Joy and Motivation: Our Best Assets

We have many reasons to celebrate in World Renew Haiti! 2013 was sincerely hectic—we practically had no rest, but laughter was intentionally part of it and it was productive and blessed.

We at World Renew make it a point to laugh together and do things cheerfully. We are conscious of the fact that joy and motivation go hand in hand and are our best assets. We pray God to keep our team healthy, strong, joyful and motivated in spite of all the difficulties related to our context.

On behalf of the team including myself; Jackson Gabelus, our program assistant; Valery, our technical advisor in agriculture; Jean Marc Cassamajor, our bridger and Massillon Coicou, our accountant; I want to thank all of our supporters, every church that financially supports our work in Haiti, all of our colleagues through all of the World Renew teams in the world, our co-directors, Ida and Andrew for their prayers, advice, words of encouragement, appreciation, and assistance.

Special thanks to Leanne Geisterfer, our team leader, and to Ken Little and Wayne De Young from IDR for being present with us and for helping us work more effectively and extend our work to more and more communities.

Two wells were dug by Living Water on the community’s behalf and as a result, the children in these communities do not have to walk for hours to get water each day.

Special thanks to all of the churches that supported our work financially and visited us in Haiti. As we are closing one of the most important and challenging projects in Haiti, supported by Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Vanrager in Cabaret, I would like to share the story about the changes this project has brought about.

Two years ago, my first field visit as World Renew consultant in Haiti was to three communities—Bercy, Levek, and Meyer in Cabaret, Haiti. These three cooperatives, implemented by our local partner Christian Center for Integrated Development (SKDE), were struggling to make water available for families and farmers there.

It was a difficult endeavor that required expertise in geo-physical analysis because the area in and around Cabaret has been overdrawn, making the water table so low that only salt water results from a new well dig.

SKDE was able to implement the three cooperatives in Cabaret and coach them, establish literacy centers and keep them running, train co-op leaders to put in place and manage savings and loan programs, as well as build a tank big enough to store water and then distribute it effectively.

Discernment, ownership, management capacity and capacity to develop partnership were needed. SKDE staff contacted the government water management office to help, but the office was not responsive to their requests. World Renew then established a relationship with Living Water International through SKDE.

Together, the organizations began to work with the cooperatives to increase their capacity and networking abilities. World Renew and SKDE were instrumental in helping the coops make changes that benefited their communities.

The cooperatives in Bercy and Levek contacted Living Water, made their request, and signed a contract to manage two wells that were dug by Living Water on the community’s behalf.

As a result, the children in these communities do not have to walk for hours to get water each day. The communities worked for a full year with LWI—meeting, discussing, and proving that they represented the opinions of the majority from the community—but they made it.

The co-ops were required to provide the capacity to persuade, persevere, organize, and build a sense of ownership for this initiative among the community members. We are very grateful to Living Water International leaders for this successful partnership with our cooperatives in Cabaret.

As they grow, the other 23 grassroots associations that World Renew is presently working with through our five local partners have to face difficult situations such as the high cost of living, the limited time that community members have to fully participate, little access to resources, crime, and frequent discouragement. We thank you for your prayers so that God blessings are on their work.

Prayer Items:

More discernment as church and community leaders learn to work together.
More knowledge
More financial resources so we can extend our services to more and more resources particularly in food security, literacy, community health, and assistance to families to get legal birth certificates for their children.
Progress and stability in Haiti.