Doing what they do best

Canadian Christian-based relief agencies are responding to the crisis in Haiti in various ways. Some examples:
• World Vision (worldvision.ca) has been working in Haiti for over 30 years, with 800 staff serving 300,000 Haitians; and Canadians sponsor 10,800 Haitian children through the organization. The agency has already shipped hundreds of thousands of dollars of relief materials (medical supplies, tarps, blankets, towels, soap and cooking utensils) from Canada. World Vision is also supplying food and water, and working to set up "child-friendly spaces" where children can play and get emotional support. ĄThe Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (crcna.org) is focusing its response on the town of Leogane, where it already has worked -- and where 90 percent of the 175,000 people have lost their homes.
• Mennonite Central Committee (mcc.org), the relief and development agency of Mennonite churches in Canada and the U.S., had nine foreign workers in Haiti before the quake. It has committed $1 million for relief work (such as providing food and water filters), and is collecting relief kits and blankets for families. It will also focus on its strengths, in medium and long-term development and reconstruction work.
• The Canadian Roman Catholic Church's relief and development arm, Peace and Development (devp.org) immediately designated $50,000 for aid and began raising more.

If you want to help people in Haiti . . .

A longer list of agencies, and a practical perspective on making contributions, is found here: canadianchristianity.com/nationalupdates/100113haiti.html

Paying the price

A number of Canadian mission and relief agencies have reported that their personnel in Haiti survived the earthquake, but the picture is mixed. Some workers are helping with the relief effort, while other workers have been evacuated. For instance, Al and Ev Hromek, a retired couple from Kelowna, B.C., who had been teaching Bible and other subjects to pastors in Port-au-Prince, returned to Canada via the Dominican Republic. Jason Krul, a pilot for Mission Aviation Fellowship, along with his wife Wilhelmina and one-year old son Jayden, survived the earthquake in Port-Au-Prince. They returned to their home in Chilliwack, B.C. Jason, who is suffering from dust inhalation, will remain in Canada for about two weeks, and will then return to Haiti to assist with the rescue & rehabilitation efforts. His wife and son will remain in Chilliwack. On a more tragic note: Yvonne Martin, a nurse from Waterloo (Ontario) Mennonite Brethren Church arrived in Haiti January 12 for her fourth stint of doing medical mission work in Haiti. She died in the earthquake; but the other six people on her Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada team survived.

Political approaches

Canadian politicians are also responding in different ways to the Haiti earthquake. NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow is supporting efforts to help Canadian parents bring children to Canada if they are already in the process of being adopted. Conservative MP Joy Smith, known as a Christian, has issued a news release urging Canadian soldiers and relief workers to watch out for the exploitation of women and children in Haiti (as has happened in other disasters) -- and to take measures to counteract it. Last year, she sponsored a bill to increase Canadian penalties for human trafficking.

January 20/2010