July 13, 2024
As I am writing this update on the food situation in
La Gonave, I received this update on Gold Smith who I wrote about in the last
Haiti update. Gold has been to a
hospital on the mainland in a city named St. Marc. He arrived there on May 20, where he was to
be for the next three months for treatment.
I just heard on July 8, 2024, that Gold was at the church service in Nan
Sema on July 7th. The news is
that the drug therapy did not work so Gold is to return soon to the St. Marc hospital
for surgery. Jonas will write to ‘keep
us up to date’ on Gold’s condition.
In this newsletter, I would like to write a little about the food situation in Haiti. While there are roughly 1,547 miles between Mattituck and Port au Prince, Haiti (according to Google Maps data), the reality of the situation is in all our living rooms. That is one of the blessings, and curses, of television, the internet, and telephone communications. There can be a sense of helplessness when thinking about the size of the problem. However, over the past almost 4 decades, we at MPC have been able to provide relief, aid, and hope to thousands of people in this country. The topic of food scarcity, along with its cost, has been a constant concern for the Haiti Task Force members for as long as MPC has been working with our brothers and sisters in that country. We have never been able to reach a balance between the availability and the cost of food such that no family that we serve on La Gonave goes hungry. Two quick stories illustrate what MPC travelers have observed of the situation: 1. A very close friend, a man (Suplice) with a wife and three children shared that his first priority was to provide food for his family. With what meager money he could earn, he did that. He provided at least one meal a day. The problem was it meant that he often had nothing left for himself to eat. Truly, there was at least one day a week when he would not eat. This was in about 1995. 2. A second situation came up in 2010. I was handing out some items, collected from members of MPC, to some people (mostly children) in La Gonave after the earthquake of 2010. A young girl, about 12 years old helped me, she saw I was unable to handle the crowd. She stepped up and brought some order to what could have been an overwhelming mess. After we had given out the clothing, we returned to our team’s “home” in Anse a Galets, and I offered her a glass of water. It was about 4 in the afternoon. Much to my surprise, she declined the offer. I asked her why; it was a typical hot, dry afternoon. She explained that on days when she had no food to eat, water would give her a bad headache. Trust me, that is not a feeling that I am at all familiar with. I did find some food and drink for her. Now, I fast forward to April 7, 2024. The situation has deteriorated to a critical level. I received a letter from Jonas explaining the severity of the food shortage in Nan Sema.
Jonas wrote that upon arriving in Nan Sema that Sunday morning for service, he saw “people are suffering, they (cannot) afford to buy food they become weak. Many of them don’t come to church because they are hungry.” The information from Pastor Agones is the same, people are starving on the island. Agones wrote saying that people even walking on the roads ‘fall to the ground because they are so hungry.’ On April 15, 2024, the HTF was able to send, from contributions, $1,800 to Jonas and Agones. Jonas was able to purchase 920 pounds of rice and gave 10 pounds of rice to 92 different families in Nan Sema, Tesech, Lapalmis, and Anse a Galets. Agones shared on June 13, 2024, that in Betoti he was able to provide food for 25 families from our donation.
Pictured to the left are some of the grateful people. To the right is Sylvest with a friend measuring out the rice. To the lower left is Suplice calling the names of congregants to come and take their portion of rice.We all know that this relief is good for a short time. The rice supplied quickly is eaten. However, I have no doubt that lives have been saved and from what I have learned from many trips to La Gonave, Haiti, where there is life, hope still lives on.
As always, we ask that you pray for the nation
of Haiti. Also, should you desire to be
a part of this mission program, any questions and contributions can be directed
to the Mattituck Presbyterian Church, Attention: Haiti Task Force.
Tom Christianson for the MPC Haiti Task Force
Haiti Task Force - Mattituck Presbyterian Church
Since 1985, the Mattituck Presbyterian Church, in Mattituck, NY, has had a continuous and effective mission outreach in the country of Haiti. Our initial contact was with an organization named Service Christian of Haiti. Over the years our primary focus has changed to helping families on the Island of La Gonave, an island west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. We now find ourselves needing to ask for assistance. The need is to get two solar panel systems with battery backup power back in working condition. These systems are operated by two churches we helped establish, one in the village of Nan Sema and the other in Betoti. These systems are needed to provide electrical power that drives the pumps that supply water to the children in the schools (left are some of the students in Betoti, and to the right are some of the students of NanSema), and water for the homes within walking distance of the wells (up to 4 miles away).
In Nan Sema, the solar system will also give the necessary power to operate a small refrigerator in their medical clinic. Each system has a diesel-powered generator. However, with the gang activities tying up most businesses and travel on the mainland, along with the high rate of inflation, neither church can afford the high cost of fuel. To the left and right you can see a power panel and bank of batteries. The batteries are too old to hold
a charge and some solar panels need to be replaced for the systems to work again. We have a Haitian contractor willing to do the work once we have the funds. To the left shows a medical team from Anse a Galets that visits the remote clinic in NanSema.
With this in mind, the Haiti Task Force of the Mattituck Presbyterian Church is asking you to prayerfully consider helping us raise the funds to make these important systems operational again. The repair cost for the two systems was estimated to be $13,000. All funds received will go directly towards these repairs.