Haiti Schools, Businesses Get Help

This is the third in a series series of articles that looks at how the Christian Reformed Church and its partners are helping to rebuild and restore Haiti following the devastating earthquake in January.

July 22, 2010 -- Sixty thousand Haitian children counted on school each day to give them hope for a better future in Haiti.

At the same time, thousands of workers depended on their jobs, often low-paying, to help them feed and house their families.

But in the short time that it took for the 7.0 on the Richter-scale earthquake to occur in January, 87 percent of the schools connected with the “Consortium for the Reinforcement of Christian Education” (CRECH), a Haitian ministry affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church, were damaged or destroyed. Hundreds of businesses were destroyed or damaged, causing billions of dollars of loss to the already fragile economy. More than 200,000 people were killed.

Families, children, more than 200 schools and some 1,500 teachers were impacted by the quake.

About 90 percent of the schools in Haiti are run by churches, non-profit organizations or non-governmental entities.

Slowly, though, schools have re-opened, although most have opened under tarps or in tents. Schools buildings still need to be rebuilt. School children have been provided with basic education materials and engineers are assessing how to best rebuild the CRECH-affiliated schools.

Christian Reformed World Missions is doing what it can with the resources it has to continue in helping schools affiliated with CRECH.

Meanwhile, the Worldwide Christian Schools -- a non-denominational organization recommended for support by the CRC -- is responding to this need to bring restoration and hope to Haiti by helping to get students back in school through donations of funds for tuition, tarps and tents.

Donations are also needed to help fund the removal of rubble from schools. Building new buildings to house schools is also a need.

To help raise funds, WWCS has started the Five Gallon Challenge, which was inspired by Friendship Chapel in Jenison, Mich., to help fund the rebuilding of Christian schools in Haiti.

The Five Gallon Challenge is simple: find a bucket, fill it with donations, give that donation through WWCS and be a part of this massive rebuilding project. Learn morehere.

On the business front, Partners Worldwide -- a denominationally-related agency approved for support by the CRC -- is at work with the goal of creating jobs as well as fighting poverty in Haiti in the wake of the quake.

In Haiti, Partners works with Haitian Partners for Christian Development, a group of about 50 Christian business and professional people in Port-au-Prince committed to supporting each other and developing Christian business groups in cities all over Haiti.

The business people are involved in a range of businesses, big and small, many of which were hit hard by the earthquake, but are in the process of re-opening or have already re-opened.

“This mutual support is crucial since living in Haiti and being in business is especially difficult,” says Partners press material.

In response to the earthquake, Partners has developed The Haiti Business Recovery Initiative, which includes a 2010-2012 strategic plan involving:

• Phase I: Restructuring of businesses and assistance to the Haitian business network to improve the quality of operations.
• Phase II: Expanding the business network -- especially of the emerging private business sector -- by recruiting and enabling more business people to grow through training, mentoring, having access to capital, and learning to advocate for appropriate trade policies.
• Phase III: Targeting massive business development—creating and promoting free trade zones that employ thousands of people and open up opportunities for Haitian small and large businesses to meet the demand for goods and services in Caribbean and South American countries.

Already Partners has helped some businesses get back in operation. For instance, Laboratoires Farmatri, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company, employed 82 staff in Port-au-Prince prior to the January 12 earthquake.

The staff was reduced to 24 for the initial three months following the earthquake due to damage in the factory and of equipment. Partners helped by connecting with local people and others who could help rebuild the company.

In addition, it helped obtain the donation of an important piece of equipment from Hope College in Grand Rapids, Mich.

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