Does Aid Really Get Into Haiti
With the recent earthquake and the press stating that aid isn’t getting in, I wanted to take a moment and tell you a little bit about how disasters work and how aid gets in.
Very rarely can you begin administering aid in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. It takes a few days to know the infrastructure. And because I don’t like to criticize other efforts, I will not comment on government efforts or the Red Cross as I am often asked to do. Rather, I will tell you what we do and why this works.
While I did not live in the country during Katrina, I do know that relief efforts were largely criticized. What worked was getting aid to large churches who made it available to small churches who got it to the people. Why? All of these people were connected to the community already and wanted to help those in their neighborhood. Neighbors helping neighbors, the Church being the Church as Jesus calls it to be.
The first thing Giving Children Hope is able to do is to send in hand-carried aid with small teams traveling to do rescue. We know that this aid reaches the people as it is being hand-carried.
As in any disaster the key is to already have relationships on the ground with a network that understands the situation and can really get out to the people. So when NGOs and churches get together and discuss who we have worked with in the past in Haiti and then ask those organizations on the ground how we can best help, well, it works. We listen to them – the experts on the area. We offer our experience from past disasters, but we always listen to their first hand knowledge and we respond in that manner.
Of course, first we pray. We pray for the right partners. We pray for the volunteers. We pray for the supplies. We pray for the money. We pray for the transport. We pray and pray and pray because even the most planned and equipped responses fail in disasters and we know that only through divine intervention will a relief effort be successful.
I was on a conference call late last night with several of us involved in today’s air shipment of aid which will go to the small orphanages in Haiti. I am convinced that as it states in scripture, we all have our role and not one of us organizations had all of the pieces. This is so that we do not become proud. But as the physical body is to work together, the legs, the feet, the eyes, the ears, so it is with the Body of the Church. When we come together and put everything aside to help the people, each of us doing our part, aid gets to the people who need it most. Aid gets to the networks of orphanages and churches that already exists and they get it to the people – the Church is doing what is it supposed to do, caring for the people. All of these things honor God.
So in the end we take the steps in front of us, but it really comes down to Jesus making it happen. And I am so glad because I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Does Aid Really Get Into Haiti
With the recent earthquake and the press stating that aid isn’t getting in, I wanted to take a moment and tell you a little bit about how disasters work and how aid gets in.
Very rarely can you begin administering aid in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. It takes a few days to know the infrastructure. And because I don’t like to criticize other efforts, I will not comment on government efforts or the Red Cross as I am often asked to do. Rather, I will tell you what we do and why this works.
While I did not live in the country during Katrina, I do know that relief efforts were largely criticized. What worked was getting aid to large churches who made it available to small churches who got it to the people. Why? All of these people were connected to the community already and wanted to help those in their neighborhood. Neighbors helping neighbors, the Church being the Church as Jesus calls it to be.
The first thing Giving Children Hope is able to do is to send in hand-carried aid with small teams traveling to do rescue. We know that this aid reaches the people as it is being hand-carried.
As in any disaster the key is to already have relationships on the ground with a network that understands the situation and can really get out to the people. So when NGOs and churches get together and discuss who we have worked with in the past in Haiti and then ask those organizations on the ground how we can best help, well, it works. We listen to them – the experts on the area. We offer our experience from past disasters, but we always listen to their first hand knowledge and we respond in that manner.
Of course, first we pray. We pray for the right partners. We pray for the volunteers. We pray for the supplies. We pray for the money. We pray for the transport. We pray and pray and pray because even the most planned and equipped responses fail in disasters and we know that only through divine intervention will a relief effort be successful.
I was on a conference call late last night with several of us involved in today’s air shipment of aid which will go to the small orphanages in Haiti. I am convinced that as it states in scripture, we all have our role and not one of us organizations had all of the pieces. This is so that we do not become proud. But as the physical body is to work together, the legs, the feet, the eyes, the ears, so it is with the Body of the Church. When we come together and put everything aside to help the people, each of us doing our part, aid gets to the people who need it most. Aid gets to the networks of orphanages and churches that already exists and they get it to the people – the Church is doing what is it supposed to do, caring for the people. All of these things honor God.
So in the end we take the steps in front of us, but it really comes down to Jesus making it happen. And I am so glad because I wouldn’t have it any other way!
