Jess learns how to roll beads with Jacqueline, an artisan. It's still a little hard to believe that a just over a week ago I was sitting in Three Angels Guest House with 8 other team members from Trades of Hope. Our days were filled with time growing closer as friends, but more importantly they were spent meeting artisans and individuals at Heartline Ministries/Haitian Creations and the Apparent Project.
Honestly this wasn't my first trip to Haiti, and I don't anticipate it being my last. However, it’s been nearly 10 years since my last visit to this country and I admit my perspective was widely different now that I am a wife and mom versus a 17 year old in high school or a 22 year old college student. I saw the dilapidated homes, the garbage laden roads, and the half-clothed babes with new eyes. I kept thinking, “How is this possible?” “Why does the poverty look so similar to what I witnessed over a decade ago?” “Why hasn't this changed? How could I raise my children here or like this?” I knew an earthquake ravaged these grounds in 2010 but I quickly learned that natural disasters do not merely change a landscape or culture, but mindsets need to change as well. Haiti is a country familiar to many missionaries, many charities, and many organizations with good intentions to "help" and "heal" this land. The heart of these organizations is in the right place, but the reality I saw included nearly 80% of the population living on less than $2 per day. Many are waiting for a hand-out and not a hand-up. We have to shift our own mindsets on what charitable giving is and where it can help instead of hurt. I witnessed this when Shelley Clay, manager of Apparent Project, showed us two new kilns that were donated to AP so the artisans could now work in pottery and with different textiles. These gifts -helped create more goods-helped create new jobs-helped employ more moms and dads-helped to keep more families together.
I heard stories of lives being transformed here. Haitian Creations and the Apparent Project, two organizations Trades of Hope partners with, were shifting the paradigm on orphan care and child relinquishment. There was opportunity for hope and change for these mothers that no longer had to choose between giving up a child to an orphanage {or as a restavek*} because they didn't have food {let alone a job} to give and provide for them. These people were learning a trade and working in a dignified work environment; they are breaking a cycle of poverty and a cultural mindset that their baby will be better taken care of by an orphanage or a white person other than his/her birth mother. The workers filled both atmospheres with joy and determination. At Apparent Project quiet and sweet Jacqueline taught me how to roll a strip of cardboard from a cereal box onto a bamboo skewer, thus creating a bead that was to be glued, sealed, and strung onto string with others to be sold as a bracelet, a necklace or earrings. Jewelry made out of these beads would ultimately be providing income for her, her two boys of age 6 and 7, and the nearly 200 other Haitian women and men who have employment with Apparent Project. At Haitian Creations the artisans are able to make beads from fabric scraps in their homes which are purchased by Chandler Busby and made into signature design pieces. These are simple, lovely, and repurposed creations that restore hope and a future for families.
I have witnessed the power of our purchases making a difference. It makes me all the more honored and humbled to be a Compassion Entrepreneur as we partner with these groups and others like them around the world to support economic growth and change in impoverished nations. Compassion is clearly part of our title with Trades of Hope. It is defined as "a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering." I certainly felt compassion for the people I met in Haiti and those living there to teach and manage these organizations, but my empathy to their suffering is void unless I step up to act. I can clearly see why I am here for a time such as this, having seen these things to support the alleviation of the suffering...ti kal pa ti kal.**
*restavek-a child who has been given to another family as a servant in order to have their basic needs met.
**"Little by little" in Haitian Creole
Honestly this wasn't my first trip to Haiti, and I don't anticipate it being my last. However, it’s been nearly 10 years since my last visit to this country and I admit my perspective was widely different now that I am a wife and mom versus a 17 year old in high school or a 22 year old college student. I saw the dilapidated homes, the garbage laden roads, and the half-clothed babes with new eyes. I kept thinking, “How is this possible?” “Why does the poverty look so similar to what I witnessed over a decade ago?” “Why hasn't this changed? How could I raise my children here or like this?” I knew an earthquake ravaged these grounds in 2010 but I quickly learned that natural disasters do not merely change a landscape or culture, but mindsets need to change as well. Haiti is a country familiar to many missionaries, many charities, and many organizations with good intentions to "help" and "heal" this land. The heart of these organizations is in the right place, but the reality I saw included nearly 80% of the population living on less than $2 per day. Many are waiting for a hand-out and not a hand-up. We have to shift our own mindsets on what charitable giving is and where it can help instead of hurt. I witnessed this when Shelley Clay, manager of Apparent Project, showed us two new kilns that were donated to AP so the artisans could now work in pottery and with different textiles. These gifts -helped create more goods-helped create new jobs-helped employ more moms and dads-helped to keep more families together.
I heard stories of lives being transformed here. Haitian Creations and the Apparent Project, two organizations Trades of Hope partners with, were shifting the paradigm on orphan care and child relinquishment. There was opportunity for hope and change for these mothers that no longer had to choose between giving up a child to an orphanage {or as a restavek*} because they didn't have food {let alone a job} to give and provide for them. These people were learning a trade and working in a dignified work environment; they are breaking a cycle of poverty and a cultural mindset that their baby will be better taken care of by an orphanage or a white person other than his/her birth mother. The workers filled both atmospheres with joy and determination. At Apparent Project quiet and sweet Jacqueline taught me how to roll a strip of cardboard from a cereal box onto a bamboo skewer, thus creating a bead that was to be glued, sealed, and strung onto string with others to be sold as a bracelet, a necklace or earrings. Jewelry made out of these beads would ultimately be providing income for her, her two boys of age 6 and 7, and the nearly 200 other Haitian women and men who have employment with Apparent Project. At Haitian Creations the artisans are able to make beads from fabric scraps in their homes which are purchased by Chandler Busby and made into signature design pieces. These are simple, lovely, and repurposed creations that restore hope and a future for families.
I have witnessed the power of our purchases making a difference. It makes me all the more honored and humbled to be a Compassion Entrepreneur as we partner with these groups and others like them around the world to support economic growth and change in impoverished nations. Compassion is clearly part of our title with Trades of Hope. It is defined as "a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering." I certainly felt compassion for the people I met in Haiti and those living there to teach and manage these organizations, but my empathy to their suffering is void unless I step up to act. I can clearly see why I am here for a time such as this, having seen these things to support the alleviation of the suffering...ti kal pa ti kal.**
*restavek-a child who has been given to another family as a servant in order to have their basic needs met.
**"Little by little" in Haitian Creole
An artisan teaches Jess how to make pottery at Apparent Project.
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Jess, with other CEs, and a beautiful Haitian teacher at the Three Angels School. (a school that Gifts of Hope has supported).
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