Packing up my equipment and belongings as my time in Haiti draws to a close, thoughts and emotions percolate. I was invited to come to Haiti two weeks after the January 2010 earthquake that leveled much of Port Au Prince and the surrounding countryside by the ELCA Disaster Response and the Lutheran World Federation.
As a videographer, I was charged with recording footage related to the combined response efforts of the Act Alliance, a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies worldwide.
Most of my time was spent working along side photojournalist Paul Jeffrey from the United Methodist Church and Chris Herlinger, a reporter from Church Word Service. Paul and Chris are top-notch professionals that work with courage, passion and accuracy.
Together we spent time in the demolished city center, tent cities, worship services and food distributions. Back at the LWF offices in Peiton Ville, we spent the evening hours editing stories and photos. Fortunately LWF has blazing fast internet, so our job was made much easier.
The people of Haiti are really in a bind. Apparently things were slowly improving before the earth quake. The scope of devastation and loss of life will make the goal of building a stable, healthy Haiti much more difficult.
The global relief effort is amazing. I witnessed Brazilians, Hungarians, French, Sri Lankan, Finns, Scotts, Cubans, Dominicans, and many Americans working together. I hear that Americans are complaining about the apparent lack of coordination and slow pace of relief response. I can only say that the enormity of this disaster cannot be underestimated. It is really bad. This is not a problem that you can simply “fix.”
That said, the world community is doing their best. No matter what happens, Haitians will reach down and draw from and endless well of determination and find a way to go on.
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