An incredible artistic tradition, cloud forests, and unique culture are just some of lesser-known aspects of Haiti. The first Caribbean nation to attain sovereignty, Haiti's once promising future has been marred by corruption, violence, and poverty. Haiti continues to be plagued by issues of personal security, economic decline, and questionable governing.
In February 2006 a new government was democratically elected. President Preval along with a parliament can be an asset for a new beginning in Haiti. The government is collaborating with the UN peacekeeping forces to act upon the economic and social problems of Haiti. Much is to be done.
According to newspapers and people on the streets and market places, the socio-political situation has not improved yet.
In such an unstable macro context, long-term development takes on new meaning. CRWRC has been working in Haiti since 1975. In recent years, CRWRC has joined forces with other Christian Reformed Agencies in Haiti and works under the name of Sous Eswpa, which means "Source of Hope."
Despite the unstable environment of Haiti, Sous Espwa's work with partners continues to bear fruit.
Fast Facts
Population: 9,035,536 (July 2009 est.)
Area Comparative: slightly smaller than Maryland
Literacy rate: 52.9%
Life expectancy: 60.78 years years
Population below poverty line: 80% (2003 est.)
Gross Domestic Product per capita: $1,300 (2008 est.)
Religions: Roman Catholic 58%, Protestant 35% (mainly Baptist and Pentecostal), other and none 5%, Voodoo 2.1%
Languages: French (official), Creole (official)
(From the World Factbook. Click here for more information on Haiti)
Program for Training Diaconal Organizations (PWOFOD)
PWOFOD works with churches in urban Port-au-Prince neighborhoods. Through PWOFOD programs, church deacons are trained to reach out to people in the community. PWOFOD also helps churches start small-loan programs for business owners, and literacy classes for adults.
Christian Center for Integrated Development (SKDE)
SKDE focuses on communities in poverty in the rural parts of Haiti. SKDE helps people form community groups – called co-operatives. Through these co-ops, SKDE provides adult literacy classes, agricultural training, and micro-credit.
Union of Baptist Churches in Haiti (UEBH)
UEBH has a variety of ministries. CRWRC works with two of them. Through Federation of Youth Associations (FAJ), CRWRC is working on innovative and dynamic young adult ministries. This includes training on civic education, environmental awareness, HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, spiritual formation, and entrepreneurship.
CRWRC also works with the Theological Seminary of Port-au-Prince (STEP). STEP is located in a very poor area and its leadership wants to improve its ability to meet the needs of people in the community. To get started, they identified three neighborhoods where they would focus their attention. They now assist these communities in health, literacy and micro-credit.
Christian Reformed Church of Haiti(ECRH)
The CRC of Haiti is involved in youth ministries, developing church leadership, evangelism, women's programs, diaconal training, and radio broadcast. CRWRC supports the ECRH by providing advice and consultation to its deacons. Through this support, ECRH is able to better meet the physical and spiritual needs of people in the communities around their churches. ECRH is also involved in literacy, environmental awareness, and AIDS prevention.
Ministry of Christian Development (MDK)
The MDK offers a three-year program to provide practical and theological training to pastors, deacons, and church leaders for the benefit of the churches and communities they serve. MDK also works at developing and distributing simple Bible study and discipleship materials in the Creole language.
MDK was formed from three programs that had formerly been run by Christian Reformed World Missions. When MDK made the shift to functioning as its own agency, they asked CRWRC to come alongside them to offer advice and support, especially in the areas of diaconal training, AIDS prevention, and community development.
Relief Projects
After 4 hurricanes and tropical storms hit Haiti in the summer of 2008 a relief program was started to help peasant families back on their feet. In the Cabaret and Petit Goave, CRWRC provided food aid, tools, seeds, and goats to 1,200 families. This allowed these families to start planting their gardens and renew local agriculture after they lost most of their crops and small animals in the flooding.
Andries (Ad) de Blaeij (Netherlands expatriate, full-time)
Ad and his wife Coby are from the Netherlands. They came to Haiti in 1982 where Ad served with Parole & Action, the local partner of a Dutch organization, Woord & Daad. He started out by teaching agriculture in a vocational school, and later worked with peasants in small-scale agriculture projects (irrigation and soil conservation). During the nineties he gave leadership to the organization as its director. He facilitated their phase-over to national leadership, which was completed in 2002.
Ad joined CRWRC that same year, 2002, coming with 20 years of experience in training, agriculture, and management. His education includes an M.S. in tropical agriculture from Wageningen Agriculture University, and he has multi-lingual abilities in English, French, Creole, and Dutch. Ad’s primary responsibility with CRWRC is to help partner organizations with their organizational development, but also to accompany them as they get involved in various kinds of community development. One partner, PWOFOD, trains deacons within urban churches. Another, SKDE, works mainly in rural communities training them in cooperatives. Both organizations combine their basic trainings activities with literacy and micro-credit. The churches and leaders these partners work with play a key role in modeling what it means to be Christ’s hands and feet in the community.
Ad and Coby are blessed with five children and five grandchildren. Two daughters and a son are married and live in North America. Another daughter works in South Africa, and Ardjan, their youngest son, just started college in the Netherlands.
EMAIL: adeblaeij@crwrc.org