Haiti Day speech

I have just signed up to speak at Westminster on their Haiti Celebration day, and today I wrote the beginning of my speech. I would love to get your thoughts on what I should say. I don't have a conclusion, but I would love any thoughts you might have on what I've written so far.

The Trouble with Candy in Haiti

Good evening everyone and thank you all for joining us for the wonderful celebration. I am so glad to see so many of you here.

I spent this past year working at the La Croix New Testament Mission and I was able to gain a unique perspective on the activities at the mission. I had the rare opportunity to see the affect we as American volunteer have on the broader La Croix community. I saw the community before, during, and after each group of volunteers came and could get a feel for what worked well, and what we can improve upon. One of the most interesting phenomena I noticed was how giving out candy to the kids changed their impression of the work we were doing. (I don’t like this sentence, if you have any remarks I’d love to hear them)

In Haiti there is, what I call, a culture of handouts. Many of the Haitians see Americans as people who come down just to give them stuff, like an unlimited ATM machine. For many of the Haitians we know who work at the mission this culture does apply, but we have all experienced this at one time or another when we’ve left the compound and ventured outside of the mission. We’ve all had children come up to us saying “give me candy” and walk away from us when we don’t give them any. When some of the medical teams were here providing mobile clinics, some people came without any significant ailments and demanded medicine. At one mobile clinic there was almost a riot. During my last month at the mission, almost every time I would go out for an afternoon hike, I would pass someone who could bluntly say to me “give me some money” or “ban m’sa” “give me that”. This culture of handouts is not something we caused and is not the fault of the Haitian people. The Haitian people are simply reacting to one of the unfortunate of symptoms of the mismanaged aid that has been dispensed all over Haiti.

Pastor Pierre and the La Croix New Testament Mission do an excellent job fighting this culture. If Pastor Pierre finds someone charging his or her cell phone in the church, he confiscates it. When people come up to him and ask for food and he sees that they have a cell phone, he tells them to sell the cell phone before he will give them food. Pastor Pierre asks every student pay a small nominal fee to show their commitment to their schooling, and if the student cannot pay Pastor Pierre asks that they volunteer for the school, paying with “sweat equity”. I have seen Pastor Pierre fight this culture first hand and I have an incredible respect for his work. This is not an easy culture to fight, but through grit and determination the mission has been able to help so many people people come out of poverty and become self sufficient members of the community.

When we come down to volunteer at the La Croix New Testament mission, we have to think about how our actions play into this culture. Is the work we do helping people climb out of poverty and become self sufficient, or are we contributing to this culture of handouts? Is there a way that we reconfigure our activities so we can better combat this culture? Unfortunately, from what I have witnessed, giving out candy usually contributes to this culture. This is not true in all aspects, and giving out candy does not do any major permanent damage, but on many occasions I have noticed that some children were less engaged in certain activities the weeks after a group came and indiscriminately gave out candy. The children would come to certain activities expecting to get something, and when they found out there was no hand out, they left.

Giving out candy in and of itself seems innocent enough, and its overall affect on the community is minimal, but it contributes to a culture that is detrimental to Haiti’s well being. In order for people to get out of the cycle of poverty they have to be able to provide for themselves, they have to be able to make their own way and get to a place where they can provide for themselves and their families. This culture of handouts discourages people from working hard in order to provide for themselves, and encourages people to stay in poverty.

I do not want to condemn all handouts or all projects involving some type of handout. Every project is different, and overall the mission has been incredibly successful helping people pull themselves out from the cycle of poverty. To emphasize my point, I wanted to take this time to highlight a few successful projects that combat the culture of handouts and have contributed to ending the cycle of poverty.

The La Croix New Testament Mission School: The school offers children an opportunity to redirect their futures. A child born to subsistence farmers does not stand much of a chance of gaining any employable skills on is or her own, and is slated to become a subsistence farmer and continue in the cycle of poverty. The school offers these children a chance to gain skills they can use to find a gainful employment beyond the farm.

Pastor Pierre does a great job combating the culture of handouts by demanding that each child pay 500 HGD (about $12) to attend school each year. Pastor Pierre does not demand that each student pay this fee in cash and will gladly accept a student’s sweat equity, or work the student does in service to the mission. The payment can also be made over time. This ensures the parents as well as the students are committed to the education and are not just using the school as free babysitting. No child will be denied an opportunity to receive an education, but each child must commit to his or her education. Each child must work hard to advance through the school. The students are given a meal each day, which ensures that they will not go hungry, but they have to come to the school in order to receive the meal. In order for a student to gain anything from their experience in school, they have to dedicate themselves to their studies.

The Wells: Every time Pastor Pierre drills a well for a community, he asks that every member of that community pay a small monthly fee to the mission to cover the maintenance of the well. Even though this fee does not cover all of the well’s maintenance costs, it forces the people to take responsibility for their community resources. The people now have a sense of ownership over the well, and see it as a resource that will serve them indefinitely if they are able to care for it. If we just gave them a well with no strings attached, they would probably see it as a one time gift that will eventually fall into disrepair.

Pastor Pierre also appoints a member of the community to oversee the well’s care, lock up the well during certain hours so it does not suffer from over use, and will report any major problems back to Pastor Pierre. This person is a consistent presence reminding people to care for the well.