Resettlement and news from Ferrier

Jackson Nelson and the WHR-Haiti well crew will travel to the Dominican Republic tomorrow to purchase parts and supplies for the well-drilling rig. I have been in discussion with various organizations regarding using WHR-Haiti's services in the earthquake-affected zone. At this point it appears there's not an urgent need for water wells. In a month or so, there will likely be more need, especially in some of the outlying communities where former Port-au-Prince residents have relocated.

The Ferrier community has welcomed its share of returnees. Some 160 individuals have resettled in the area, and Pastor Zenas Pierre is traveling to Port-au-Prince at the time of this writing in order to facilitate the return of more people. WHR-Haiti is providing financial support to those who have resettled in Ferrier, and we have wired funds to help with this effort.

Introducing Billy Jack

Frosty, one of our does, gave birth Sunday morning to a little buck named Billy Jack. We were unaware that she was pregnant - and so it was definitely a surprise! We weren't expecting the baby goats for another 6 weeks.

Here are a few pictures. I waited until this afternoon to take pictures with my camera, so the sunset and shadows are a little distracting. I'll try to post better ones next week.

Hope For Haiti

News from Ferrier, Haiti

Phone contact with Haiti is slowly improving. I was able to talk at length with my World Hunger Relief - Haiti counterpart, Jackson Nelson today. He is working to ready their well-drilling rig to travel to the Port-au-Prince area to help develop water supplies where needed. Our strategy is now to help them accomplish this.

In addition to the challenges of traveling and drilling wells, smaller organizations like WHR-Haiti lack the connections to coordinate their efforts with the larger relief effort in the earthquake-affected zone. Jackson asked me to use our communication channels to put them in contact with the organizations who need their help. Pray with us that these connections can be made.

Meanwhile, the WHR-Haiti staff are busy preparing for the trip. Jackson reports that they need new drill bits, cable and bearings from the Dominican Republic before they can head south. We're sending funds to help with these purchases. Once appropriate locations have been identified for them to serve, we will continue to support WHR-H in this endeavor.

A second pressing need stems from earthquake victims who are resettling in other areas of Haiti. The Mayor of Ferrier organized transportation to bring back Port-au-Prince relatives of Ferrier residents. Several orphanages have relocated children in Cap Haitien (near Ferrier) and need help with transportation and supplies. We will support WHR-Haiti in responding to these needs as well.

Thanks again for praying for our tireless counterparts in Haiti and for contributing financially in these efforts.

World Hunger Relief – Haiti technicians help villagers repair
a well.

The well-drilling rig will needs supplies and parts before it’s
ready for the eight-hour trip.

Spring Gardening Workshops

Spring Gardening Workshop: Vegetable Gardening Naturally

Location:
World Hunger Relief, Inc.
356 Spring Lake Rd.
Waco, TX

Date: Saturday, February 13, 2010
Time: 8:00am - 12:00pm
Download the flyer
Facebook event page

Beyond the Backyard

The first in our community garden training series is coming up Saturday January 30, 2010 from 9am-12pm at Lakeshore Baptist Church. Workshop Topics: Garden Basics (planting schedule, site selection, garden design). Mission and Purpose (why plant a garden?!).

Here's a link to our Facebook event page. And here's a the lowdon from the HOT Urban Gardening Coalition website:

In order to meet the demand for gardens in Waco, UGC will host a garden training series designed for those interested in expanding beyond the backyard garden and in building community through growing, harvesting and sharing garden goodness. This training will involve various UGC partners to facilitate discussion and instruction on growing, budgeting, outreach, and beyond.

Goal: To train garden leaders involved in organizations, churches, schools to start gardens in the community.

Time period: Series of 6 workshops – spread out over 6 months – one Saturday of each month. The 2010 Training Timeline starts in January and runs through June. Such spacing allows UGC to provide on-going support and garden assistance, as well as avoiding learning burnout.

Workshop Structure: 9:00am – 12:00pm. Each workshop includes an in-class component and hands-on activity, followed by an opportunity to troubleshoot and dig deeper with fellow gardeners. This is your chance to ask questions and work in the garden to try out your new garden skills.

Planting Urban Gardens Unites Community Members

In 2008,the Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition began their projects in Waco, recruiting and uniting community members to create gardens around town. This is year three, and today the coalition is planting vegetables at 9 locations in Waco, and taking time to reflect on Martin Luther King's message of community and brotherhood.

Bethel Erickson heads up the project. Shes the Americorps Vista for the Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition.

The planting that occurs today at Carver Baptist Church will be maintained by church members and community members. In June it's time for harvest, and the hope is everyone will reconvene to celebrate their hard work. Bethel said she likes how people are working together to create this garden.

Listen to full audio at kwbu.org

Baptist students gain a taste of global poverty

Spartan living accommodations—a 10-foot by 10-foot room without electricity or running water with only a little heat from a wood-burning stove—didn’t deter the student workers.

Seven college students from Baptist Student Ministries around Texas rose early each morning to work hard in community gardens and learn about global hunger issues as they spent a week at the World Hunger Farm, near Waco.

The group was one of several Go Now Missions student teams who served in Texas, Nicaragua, the Middle East, East Asia, Eastern Europe and North Africa during Christ-mas break to share the love of Jesus and to expand their worldviews.

The World Hunger Farm trip was designed for students to experience what it is like to live in poverty conditions, while learning the responsibility Christians have to help the poor and hungry.

Read the entire article at the Baptist Standard.

Watch a video made by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Love and Solidarity in Haiti

This morning I had a long phone conversation with Pastor Zenas Pierre, who is working with World Hunger Relief, Haiti to develop a response to the earthquake. The Mayor in Ferrier is organizing a bus to travel to Port-au-Prince to pick up Ferrier relatives who have been left homeless by the earthquake. There were several incidents on the roads leading to Port-au-Prince, but with added security, passage has been safe for the past few days. Security is still a problem in some areas of the Capital, but they are hopeful that with the arrival of a larger contingent of U.S. Marines this will improve as well.

More information from Daryl Yoder-Bontrager, Mennonite Central Committee area director for Latin America and the Caribbean:
“MCC workers have complained over and over about the images shown on the news shows – dramatic scenes where people get angry and fight for scarce resources. MCCers say that these things are happening, but it's such a small part of the story. The real story, the one that always seems so much harder for television cameras to capture, is the selfless sharing of so many thousands of people, helping each other to survive. This is so much more prevalent than the violence. Still security is a constant concern, especially as food, water and fuel remain scarce and people get more desperate. Thanks for your support and prayers.”

MCC staff person Ben Depp of Waxhaw, N.C., said this on the blog he posts with spouse and MCC staff person Alexis Depp:
“The violence has been isolated and if you have a big distribution that is not done right it's going to go badly, so far that's been blown out of proportion by the media. There is a lot of solidarity among everyone here that is not been captured by the news. Most of the rescues that have happened have been by Haitians pulling their neighbors out of the rubble, the outside emergency is helping in factories and big places that had a lot of people.”

Alexis Depp added:
“…we all need to make sure that we're not criminalizing or demonizing the victims of this tragedy. People will do what it takes to be able to feed their families and when they're truly desperate, those actions might become violent. However, that doesn't make them any less human or any less deserving of our sympathy and aid. Ben is right that we've seen an astounding amount of love and solidarity in the aftermath of the earthquake.”

Update on the News from Haiti

The past few days feel like we've been operating in excruciatingly slow motion. We have managed to communicate sporadically with World Hunger Relief, Haiti staff and they are eager to pitch in and help wherever they can, but making that happen in a way that contributes to the larger effort in Port-au-Prince without putting WHR-Haiti personnel at significant risk is a serious challenge. With the national offices of Fonkoze destroyed (the credit union we normally use to transfer funds) we have been trying alternative routes in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Yesterday we succeeded in transferring funds to Dajabon, D.R., opening the possibility of purchasing Dominican goods for transport to the earthquake site.

On the other end of the equation, we are communicating with MCC personnel to find out first what goods are most needed, and second, whether it is possible to deliver them safely to a location where they are needed. Reports of hijacking are not rampant, but they're common enough that we want to move cautiously and not put our well-meaning Haitian brothers and sisters in danger.

Meanwhile, those amidst the devastation continue to work tirelessly. As of late last week, many neighborhoods were still digging on their own with picks and shovels, including MCC volunteers Ben and Alexis Depp: http://mcc.org/stories/podcasts/world-shaken

A Haitian physician friend e-mailed this morning:

"I live five minutes from a 75 bed hospital, an I just spent the last five day working there...It is difficult to work because many people in the decision process of the organization are either dead, or hurt, or have no home.
At the hospital we had about 1000 people calling for help with terrible wound. The second in the (hospital) administration is dead with her family. The administrator with a nephew is under rumble and one of the orthopedic surgeons was dragged out of his house 30 hours later. Phones were not working. We worked day and night to help

Now that we had help that come we are assessing, but the help some time is a problem because there is no place to house them since we already have friends over, there is no market open and no gas delivery. More and more the us army is taking control. From there you may decide in what area you can help."

Join us in praying that tireless workers like this will receive some respite.

this is what happens when they let two people who don't watch tv perform a news interview.

5:45am interview. in honor of the MLK Day of Service, sponsored by the Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition. featured on KWTX’s Morning Buzz. featuring PNG’s own Melody Kakunim (former World Hunger Relief CSA intern) and some random girl in overalls and braids. full of painfully awkward, deer-caught-in-the-headlight moments. enjoy.

the Buzz – part 1.

the Buzz – part 2.

the Buzz – the story.

(sorry Dr. King . . .)

Response to the Haiti Earthquake Disaster

We are thankful for the many prayers and offers of support following the Jan. 13 earthquake in Port-au-Prince. Jackson Nelson, and our World Hunger Relief – Haiti counterparts in Ferrier are shook up, but far enough away from the epicenter that they have not been greatly affected. Pastor Zenas Pierre wrote today, “We are OK in Ferrier but worry a lot about our family and friends in Port-au-Prince. We are very sad also about the people there... Pray , pray , pray please!” Virtually everyone has family and friends in the capital whom they have not heard from.

Although it is difficult to respond from a distance, we are working to enable WHR-Haiti to respond to their compatriots by transporting medical supplies from northern Haiti to the affected area around Port-au-Prince. WHRI Executive Director, Neil Rowe Miller, will travel to Haiti in early February, but in the short run we feel it is most appropriate, and more cost effective, to focus on empowering our Haitian brothers and sisters to respond quickly to the needs in their own country. If you would like to help in this effort, earmark your support for Haiti Earthquake Response.

Rebuilding Port-au-Prince will take an enormous effort by many parties. Other organizations whose efforts we endorse include:

Mennonite Central Committee (www.mcc.org) with over 50 years in Haiti will be providing relief through multiple Haitian partners. 100% of your donation goes directly to efforts in Haiti.

Habitat for Humanity (www.habitat.org) with 27 years in Haiti will be providing temporary shelter for those left homeless.

International Committee of the Red Cross (www.ICRC.org) providing emergency assistance and reconnecting families who have been separated by the disaster.

This crisis is a huge setback for a country where, in recent years, progress seemed to be emerging from a history of political and ecological crisis. The present disaster will not just demand resources to rebuild the Capital, but also will draw resources that could otherwise have been used for long-term development in the countryside. We will continue to partner with World Hunger Relief - Haiti, as we have for 30 years, working toward long-term development, especially in agriculture, and we thank you for your continued participation with us in those efforts.

If events proceed like most major disasters, six months from now the charity will wane, but the need for reconstruction will remain. In Gonaives, 110 km north of the capital, residents continue to rebuild a year and a half after the last major hurricane in Haiti. Join us in praying for the deliverance of those trapped under collapsed buildings, but also that today’s outpouring of compassion will extend to the needs of those digging out from the hopelessness of long-term, systemic poverty in Haiti.

Earthquake in Haiti

My mind, heart, and prayers are on Haiti today. All day, while tending chickens, fixing their coops, and thinning carrots, I couldn't stop thinking about the tragedy Haiti is now going through. I don't understand it, but I pray to God that His spirit and mercy might be upon all of them. I hope all at World Hunger Relief Haiti are okay and if so, that they might be able to help those in need.