Haiti (MNN) — The International Monetary Fund is canceling
Haiti's $268 million debt and lending them an additional $60 million to assist
in reconstruction.
While this act pushes the country along in its recovery
efforts, Haiti is still trying to right itself, even a half a year after January's
earthquake.
"It's overwhelming; every way that you turn, the needs
are so great that there's never enough hours in the day or days in the week,"
said Phil Hudson of CURE International. Hudson went to Haiti back in February.
At that time, everyone, including CURE, was mostly focused
on just survival and the logistics of getting as much relief as they could, as
quickly as possible.
Today, the focus of relief and development agencies has changed,
but the country's landscape remains quite similar to January.
Hudson said nearly one and a half million people still live in
tent cities, and about 300 of the camps do not have an NGO or government looking
out for them. Though the damaged buildings have been tallied and total 185,000,
one third of these buildings must be destroyed; another third need significant
repairs; and the last third have not yet been inspected.
Gradually, temporary housing is cropping up to get people out
of tents and into more solid structures before repairs and new permanent
structures can be made.
However, before many of these refugees have another place to go, landowners
of plots containing tent cities want their land back. Yet, Hudson said, the
situation is more complex than that: "It's easy to be mad at the
landowners who don't want people there. But for many of them, their only way of
survival is through this rental property."
Fortunately, the Adventist Disaster Relief Agency (ADRA) has
stepped in to negotiate between landowners, the displaced, and the local
government. As ADRA resolves this crisis, the country is slowly taking steps in
the right direction. Hudson said, "So it seems really slow. It IS really
slow. But it's actually moving, getting better all the time."
Most of these steps and forward progress are due to the many
organizations down in Haiti who continue to work diligently even after the
media has left.
CURE is one of these organizations. Since January, they
continue to provide extensive medical aid, trauma counseling, and spiritual
support. Though both their hospitals in Haiti collapsed, they have two medical
centers up and operating, helping cure children of clubfoot. They also send
patients who need extensive and expensive surgeries to the Dominican Republic
and who would otherwise not receive the help they need.
Hudson said CURE is also dedicated to sharing Christ's
message of hope with Haitians, still coming to grips with the permanent changes
in their lives.
"The only thing keeping the country from exploding is
the hope that people have in Christ and the hope that provides for the future,"
he said.
Now CURE and the other faithful organizations need your
prayers and support as they diligently continue to serve.
"Don't forget … keep the pressure on the organizations
that are working there to continue there," Hudson said.
Click here to help CURE continue their efforts.
