Haiti: flooding, constitutional upheaval

Haiti (FHWL/MNN) — For close to a month, Haiti was in a leadership vacuum.

Former president Marcel Martelly completed his term and stepped down February 7 without a successor, which put the already unstable country into a constitutional crisis.

Haiti’s Parliament appointed Jocelerme Privert as an interim president for the next 120 days. Under his leadership, the new provisional government is supposed to hold Haiti’s twice-postponed presidential and partial legislative runoffs.

Privert inherits not only a country with an electoral crisis but one also facing its worst food and drought crisis in 15 years. At a time with political upheaval, the country’s second-largest city, Cap-Haitien, was hit by terrible floods.

For Haiti With Love has its headquarters in Cap Haitien. Their most recent newsletter described three days of unrelenting rains in early February that got trapped by debris and dirt in the city. With rising water, people packed up their belongings and headed for higher ground. Eva DeHart with For Haiti noted that the insecure situation was not dampened by the rains. In fact, she wrote, “For one of the first times I can recall, there were actually manifestations in the rain. God can usually dampen those ideas, but not this time.”

Coupled with those disturbances, there’s another aspect challenging For Haiti. Rice and beans make up the primary diet for Haitians. They’re dried, not canned. DeHart explains that “with wet charcoal, rain, and flooding everywhere, they can’t cook and therefore cannot eat. We are talking about some folks who don’t eat every day normally, so this becomes very serious very fast.”

For Haiti with Love helped relieve some of the suffering by distributing dry clothing to folks who had lost everything as well as increasing the food program to help those who were either street people or had lost all of their food.

DeHart also points out that these heavy damaging rains and flooding will have a long-term effect on the future food supply. The rains came at a critical time for the fruit and citrus crops; many of the gardens that were planted have likely been washed away. Until those crops can be replaced, there will be a food shortage. In short, DeHart issues this plea: “Please pray for Haiti, they need lots of help. If you can spare any extra, we could use more funding to be able to help them.”

For Haiti with Love shows God’s love by following the Lord’s commands in Matthew 25:35-40 to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, and shelter the homeless. The ministry gives freely of God’s love and gifts to help make life better for the poorest of the poor in Northern Haiti. Medical teams are welcome to serve in the For Haiti 24-hour emergency medical clinic as well as construction volunteers for building homes or village marketplaces.