To celebrate Compassion Haiti’s 40th anniversary of releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name, Ephraim Lindor, field communications supervisor for Compassion Haiti, discusses the difference you’ve helped make in his country.

“Compassion Haiti is a reference and a light house for the Haitian population.” — Guilbaud Saint-Cyr, country director for Compassion Haiti

During the 40 years of our ministry in Haiti, thousands of young people have committed themselves to Christ. Many of those young men and women have won their parents and many other people from their communities to Christ by their commitments and Christian attitudes.

Compassion started its ministry in Haiti in 1968. At that time, we worked directly through the missionaries established in the country while maintaining no country office or local staff. But through the years, our structure has changed as more and more children have been registered in our programs.

Compassion Haiti has grown through the years in all levels.

• From 25 employees in the 1990s, it has now reached 69 staff.
• God has blessed the ministry with a new building adjacent to the old one. That new rented building accommodates program implementation. The office has rooms for more years of fast growth.
• In order to better serve the projects and partners, Compassion Haiti has hired 12 field-based partnership facilitators from fiscal year 2007 up to now. The presence of the partnership facilitators in the field contributes a great deal to child development center growth and empowerment improvement.

Compassion trains and equips local evangelical church partners to administer a broad range of child development activities from child survival to child sponsorship and leadership development.

Our Leadership Development Program (LDP), launched during the past 12 years, is having incredible effects on the Haitian society.

• 72 percent of our graduates are employed in key administrative positions both in the public and private sectors, in comparison to the country-level employment statistics of 20 percent

Among those is Abel, a former LDP student, who grew up in a slum but doesn’t live in one anymore. Abel is 27 years old and a university graduate in business management. Among the five children in his family, Abel is the only who has a university degree. The encounter of Abel with Compassion has changed his and his family life for ever.

“Like many other young men, I would probably be a gang member if it were not for the Compassion program in the community. People treat me with much respect, and they are also proud of me. I want to take advantage of that opportunity to make an impact in the community.”

The level of education provided by Compassion has made a great difference in the academic performance in the whole country:

The table below shows a comparison between national and sponsored children success rate in state exams.

The children whose lives are being transformed through this ministry will become the future leaders of Haiti to, in turn, transform our country.

The 40 years of Compassion in Haiti have been a success — but not without challenges.

“My greatest satisfaction is the fact that Compassion has given me the opportunity to see some of my dreams accomplished. I can see the outcomes of my initiatives in the lives of children, communities and churches as I am surrounded by qualified and committed staff to bring about the changes.” - Guilbaud Saint-Cyr, country director for Compassion Haiti

Perspectives for the 10 years to come

Guilbaud intends to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Compassion in 2018 with some major accomplishments:

• increasing our development programs from 227 to 300
• facilitating the growth of our Leadership Development Program from 80 students to 200
• bringing total staff to 100
• 100 percent of our children will be vaccinated
• 50 percent of our child development programs will have access to potable water

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Remember when I told you about my new job? I’ve been doing it for several months now and so I feel like I’ve gotten a pretty good grip on things. Well … as good a grip as one can have on a job that depends entirely on world events. And oh my word, the world has been eventful lately, hasn’t it?

One of the first things I do each day when I get to work is open up six world news websites. I browse each site for headlines about our 24 field countries to get an idea of what kind of crises I might be reporting that week.

When I’m reading through the headlines, I sometimes get the surreal feeling that I’m getting a tiny glimpse into God’s view of this world. For a few moments, my perspective shifts from my self-centered, ego-centric worldview to one where we are simply a severely broken and hurting creation in desperate need of redemption.

Right now in the United States, we are practically smothered with political ads and news reports about the faltering economy, but really these “issues” pale in comparison to what’s going on in the rest of the world.

Besides the global food crisis (which you’ve probably heard about by now) here’s an idea of what our staff and children on the other side of the globe are currently facing:

• Thailand and Bolivia are both dealing with political unrest and violent protests of the current government.
• Haiti and the Dominican Republic are struggling to recover from four successive hurricanes.
• The Philippines has faced violent political conflict.
• India is in the midst of serious and deadly religious conflicts between Hindus and Christians.
• Burkina Faso has recently had heavy rains and flooding throughout the country.
• Bangladesh is dealing with continual flooding.

I’m sure there will be more bullet points to add tomorrow. It’s difficult to read the same kinds of headlines day after day, reporting over and over the non-stop fighting, corruption and scandal happening in every corner of the globe. But more than depressing me, it makes me angry. I know who is ultimately responsible for the evil in this world, and I hate him. But I also know it will end someday, and I know how it will end.

And this is what keeps me going.

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As you read this post, keep in mind what Haiti has recently experienced: Tropical Storm Fay, Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm Hanna. Plus, Hurricane Ike is bringing more misery to the island as it moves past Haiti this weekend.

Government officials have declared a state of emergency and appealed to the international community for help because of the devastation the first three storms have wreaked.

And there are still two months left in the 2008 hurricane season.

Donate to the Haiti Hurricane Response Fund to help with Haiti’s substantial relief and recovery efforts.

I thought I saw devastation and despair in this year’s Iowa floods. And I did. But it got me thinking, “What is life like for a Compassion child living in a country affected by regular flooding?”

Have you ever considered how a child in a developing nation is affected by a natural disaster?

Let me tell you a little bit about flooding in one of our Compassion countries — Bangladesh.

• Thirty to seventy percent of the country floods each year due to monsoon rains and tropical storms. (1)
• The number one cause of death of children in Bangladesh is drowning. During heavy flooding, parents tie small children to rooftops with ropes or chains to keep them from slipping into the water while they go in search of food and aid. (2) (3)
• Farmers can easily lose an entire year’s income in a single flood. Two-thirds of Bangladeshis rely directly or indirectly on rice farming for their living. When there are no rice crops, there is no living. (4) (5)
• Families facing starvation often turn to money lenders called Mohajon for loans. The families are charged interest rates of up to 200 percent per year. When they cannot repay the loan, they lose the remainder of their possessions or are forced to work for free. Some families sell their children in exchange for food or money. (6) (7)
• Floodwater mixes with sewage that seeps out of latrines or sewers. With no other potable water, families have no choice but to use this water for drinking and boiling vegetables. Children in particular are at risk for diarrhea, respiratory diseases, typhoid and scabies. Children who are fortunate enough to be taken to a clinic may recover only to be sent back to the same conditions. Most don’t recover at all. (8) (9)

As a Compassion sponsor, I see a multitude of ways that a Compassion child development center could step in and save a family during such a crisis. Each center is a literal safety net for a child in times of flooding.

And think of what a family gift from a sponsor can do!

A Bangladeshi family could invest in flood-resistant rice, floating gardens, flood-resistant housing – all recent innovations denied to Bangladeshis living in poverty. A generous family gift could make a life-changing, life-saving purchase possible.

If you are thinking of sponsoring another child, (and I hope you are!), please take a look at the children of Bangladesh or other countries that face flooding each and every year.

Also, I would SO appreciate comments from those of you who have been to countries where flooding regularly occurs (e.g., Haiti, Mexico, Indonesia, Honduras and of course, Bangladesh) and seen the aftermath firsthand.

Perhaps you took a sponsor tour and can speak to the work Compassion is doing. Or perhaps you have sponsored children who have shared their experiences with you.

You are the mouthpiece for these people. Please speak up and tell us what you know.

How many disasters occur each year that we never hear about — that fly under our radar here in the U.S.?

Help educate us.

Lisa

(more…)

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Thank you to all of you who submitted questions for Ephraim, my esteemed colleague in Haiti! As you all were curious cats and asked more than 10 questions, I picked 10 that I thought were representative of all the questions.

As I mentioned before, Ephraim has got a lot of perseverance. Check out the Compassion Haiti staff photo from 15 years ago. He’s one of only two staff members still remaining.  

1. What are the great things about Haiti that you want us to know about? Tell us something special about the people of your country, like a particular strength of them. (Lisa Miles) 

Haiti is economically considered one of the poorest countries of this hemisphere. However, this country is also unique in its natural and culturally diverse resources.

The Haitian is born with the ability to make the most beautiful artwork in the world. No matter the social class he is issued, the Haitian is capable to transform the simplest raw materials into the most enjoyable items. The Haitian paintings are of the greatest imagination, along with our sculpture in wood, steel, or stone.

Although most of its natural resources are unexploited, Haiti is one of the countries with the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean.

Besides all of its artistic ability, most of the educated Haitians speak up to four languages: Creole (native language), French (official), English, and Spanish with proficiency. 

2. I would love to hear your favorite story of children in your programs whose lives were really turned around by being part of Compassion. (Amy)

There are so many success stories that I could share but there this one that is unique to me. It is about a boy named Zaccalot. (more…)

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Okay, everyone. Limber up those fingers. It’s time for the next round of Ask the Field. It’s time for you to ask questions of two of my fabulous coworkers, Ephraim Lindor of Haiti and Roberto Medrano of El Salvador.

Ephraim has been working with Compassion Haiti for 22 years. (Talk about perseverance!)

He first worked for Compassion as a translator, and he is now the field communications supervisor for Haiti. His daily work includes interviewing Compassion beneficiaries and writing stories about their success.

Ephraim is always smiling, and he loves watermelon. Besides all the work he does for Compassion, he’s a pastor at his local church, a loving father of a 21-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy, and a loving husband of 23 years.

Roberto has been working with Compassion El Salvador for 6 years. He first worked for Compassion as field communications specialist and now he is the communications and tours specialist for Central America and the Caribbean, which means he is in charge of training and supporting all Compassion countries in that region for communications and tours. (He’s a busy guy!)

Roberto is the youth pastor of his church, and although he is just 30 years old, he has been preaching for more than 26 years. He was a child preacher, and that is one of the reasons why he loves Compassion’s ministry — he has witnessed first hand the impact of God’s Word when you are a child. He is crazily in love with his beautiful wife, Yolanda, an ORU graduate that fully supports him in working on behalf of children.

So now it’s your turn to ask away! You know the drill by now — I’ll choose 10 of your questions for them to answer.

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Early in the morning of June 11, after months of heavy precipitation, the Cedar River poured into the streets of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The water quickly swallowed the city.

• 1,300 city blocks disappeared.
• 24,000 people were evacuated.
• 83 of Iowa’s 99 counties were declared disaster areas.
• Nearly every river in Iowa flooded that week.

As I watched the floodwaters rise, my 4-year-old turned to me and said, “Mama, I think we need to get on the ark!” Had there been an ark in the vicinity, I may very well have gotten on it.

In the end, we Iowans are going to be just fine. The prayers of the nation have been with us, and we thank everyone for that. Help has arrived from all corners — from churches to government agencies. So many people have mobilized to get us back on our feet. We know it will be a slow process but, as a community whose roots are in farming, we have learned to be patient — patient with the growth of our crops, patient with the regrowth of our city.

But the impact of the floods on the world community is yet to come.

Iowa is the number one producer of corn and soybeans in the United States. It is estimated that 1.3 million acres of corn and 2 million acres of soybeans — roughly 16 percent of our grain crops were destroyed. (1) And this disaster is just one of many that decimated global crops in 2008.

So how does this impact the global food supply? In a nutshell, it means higher prices and a shrinking supply of food.

For countries in the developing world, this is a cataclysmic combination. In regions where people are already spending 80 percent of their salaries on food, the prices are going to get higher.

If 100 percent of a family’s income goes toward food, how then do they afford clothing, shelter, medical care and an education for their children?

And when the price of food eclipses what a family is able to earn, who in the family goes without? Parents, grandparents, children? How does one make such a decision?

As Thornton Wilder, the author of Our Town, once said: “I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for….”

We must stand together in the fight against poverty and hunger.

If you have a heart for flood victims, consider sponsoring a child in Haiti, Mexico, Bangladesh or India. These are countries that experience regular flooding, often with much loss of life, and an infrastructure that makes it difficult for families to recover.

You may also consider a donation to the Disaster Relief Fund. In the event of a natural disaster, Compassion provides food, blankets, shelter and replacement belongings to children and their families.

Please do what you can.

Lisa

(1) Iowa State Farm Bureau

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In response to the global food crisis, Compassion International has begun interventions for the countries we serve.

Last week we received this photo from Haiti, where they have begun distributing food kits for temporary relief to the families who have been hardest hit. These parents are waiting in line to receive their food kit vouchers from the Compassion Haiti staff.

Seeing this photo affected me. Looking at the parents, I was struck by how they look so, forgive me, normal. I know how wretchedly condescending that sounds. No matter how much we intellectually agree that the people in poverty are no different from us, there’s still this little piece of our psyches that can have an us/them mindset.

The problem with this is the disconnect that happens. When we think of “the poor,” we get this hazy picture in our mind of children with bloated bellies and flies in their eyes. And although this picture in our minds is thoroughly pitiable, it’s utterly unrelatable. We don’t think of them as we would our aunts or neighbors or nephews. We think of them as people we feel bad for, even very bad for, but can’t really understand or relate to. We disconnect. An iron wall slams down in our minds separating us from them.

And so it can become easy to glaze our eyes over, move on, and forget. We don’t connect with those individuals suffering as our fellow humans, but as a big crowd of foreigners somewhere else unknown and unseen.

Look at that woman in the yellow dress. Look at the dignity in her face. Look at that man in the blue shirt. His eyes seem to look right through me. I don’t think any amount of intellectual striving will get me to the point where I view the people suffering around the world as I ought. But rather, we need God’s Holy Spirit to transform our hearts and minds, to help us to view each individual the way He views them.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless.” —Matthew 9:36, NIV

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If you’re new here, our CEO, Wess Stafford, didn’t write this post, but he did answer the question. We recorded his answer and transcribed it for your reading pleasure.

Read all the posts in the Wess Speaks series.

• What are the first names of the children you sponsor, and what countries? Any special stories you like to tell about them? (Juli Jarvis)

1. Emmanuel (India)
2. Rene (Haiti)
3. Diego (Ecuador)
4. Laura (Bolivia)
5. Alba (Ecuador)
6. Mercedes (Ecuador)
7. Yolanda (Ecuador)
8. Veronica (Bolivia)
9. Sisay (Ethiopia)
10. Fatuma (Uganda)
11. Viola (Uganda)
12. Melecio (Bolivia)
13. Peter (Tanzania)
14. Eliana (Ecuador)
15. azmin (Ecuador)
16. Soinkan (Kenya)
17. Edithe (Burkina Faso)

I know these kids because if you come to our house, you’ll see a big poster next to our breakfast nook with these kids and their progressive pictures over the years. I have visited them all. These kids have been in our lives. About half of them have graduated from the program now, but they are still in my prayers. Some of them I am still in contact with.

Emmanuel now owns his own bicycle business. Rene is a pastor. Mercedes is an architect. Yolanda is the health worker in the Compassion project in Otavalo. Sisay just graduated from the program.

I would love to be a part of the Leadership Development Program. The minute one of our kids qualifies for the program, we’ll do that.

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We recently gave you the opportunity ask our president, Wess Stafford, any questions you like. We’re publishing his transcribed answers one day at a time. Here’s the background skinny.

• How do you balance your priorities between a “job” that is way more than a job and your family? (Amar Rama)
• I’d love to hear how Wess navigates the two worlds he inhabits. On one hand, he lives in a world of poverty and need. On the other, he lives in … well, America. (Kelly @ Love Well)
• I would like to know how you think your daughters were shaped and influenced by growing up in the midst of Compassion’s ministry. How did you balance giving them the joys of a carefree childhood while at the same time exposing them to the needs of the world in order to grow in them a heart for those living in poverty? (Jennie Thengvall)

It has been tough to go back and forth between these two worlds. My wife Donna and I determined we would give our lives in ministry to the poor but we promised each other that it would never come at the expense of our own children. That was a commitment that we made –- we would work very hard on behalf of the children of the world but not at the expense of our own. And so I have worked far harder at my role as father than I have even as Compassion’s president.

God gave me two daughters, Jenny and Katie. When my children were young and I was traveling, they knew that I would always rather be home with them more than with anybody else, no matter where I was in the world. So I sent postcards. (It was before e-mail.) I would call my children the last minute before I climbed on a plane to leave America and the first minute I was back.

In the evenings when I was home, I never missed a chance to put my daughters to bed. I thought bedtime was about the most teachable, precious moment I had. I taught my girls hymns every night. I told them a story every night of growing up in Africa. I was determined not to leave my girls behind. I didn’t want them to resent the poor. I didn’t want them to resent Compassion. I wanted them to know that this was their ministry, too.

I prayed with my daughters. One of the reasons they love Compassion is because it’s been a part of their lives since they were 2 and 3 years old. From the time my little girls could lisp a prayer, they prayed for the children that we sponsored.

I honored their mother. I spoke so well of their mother –- about what a hero she was –- doing so much in the house, which allowed me to travel overseas and not worry about my own home. Every three years I took them somewhere with me to see the work. Haiti, Brazil, Ecuador, Africa … I built it into their lives. The best proof is that they now sponsor kids with their own money.

In my book Too Small To Ignore there is a whole chapter on how we blended those two worlds. (By the way, all of the royalties from the book go straight to Compassion.)

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We recently gave you the opportunity to ask our President, Wess Stafford, any questions you like. You didn’t disappoint. We got a variety of questions ranging from serious to silly.

Wess is a fascinating storyteller. We wanted you to feel as if he were answering your questions in person. So we sat down with him, recorded the interview and transcribed his answers word for word.

Instead of choosing 10, he wanted to answer them all. (We combined some of the similar questions.) Because of the length of his answers, we’ll answer one question per day.

• How did you get involved with Compassion International? (Monica @ Paper Bridges)
• What was your daily life in Haiti like? (Laurel Wreath)

My “unofficial” start with Compassion was probably when I was 5 years old, clear out in a little African village where my heart was being shaped and my respect for the poor was being formed.

My first “official” job was 31 years ago in Haiti, where I was assigned as a field worker. I was young, 27 years old, and it was wonderful. I can remember riding along in a truck thinking, “They pay me. They actually pay me to do this!” I stayed in little huts in the villages. I ate their food. I slept on the floor. It took me back to my boyhood in Africa. Most Haitians are descendents of West Africa so I was right at home.

But my biggest job in those days was sitting down and talking with leaders of poverty-stricken communities — listening to their hurts, dreams and hopes. I would write up a project, get funding for it, help that community implement that program, evaluate it and then move on to the next one. We built roads to open up isolated communities. We built hospitals and clinics. We did reforestation of mountainsides. I put in water systems, wells and captured springs and water treatment. We did a lot of relief during famine times.

At that time I represented six relief and development agencies -– Compassion was just one of six. The longer I worked in Haiti, the more I listened to the poor and the more I understood their hearts and what they would do if they had financial resources. The more I listened to them, the more they talked about children. The poor would say to me, “If you want to help me, help my child. Because that’s where my hope is, that’s where my dreams are and that’s where my resources go.”

Well I heard that enough from the extreme poor –- and Haiti isn’t just poor, it’s extremely poor –- that I realized I was not going to give my life to serving the poor unless I was able to do what the poor would do if they had financial resources. And where their money goes is to their children. So among the six agencies I worked for, it was Compassion International that honed in on children. The more I studied Compassion’s mission and what was truly important to the poor, the more strategic sense this ministry made.

After I left Haiti. I got a doctorate in non-formal education. And I have been with Compassion ever since. I’ve had just about every job in the place and have now served for 15 years as president.

So my time with Compassion goes back 31 years. And pretty much everything I need to know to lead this ministry came from the poor themselves, either in my little village in Africa or in Haiti.

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