Child Development Ministry's Haiti Projects Hard Hit By Floods
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
June 7, 2004
(AgapePress) - Recent floods in Haiti have claimed the lives of at least four children who receive monthly aid through a Colorado-based ministry. Ministry workers report that more than a thousand Haitians have died as a result of extensive flooding in the country's southeast region, and countless others have been left homeless. Compassion International is a ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs that pairs caring sponsors in the U.S. and elsewhere with needy children in developing and Third World nations. According to reports from the ministry's Haiti staff, several of its projects have been affected by the flooding.
Ephraim Lindor is a communications specialist with Compassion's office in Haiti. "We are collecting information to know exactly how many how many children and families have been affected, how many homes have been destroyed," he says. "We want to know how many gardens, how many animals have been wiped way by the flood, and Compassion will address those needs through a special program that we have called the Family Disaster Program."
The ministry assists more than 32,000 children in Haiti. However, the Compassion specialist says it is impossible to reach the areas hardest hit by the deadly floods. Roads have been damaged, making it difficult to get food and medical supplies into the region, to reach homeless survivors with assistance, and to recover the bodies of those killed.
"There are a lot of people who have been wiped away by the flood," Lindor says, "and there are still bodies that are buried under the mud and under the water. In the area that has been most affected we have three projects, and in one project there are four children who have died."
The flooding occurred when the two rivers on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic burst their banks, flooding some of the low-lying areas of both countries. U.S. and Canadian troops have rushed medical supplies, drinking water, food and clothing to victims of what has been called, "One of the worst natural disasters to hit the Caribbean."
Government officials are cooperating with local and national agencies in the effort to provide housing for those whose homes have been destroyed or left uninhabitable. No one has been allowed to return to areas where the worst flooding has taken place, but new homes are being built for them on higher ground in case the flooding recurs.
Compassion offices in Haiti and the Dominican Republic are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with projects located in the affected areas. The ministry is encouraging Christians to pray for those in the region who have lost family, friends and property, and also for those displaced by the floods and living in shelters -- that they would soon be able to return to their own homes and that their needs would be met in the interim.
