Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has been hit by its worst earthquake since 1770. Its capital, Port-au-Prince and its surroundings, where almost a quarter of Haiti’s population lives has been devastated.
Thankfully, many countries and relief organizations have mobilized their resources to help this battered country. The speed of telecommunications and transportation has made relief work so much more efficient and effective. I am thankful and amazed at the speed, organizational abilities, resources and skills of these relief teams. They seem to improve with each natural catastrophe. The speed with they reacted this time seems better than after the Sichuan (China) earthquake in 2008, which seemed better than they did after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
While the quality of emergency relief work is improving rapidly, the quality of the follow-up work does not seem to have improved much. In fact, in most such cases the vast majority of resources are used in the immediate relief work. After that, the poor country is usually forgotten – until the next major catastrophe.
The majority of Haiti’s population is illiterate. I am sure that far more Haitians have died from effects of poverty than from all its earthquakes. I am thankful for all the dear people who are doing their best to help Haiti in this hour of great need. But I hope that more people will also remember to help Haitians to achieve a better life after the horrors of this earthquake are over.
I’ve personally seen the effects of natural catastrophes in Asia – typhoons, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes. But all these pale in comparison to the on-going effect of poverty and hopelessness on millions of poor Asians.
Emergency relief work is needful.
But the less glamorous, on-going work of helping a poor child to learn to read and write is just as important – if not more important!
From the 11th to the 23rd of January, I ate, slept, worked, and chatted with the children at the Goducate Children’s Home in Preyop, Cambodia. A typical day for a child in the home would go along something like this—wake up at crack of dawn to do assigned tasks or chores, have breakfast, attend school (in English) and Khmer classes, then back to doing assigned tasks in various part of… Continue reading
A nursing school that came to know about Goducate’s community work has chosen the Goducate Learning Center in Mabakan, Calaun, to be a center for practical training for their students. Hence 10 nursing students spent January training the locals in basic health awareness and doing health screenings.
Training session
Some 30 people, mostly mothers, attended… Continue reading
A fortnight ago parents of the children attending the Goducate Learning Center in Lalao, Laguna, were brought together to attend a session with their children. The session, called Mama and Me, was intended to emphasize to the parents the importance of good communication with their children and of teaching their children and supervising them while they do their homework and assignments. For the children, the intention was to impress on… Continue reading
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