You can make a difference

Out of any time of year in Haiti, it’s perhaps around the month of August when I’m most home sick.  One of the main reasons for this is because it’s when New Wine and Soul Survivor take place (two large Christian festivals in the UK.)  I’ve attended these festivals for years and years, and they’ve become particularly special and meaningful since we set up the Haiti Hospital Appeal.In many ways they’ve become the back bone to what’s been achieved, the foundation for another year, the fuel that keeps the momentum of this vision going.  People we’ve never met before, young and old, who’ve captured our heart for justice in Haiti and stood with us to do something about it.  We’ve met some incredible people along the way in these events, and it’s an incredible blessing and encouragement for all of us in Haiti to hear what difference is being made by these festivals  again this year.

I remember in 2007, just at the start of this appeal, standing before people saying we wanted to build a hospital.  Some thought we were crazy, others young and enthusiastic.  On one particular occasion that year at Soul Survivor we received an e-mail from Haiti with the pictures of the foundations for some of our hospital buildings just starting. 

Now, just three years on and two of those buildings are complete and functional, hospitalising victims of the earthquake with spinal injuries, with our another two units (our paediatric and surgical departments) close to completion.  Everyday recently the sites been a hub of activity with patients coming and going, electricians, plumbers, and other builders scurrying around eagerly completing this huge next step of our dream.  Little micro businesses pop up each week it seems.  People recognising the popularity of the clinic and coming to sell drinks and food to make an income for their families.  From dawn until dusk people come to collect water from our site which is accessible to all.  Mums and dads pop back and forth to the children’s home, and new faces appear each week.  Me and Reninca are currently away for a few days having a little breather.  It’s only when we have the time to step out of the daily chaos of Haiti that we have the opportunity to truly appreciate what you’ve all achieved.  Regular little habits of activity which we often take for granted suddenly take on a whole new dimension.  Little miracles unfolding everyday which we often overlook or have become numbed too.  Everyday something special happens, even when it’s not written in a blog or newsletter.

Since those first summer festivals you’ve helped us establish a community health centre which even in the last year has served thousands of patients, offered urgent food distribution to families, vaccinated huge numbers of kids, and provided life saving care for malnourished children.  Since that first rickety corrugated sheeted stand we had in the resource area, hand painted and stuck together in our back garden against all health and safety standards, you’ve developed a unique respite centre for special needs kids which now helps about 70 families.  You’ve opened one of Haiti’s first spinal units, launched a unique ambulance service, and helped fund a community outreach doctor.  You’ve transformed a small hopeless, overgrown piece of land into an oasis of love, hope and justice.  And aptly, as the momentum again gathers pace for another year at these festivals, we just received a big grant to launch a mobile maternity and paediatric unit for some of the poorest slums and communities in North Haiti (more on that to come.)  This is going to have a huge impact on some of the poorest women and children in Cap-Haitien.

So, though we can’t be on the stand this year, I wanted to encourage you all in the UK.  It’s you who’ve made this dream a reality.  It’s you who have changed and transformed lives, communities, attitudes and souls.  It’s you who have delivered people and imparted life.  When I first started going to Soul Survivor as a young teenager, I remember singing songs like History Maker, shouting out with thousands of other young people that we, ‘wanted to be History Makers.’  Thanks to your generosity, faith and determination supporting us, that’s exactly what some of you have become.  Those of you have turned your faith into action, and carried the passion of these events into your everyday lives have become history makers, to individuals, families, communities, and dare I say even a nation.  So, in summing up, this blog was really mine and Reninca’s attempt at saying a huge thank you to everyone at these festivals and all our other supporters who’ve stood with the appeal in the last few years.  It’s also a message of encouragement and a plea for you to stand with us for another year and to believe the impossible.  To dream where we’ll be this time next year.  Wherever that place will be, it’ll only be made possible by your contribution.

Have a great summer, don’t get too wet camping, and remember…you can make a difference.