More community stories: from Dèyè Gad, Venbal, and Lagwamit

The ministry tools of Community Health Evangelism (CHE) encourage people not only to come to a living faith in Jesus, but also to work out their faith on a practical level.  Just like in the United States, in Haiti it is challenging to walk as Jesus walked, to love our neighbors and give of our time and our efforts to bless them, to be people of peace and reconciliation in our communities. 

Unlike in the United States, a majority of people in Haiti struggle to meet their everyday, basic needs (in large part because of policies that keep the U.S. and other countries rich -- but we can talk about systemic injustice another time).  Many people walk long distances every day to get water for their household.  They do not have consistent water purification systems to remove the cholera and E. coli from the water.  They do not have latrines.  Our volunteers teach some very simple methods that help with these daily needs, including teaching about the Tippytap -- a simple system that allows people to wash their hands using a minimal amount of water (remember, they spent a lot of effort to get that water) and also be able to wash their hands without having to call another person over to pour the water for them.  We also teach gardening techniques and help people find seeds to help with the daily challenge of feeding a family in a very food-insecure environment.

Here are some more stories from three communities in northeastern Haiti: Venbal, Lagwamit, and Dèyè Gad.

Edouard André, committee member in Venbal

I haven't been with CHE long but the little bit that I've been involved with has really been good for me, both physically and spiritually. When they talk about washing hands after we leave the latrine, not walking barefoot. I'm not perfect at it but I'm trying. Also with trash cans, not leaving trash on the ground, raised cooking fires so that children don't get burned.

We also really have seen resolution of some problems in the neighborhood, we have started to talk together.

(c) copyright Edouard André. Used with author's permission.

Philius Fils-aimé, community health evangelist in Lagwamit

We did a survey – there were people that didn't raise up their cooking fires, but I left my house to help them to do so. We also learned how to make Tippytaps, something we'd never seen before. It doesn't cost any money, it's something you can do for free. I really applaud CHE for this.

A lot of people now live in peace because they participate in a savings program in CHE and can get advances from that. . .

On Sundays before going to church I visit five to ten houses.

There are some people that are interested in starting vegetable gardens when they see how nice my garden is.

(c) copyright Philius Fils-Aimé. Used with author's permission.

Cheristen Renellus, committee member in Dèyè Gad

I was kind of lazy – I didn't do anything at home all day. I didn't dig a hole for a toilFrançois Jeanet. But the trainers explained all of this and really set me in a good direction. I see that I've become a different person. And I want to keep moving forward so that I can change completely.

The trainers come and pray with us. We used to have division among us but now there is peace.

I have a lot of children at home – eight kids plus my wife and me makes ten. Almost everything is completely changed: we have a Tippytap, we have a raised cooking stove.

I go to church, and now I have the skills to change my life so that I am stronger and live in God's presence.

(c) copyright Cheristen Renellus. Used with author's permission.

Pierre Jacsen, vice-president of the Dèyè Gad CHE committee

Those of us in our community, we really weren't living well in a physical sense.  Those of us on the committee wanted to choose our worst problem.  We decided to work on the problems of dish racks and latrines.  We started with latrines.  One of our neighbors, he had a lot of children.  He never dug a hole for a latrine, we saw him go to the bathroom a few inches from his house.  We wanted to help him get out of that situation.  We chose a CHE [community health evangelist] to go to his house, but the man wouldn't let him talk to him.  After two or three different trips the CHE made, some of us committee members went secretly to see how the work was going.  We saw that he had started to dig a hole!

People were putting their dishes on the ground and all sorts of animals, dogs would walk over them.  We brought people information, we explained to them how to build dish racks.


(c) copyright Pierre Jacsen. Used with author's permission.