Haiti (MNN) — Hurricane season is here, and for those in
Haiti, it's a ghastly reminder of the devastation of last season.
In 2009, nearly 800 people died, and multiple hurricane strikes and
torrential rains affected 1 million others. Mud clogged roadways and destroyed
much of Haiti's harvest.
International assistance has been coming in for emergency
food stockpiles, which has reached nearly 142,000 tons. However, getting that food cleared through customs and off the docks is a great challenge.
Co-founder of For Haiti with Love Eva DeHart says, "The port situation in Cap Haitien is
almost impossible to deal with, so we need somebody reliable enough to bring it through customs, to know that it will get to us."
The ministry received two shipping containers of food donations. In getting the food from the U.S. to the
ministry headquarters in Cap Haitien, DeHart says that would typically mean arranging
trucking to pick up the donation from the source in Minnesota, trucking it to a
port city in Florida, then shipping it through their shipping partner. That arrangement worked well for some years,
until the shipping company closed its doors.
DeHart scrambled to find another company to handle the cargo,
and one volunteered to take them on, which she says would have saved them a
lot of money. DeHart shared her
excitement with For Haiti's donors last month, only to receive word this week that the company has changed its mind.
DeHart is starting over, which is bad news for their
ministry. "I can't reassure anybody
that there is any food in the chain on its way down. So the food we currently have on hand is all we have to deal with now until we get these problems
solved. When the food is gone, it's
gone."
For Haiti with Love needs financial help to transport the food donations they have from the warehouse to the ministry before it spoils, or before the ministry warehouse runs out of supplies.
Their team acts as the hands and feet of Christ in Haiti, so pray
for quick resolution. "We can show
that God not only is concerned about souls, but also about a person's daily
being." Click here if you can help.
