By Catriona Todd
Photography by Mike Chepurin
The desperation and hopelessness of daily life in Haiti is not something that can be fully grasped by a 30-second clip on the nightly news. Even before the earthquake five years ago, citizens of the impoverished nation struggled to survive. Americans are a very empathetic people, but as Vern Annis, founder of Thirsty Souls Ministries in Hanover, Pa., says, “Our poorest of the poor live better than your average Haitian.”
Jacques Merine, founder of Source of Life Ministries and director of a safe house for street children in Haiti, couldn’t agree more. He grew up in Haiti and wishes that all Americans would have the opportunity to see the Haitian life, to fully grasp why his mission is so important. “What [Haitians] have to do day to day to feed their families—it is just unreal,” he says.
Although Merine was blessed with a loving family and parents who saw the value of educating their four children, they were poor and hungry. His mother would rise early on school days and go to the market to try to earn 20 cents to give each child five pennies to buy lunch. Merine and his siblings would then walk four hours round-trip to and from the nearest school their parents could afford. They were never sure if they would have the opportunity to eat an evening meal when they got home.
For Haitians who have left the country, it is unusual to return except to visit family; however, most emigrants do send financial aid back to those left behind. Merine’s younger brother Jean never visited the U.S., but he was able to excel in his education thanks to funds sent to him by his older siblings. He acquired degrees in theology and journalism and always sought to further his education. At the time of his death, he was acing a course in English.
Four years after arriving in the U.S., Jacques traveled back to Haiti in 1989 to marry his fiancée, Marie. He continued traveling to Haiti once each year, and in 1992, he was able to take one week’s vacation to visit his wife as she neared the end of her first pregnancy. The very night he was to return to the U.S., Carson was born. Fathers do not attend the birth in Haitian hospitals, but Jacques was able to see his son through the nursery window before he left the country.
As he spent the next several years seeking approval to bring his wife and child to the U.S., Jacques continued visiting them one week each year. Naturally, he missed many of his son’s developmental milestones, but just before he turned 4, they were reunited in Gettysburg. Their family was completed by the birth of their daughter, Tasha, who attends Gettysburg Middle School. Carson is a graduate of Gettysburg High School and will graduate from Bloomsburg University in May with hopes of becoming a lawyer.
Although he always dreamed of the day he could leave Haiti behind for good, Jacques heeded the call to aid street children in Port au Prince. “Once you have an orphanage [in Haiti], you’re in the business of adoption, a cost of $30,000 for a child,” Jacques says. “This is not what Source of Life Ministries is about, so that’s why I call it a safe home.”
Building a Better Future for Haiti’s Children
The process for acquiring new children is very time consuming. “It is very, very tricky,” Jacques says. Although the Haitian government doesn’t have any programs in place to care for orphaned or abandoned children, it does care very much that a ministry has proof of how it acquired each specific child. Acquisition of children by the safe home has been slowed not only by the death of Jean, but also by challenges that continue to extend from the earthquake five years ago.
Most construction in Haiti is performed by hand, and workers are in high demand as the country continues to recover. As such, building the new home has been an arduous and extremely expensive process. Two buildings that house the dormitories, kitchen, and dining facilities were raised first, with plans for expansion later.
The current and most urgent task at hand is completing a safety wall around the property. Although the new location is far less dangerous than the city, it is important to secure the property against squatters, thieves, or other malicious persons. While construction materials for buildings have changed to avoid such devastation from future natural disasters, the safety wall is being constructed of handmade concrete blocks. It is 8 feet tall and surrounds a three-acre parcel of land, making it the most expensive and slowest undertaking to date.
As soon as the wall is finished and funds can be raised, Jacques hopes to construct a guesthouse to accommodate volunteers from the U.S. as well as another dormitory. There are currently 13 children in the home, ranging in ages from 7 to 18 and housed by gender. As the ministry works to bring in more children, it will be imperative to provide some separation by age as well.
Children who attend school in Haiti usually do so into their early 20s. It is Jacques’ desire to support each child through job training or university to allow them to prosper. He sees it as a waste of time, money, and education to release a child simply because he or she has reached a certain age or has finished grade school. “If you send that child back exactly where he came from 20 years ago,” he says, “it’s going to be even worse for that child than for those who are still [in the street] because he’s not really equipped.”
“A Strong Foundation of Support”
Pastor Jeff Riedel of Moncks Corner, S.C., has operated the Haitian Christian Projects ministry with his wife Rita for more than 10 years. In addition to providing the Merine brothers with advice and a wealth of knowledge when they began looking for land in the area, Riedel has helped the children establish their own flock of chickens and a fledgling herd of goats at the safe house.
Hunger is the most essential hurdle to overcome in the struggle to improve Haiti as poverty and malnutrition go hand in hand. “The majority of Haitian culture doesn’t think about tomorrow when they are hungry today,” Riedel says.
It is Jacques’ fervent hope that the safe house can one day become self-sufficient to allow more funds to go toward increasing the ministry and educating the children instead of the food budget. Unlike the U.S., agriculture in Haiti is not a large industry focused on feeding the populace. There are a few cash crops including coffee, sugar cane and rice, but they are mostly grown for export.
While Americans can turn to their local Cooperative Extension office for advice and instruction in growing, raising, and safely preserving food, the Haitian government does not have anything in place to educate its citizens. Landowners might try to grow sweet potatoes or corn, but they are essentially on their own to learn the pitfalls of gardening. Eventually, Jacques hopes to take local Pennsylvania farmers with him to help establish a successful system for growing food.
In the meantime, he must focus on building a strong foundation of support from churches and groups in the U.S. “My biggest challenge is fundraising,” he says. “I need help. I need people who would have a heart for these children, for Haiti, who would love to see something accomplished for them.”
Riedel knows what it takes to operate a successful ministry in a country where the needs are so great. For Source of Life Ministries to be successful in the full scope of its mission, it will require partnership with individuals, groups, and churches in the U.S. Without the support of individuals, ministries fail, he says.
For more information about the ministry, current and future projects, and to become involved, visit www.sourceoflifeministries.com.
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