February 1, 2021
Hello from Haiti!
The coronavirus pandemic has led to economic downfall even in the richest of countries. Where does that leave one of the world’s poorest nations? With complete commercial shutdown, Haiti is enduring one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in the hemisphere. It was already such a vulnerable nation as it was still recovering from the earthquake and was suffering one of the highest mortality rates from natural disasters in the world. Hence, Haiti is battling yet another storm that is a viral pandemic. In addition, many people have scabies since the beginning of 2021, while others have contagious diseases such as skin infections, and medicines are very rare even in our clinic to cure these people.
As you all know, Haiti has a lack of clean water and sanitation, scarce health care resources, extreme poverty, food insecurity, low educational attainment, political division, and a strong presence of gang violence which has crippled the nation. On top of that, I just received word from Pastor Dennis Joseph, the current pastor at the village of Dolval, that the school has been closed since the arrival of COVID-19 last year.
As you can see in the picture, just before Christmas last year, I sent some dry food for the church to give away to the church members because the whole village is struggled to live daily. Pastor Dennis informs us that the pandemic impacted the Haitian community more than people realize due to the proximity of the Dominical Republic border. People in the area often travel back and forth across the border for work. In so doing, they are bringing back the disease because the pandemic is even worse in the Dominican Republic.
All of this has had such an economic impact that it caused the school to close. People have been unable to pay their tuition fees and the school cannot operate. Pastor Dennis is asking for your support, so the school can reopen in Dolval. What is most needed is people who would be willing to support the school on a regular basis. We know life is hard everywhere since COVID-19, but we are still driven to spread God’s love, and we encourage your support and ask you to please keep Haiti and Dolval in your prayers during this time. If you’re doing just fine... Remember this: "Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” 2 Corinthians 9:6 [NIV]
