Haiti Update, Wednesday Oct. 12

On Monday, four teams of ten people each began work on the road from St. Etienne to Cherident.

They worked to restore half of a kilometer near Lonpre. Yesterday that team was expanded to five groups of ten people, who cleared 1.2 kilometers.

To facilitate communications, we have asked Taylor Pizzuto, who was serving with us as a communications fellow in the Dominican Republic, to move to Haiti and help us with updates, and reports. He arrived in Port au Prince today and we expect his first report later today.

Survey work continued as well. We still have not heard any news of fatalities, despite some rumors. Most of the loss of life was farther west than where we work. However, we are seeing terrible destruction, like this church in Boucan Chatte, where a couple of our village savings groups meet. The first two pictures are of the church just over a week ago, during one of our meetings, and the second two were taken last Friday.

However the real destruction has been to the food supply – crops that people were depending on are badly damaged. Yesterday, I spoke with a friend who is originally from the village of Kavanac, near Grande Colline. He said, “fortunately we didn’t have any death, but the damages are very considerable. I wonder what people in the community will eat in the following 3 months.”

I pray that we can help to answer that question. We hope to provide cash-for-work for the next several months so that people will be able to buy food. However, for that to happen we will need to raise considerably more money than we have to date.

If you want to help, our donation page is set up so you can create your own fundraiser for Haiti relief. https://plantwithpurpose.dntly.com/campaign/help-haiti#/ You can also make a direct donation.