as a donation. And now we have created a source of income for the family by giving a share of an orchard consisting of 200 fruit trees. We supplied the trees at .50 cents per tree. And the land owner agreed to give 10% of the fruit produced to the widow’s family. She will be able to have both fruit and enough to sell in the market place. Muhammad Farid our Pakistani worker with owner of the orchard

We distributed 3 fruit trees to each family in the village of Tanda where we are building the home for the widow

Omaha Rapid Response

Pakistan