Progress amid political instability in Haiti
Happy New Year! The ISCA team hopes this finds you well and you had a restful and relaxing holiday season. While Covid-19 continues to impact our development work in Haiti, we felt that it was a good time to update past and current ISCA supporters on our work there over the past year and what 2022 holds.
Many of us who have worked in Haiti have been inspired by its people. Inspired by their hope, community spirit and resilience in the face of challenges which we in Canada can only imagine. A positive outcome of the Covid crisis is that it has brought us an understanding of how challenges can bring our communities together.
We hear people that have commented throughout the pandemic that “we are all in this together.” While this is true to some extent, a better analogy might be, “we are all in the same storm, but we are all in different lifeboats.” Many here at home and overseas have much less resiliency to deal with the challenges and shocks of the last two years, and are certainly in a “different lifeboat” than most of us here in Canada.
ISCA continues to focus our development work and hopes in Haiti. We would be amiss, at this time of year, not to thank the many people who have contributed to our Hens For Haiti project, which is still moving forward in spite of the ongoing unrest.
Haiti’s most current challenges are rooted in political instability and domestic insecurity. Kidnappings of Haitians, missionaries and development actors; rapid growth of gangs; fuel and food shortages; government ruling by decree; the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse; and earthquakes and hurricanes have led to a nationwide state of fear and desperation. No one is immune from these effects.
It is hard to imagine just what life is like right now for the average Haitian. Yet despite this, there exists hope. ISCA’s project partner in Léogâne, Bryeire Theodore, remains hopeful that in the coming months construction will resume on the poultry-laying barn. Construction began just prior to the August 2021 earthquake. The foundation was near completion, and half the building materials had been ordered and paid for. However, once the earthquake happened, the need for building materials became so desperate that it was not safe to move the materials out of the hardware store compound. Theodore has been waiting to resume construction, and he is hopeful that in the coming months things will slowly improve. The demand of building supplies, coupled with COVID-19 and domestic supply chain issues, has driven up the cost of almost every possible item and commodity in Haiti, including building supplies. Because of this, ISCA’s original budget for the hen laying barn has increased.
ISCA had also been planning for an animal health mission to Haiti in May of 2022. Planning for this team visit began in late 2020 and while there was plenty of interest, and need, for this animal health mission, the current security situation coupled with Covid-19 resulted in its postponement.
ISCA would like you to consider making a small contribution this holiday season to help complete the laying hen barn project in Haiti. You can contribute through ISCA’s website at www.isca-aidc.ca. You can also help by making yourself and others aware of the ongoing challenges Haiti is currently faced with. While the Canadian government has provided some relief aid, more needs to be done to support good governance, democracy, and economic opportunity.
While we may not be in the same lifeboat as Haitians, we can certainly help in our own small way understand what life i9s currently like in Haiti.
Happy New Year to you and your loved ones and all the best in 2022!