Haiti rebuilding efforts continue

Teenage residents of the Christian Haitian Outreach orphanage in Carrefour, Haiti play music together in the compound's courtyard.

By Greg Phillips
Published: March 21, 2010

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Crossroads Community Church in Enterprise is taking donations for Haiti relief efforts. To donate, click here.

More than two months have passed since an earthquake left hundreds of thousands of Haitians dead or injured, but the rebuilding process is still in its earliest stages.

With so many Haitians rendered homeless, the country is still in dire need of help.

“I think the biggest thing that jumped out at me and grasped my heart was some of their homes are made of nothing but sheets and tents, and the rain season is coming,” said Ben Stokes, who led a relief mission trip in early February, accompanied by Dothan Eagle photographer Max Oden, to Carrefour, a city just outside the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince. “I’ve been to a lot of projects, including Hurricane Katrina relief, and Haiti is the biggest mess that I’ve ever seen.

We were able to do some, but I’m trying to raise money for people’s homes and families, because what’s about to happen could create a lot more problems. The work is still in the beginning stage.”

Stokes, an Austin, Texas, resident and member of the Christ Living in Christians mission group, said despite the hardships, the people his group met in Haiti remain largely positive.

“First of all, their spirit was still alive,” he said. “It inspired me so much, because when you put yourself in their shoes, the fact they haven’t given up inspired me greatly. They still believe in a bright future. That’s what kind of people they were, they refused to give up, refused to dwell on what just happened. They’re willing to keep on fighting.”

As time passes and the tragic disaster slips from the national radar, people like Stokes are urging Americans not to forget the immense suffering currently being endured in a country that isn’t far from the United States.

“There are thousands of kids still wandering the streets. They just want to be touched, to be hugged, because they’ve been through so much. Some have just lost their parents,” Stokes said. “The biggest things are, first, to support the kids as much as possible, and second is the rebuilding of the homes.”