Haitis Moment

1
Haitis Moment

• Mercy
• Justice
• New Yorkers demonstrating Scandalous Generosity
• Hope.

2
Haitis Moment

• The small island nation of Haiti is the poorest
  nation in the western hemisphere and is standing
  on the brink of collapse. Four major storms
  rolled over the island in less than a month
  recently killing hundreds and displacing nearly
  one million souls.

3
Haitis Moment

• Haitis situation seems hopeless.
• Plus, the U.S. is going through its own economic
  crisis.

4
Haitis Moment

• Can anyone really make a significant impact in
  Haiti in times like these?

5
Haitis Moment

• Yes.

6
Haitis Moment

• We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just
  a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less
  because of that missing drop.
• - Mother Teresa

7
Haitis Moment

• He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched
  the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many
  rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came
  and put in two coins, which are worth a penny.
  Then he called his disciples and said to them,
  Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in
  more than all those who are contributing to the
  treasury. For all of them have contributed out
  of their abundance but she out of her poverty
  has put in everything she had, all she had to
  live on.
• - Mark 12 41-44

8
The Context
9
The Context

• The original inhabitants of Haiti, the Taíno,
  named the island Ayiti, which means land of high
  mountains. Rugged highlands cover two-thirds of
  the country, while the remainder is marked by low
  plateaus, deep valleys, and small coastal plains.

10
The Context

• Approximately 95 percent of Haitians are
  descendents of West African slaves. The remaining
  five percent are a mix of Caucasian and African
  ancestry.

11
The Context

• When colonized, Haiti came under Spanish, then
  French rule.
• Toussaint Louverture led a successful slave
  rebellion that culminated in 1801 when Haiti
  became the first black republic to declare
  independence.

12
The Context

• Violence and political instability marked much of
  the 1800s until Haiti declared bankruptcy in
  1914.
• The United States occupied the island from 1915
  to 1934.
• Physician Francois Papa Doc Duvalier seized
  power in 1956 in a military coup and set up a
  brutal dictatorship that would last for 30 years.
  Many Haitians fled to the U.S. and Canada.

13
The Context

• Former priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide won the
  election in 1990, but was blocked from taking
  office and sent into exile by members of the
  ruling Haitian government.
• The international community blocked a full take
  over and the country was thrown into chaos.

14
The Context

• In 1994. President Clinton worked in partnership
  with former President Carter and Colin Powell to
  negotiate the departure of Haitis military
  leaders.
• Aristides presidency was restored.

15
The Context

• Aristide left the presidency in 1994, but won a
  second election in 2000.
• That election was not recognized by the
  international community due to claims of fraud.
• Aristide went into exile in 2004 and the country
  was thrown into chaos again.
• See Haiti Democracy Undone (NY Times video
  report)

16
The Context

• Historical oppression, political corruption,
  natural disasters and international economic
  policies have made Haiti the poorest nation in
  the western hemisphere.

17
The Making of a Crisis

• There are many reasons for this poverty. But one
  of the most significant is trade policies imposed
  on the country by international financial
  institutions. In 1994 the tariff on rice imports
  was lowered from 36 to 3. This led to much rice
  coming from US farmers who had subsidised
  surpluses to offload. Haiti became dependent on
  food imports because local farmers could not
  compete with imported rice and home production
  shrank considerably.
• - BBC World News

18
Crisis

• Summer 2008, Haiti suffered its greatest food
  crisis in history. This was the photograph in the
  New York Times on June 15, 2008

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times This was the
caption LAST RESORT Haitians searching for food
or anything else at a dump. Rising food prices
led to riots in April. Most Haitians earn less
than 2 a day.
19
Disaster

• Four fierce storms trampled the island in less
  than one month. Fay, Gustav, Hannah and Ike
  trounced the small nation and left hundreds dead
  and hundreds of thousands displaced in its path.

20
Disaster

• The picture now...

21
Disaster

• The aftermath of four severe storms in rapid
  succession left thousands of Haitians unable to
  return home in many of the communities that PIHs
  partners currently work in. Rampant flooding and
  mudslides destroyed buildings, crops, and
  belongings. Moreover, the true scale of the
  damage is still unknown.
• - Partners in Health website

22
The Breaking Point

• Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press
• There are two things that are really difficult
  for a Haitian to do. It's smile and cry. Because
  the people grow up in misery and stress, to smile
  becomes something very hard for them. And because
  they are very strong, too, it's not easy to see
  someone who's crying. Now you can understand how
  hard it is for me when I received a phone call
  from the pastors in Trois-Mats, St. Louis, and
  Chapotin saying that they lost their houses and
  their farms and they were crying.
• - Pastor Ronald Lefranc, Light and Peace Mission
• Haiti

23
The Breaking Point

• Haiti is 94 Christian.

24
The Breaking Point

• Our brothers and sisters are crying.

25
Our Moment

• For the sake of the sanctity of human life

26
Our Moment

• For the sake of mercy

27
Our Moment

• For the sake of justice

28
Our Moment

• For the love of God and neighbor

29
Haitis Moment

• Faith-filled New Yorkers are saying,
• Not on our watch!

30
Haitis Moment

• Now is the time for hope.

31
Haitis Moment

• Now is the time for action.

32
Haitis Moment

• Poverty Sunday
• October 26, 2008
• Preach against poverty
• Call your congregation to commit a scandalous act
  of generosity by giving to Haiti through one of
  three trusted partner organizations.

33
Giving Options

• Your gift to World Vision is multiplied 3x in
  impact because it is being matched by a United
  States Agency for International Development (US
  AID) Grant for a Food for Peace program.
• Your gift will supply food-ration kits, clothing
  kits, kitchen kits, bedding kits, hygiene kits,
  and water kits.
• World Vision also plans to help rehabilitate
  water systems contaminated by the flooding.
• 100 of your gift will go directly to Haiti
  relief.

34
Giving Options

• The 3 to 1 multiplier turns a 50,000 gift into
  150,000 worth of food!
• Costs for individual kits
• Clothing kit 31
• Kitchen kit 63
• Hygiene kit 55
• Bedding kit 55
• Water kit 11
• Total per family US 215
• For more info on World Vision go to
  www.worldvision.org, contact 212.736.2997, or see
  attached overview.
• For information on long-term church engagement
  contact Linda Nolan at 516.287.3714 or
  lnolan_at_worldvision.org.

35
Giving Options

• Your gift to Partners in Health will supply basic
  medical care, food, clean water, and basic living
  essentials (beds, clothing, etc.)
• Partners in Health plans to help supply housing
  for the displaced and resettlement packages
  including food supplies, cooking pots, stoves,
  water containers and purification systems,
  clothes, shoes, and school fees and supplies for
  children.

36
Giving Options

• 500 covers the costs of treating malnutrition
  for five children.
• 1280 buys a years supply of lifesaving
  antiretroviral drugs for 10 AIDS patients.
• 4,150 builds a concrete block house with a tin
  roof for a patients family.
• 10,000 provides clean water for an entire
  village.
• For more information on Partners in Health go to
  www.pih.org or

37
Giving Options

• Your gifts to Catholic Relief Services (CRS) will
  help supply immediate needs, water, and feeding
  programming for thousands of households in
  Haitis most heavily hit areas.
• Gifts will also support the rehabilitation of
  community infrastructure and family dwellings,
  which has already begun, but for which CRS does
  not yet have the resources to meet the
  overwhelming need.
• For more info on CRS go to www.crs.org.

38
How to Give

• Choose the organization your congregation will
  give to.
• Parishioners make checks payable to the
  congregation and write Haiti in memo line.
• Congregation writes one consolidated check
  payable to the receiving organization with a note
  in the memo line Haitis Moment Relief and
  Development
• Congregation sends the gift to the receiving
  organization.
• Congregation contacts Matt Dunbar at 212.870.2219
  or mdunbar_at_nyfaithjustice.org to let him know
  which agency your congregation supported and how
  much you donated.
• Matt will tally the city-wide giving and announce
  our total on November 14.

39
How to Give

• Please send gifts to an agency listed below by
  November 7, 2008

40
How to Pray

• Pray that God moves congregations to engage
  Haitis Moment across racial, socio-economic,
  geographic, and inter-faith boundaries to make
  poverty a priority on October 26th.
• Pray that God enables and moves us to give with
  radical generosity.
• Pray that God uses our gifts to reverse the trend
  of entrenched poverty in Haiti.
• Pray that God uses our gifts to bring hope to the
  hopeless.

41
Haitis Moment

• Organizing Sponsors
• New York Faith Justice
• Concerts of Prayer Greater New York
• St. Marys Episcopal Church
• All Angels Episcopal Church
• New York Theological Seminary
• Ocean Grove
• Dayspring Ministries
• Intervarsity Christian Fellowship
• Hostos Community College, Catholic Chaplains
  Office
• The Interfaith Center of New York
• New York Divinity School
• Bread for the World
• Rainbow Push 1000 Churches Initiative
• In partnership with World VisionNew York
  Programs, Partners in Health, and Catholic Relief
  Services.

42
For more information

• For more information about the Haitis Moment
  initiative or Poverty Sunday, please contact
• Matt Dunbar
• New York Faith Justice
• 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 500
• New York, NY 10115
• 212.870.2219 (direct line)
• mdunbar_at_nyfaithjustice.org