Two words emerge from the Haitian rubble to confront the world.
In every global disaster there are two issues that rise to the surface for every humanitarian relief agency. They are the same two words in every case and it doesn’t matter whether the work is in response to a flood, tornado, famine, hurricane or as in Haiti’s case; an earthquake. These two words are never absent from the glaring spotlight, nor are they ever substituted with a different word. And every good aid organization hopes that this is the crises that will alert the world to these two words. The first word I have dealt with to some degree in previous posts; it’s the word “infrastructure“. The lack there-of has been the single greatest hinderance to proper and timely support efforts connecting supplies with people. As previously noted, that infrastructure exists only for those who care to acknowledge it and more to the point, use it; the Church.
The second word however is as crucial as the first but even more ignored; “Dignity”. It is not enough that such a large percentage of Haitians have lost homes and jobs and worst of all, love ones… in the aftermath of a crises like this they lose something else as well, and that is their dignity. The earthquake didn’t take their dignity… it took their friends and loved ones, it took their homes and in many cases it took their income. So what took their dignity?
Anyone keeping an eye on the already every decreasing news coverage on Haiti has noticed that the manner in which aid is finally getting to people is causing much added strain and loss of dignity to a people already attempting only to survive another day. Food distribution outlets have been so poorly thought through that riots break out and sincere victims in need of help have to endure intimidating environments and in some cases violence in order to try to get a share of the relief supplies. Now personally all I have to do is consider another day of air-travel to make me want to just avoid any job or vacation involving that ‘herding” experience we go through at our nation’s airports. Wouldn’t we often rather just go without than fight someone for a spot in line at the bank, the food store or a passport office. Now those are civil lines (depending on your definition), imagine if you had to endure violence in those situations… would any of us endure the process? Well nice on us for having choices, but what if we didn’t have a choice… if this was the difference between life and death for our family?
What is happening in Haiti right now is not new to the disaster relief efforts around the world – they are all like this. In an attempt to bring much needed relief to people, help is brought in such a way they are stripped of whatever dignity they might be trying to hold on to. If Haitians are not slugging it out with whoever used to be their neighbors over who gets to feed their family tonight, they are running like stray dogs after military ‘drops’ as helicopters simply fly supplies into an area and drop them to the ground from a safe distance up in the air.
A casual observer watching the news each night might scoff at this attitude and suggest the Haitian people should be grateful for whatever help they get right now. But let’s think about this… here we sit in the twenty-first century, we’ve raised a twazillion dollars to bring immediate aid into the country, we have the best of the military from several nations, the UN forces and a not-so-small army of agencies and organizations from around the world… but we can’t figure out how to give to these people without raping them of their dignity?
As a casual observer myself from many exposures to third-world, crises environments and poverty level communities in many different nations, I can tell you that as crucial as practical aid and relief supplies are to people, dignity is just as important – not only for the immediate caring of their very fractured lives… but for the long term effect this has on anyone who goes through such a thing. Think of it this way – we’ve all known someone who goes through an unfortunate season where they needed a little help. We’ve seen how easy it is to give to that person in a way that demeans them and we’ve all seen the lasting effects this has on those people. Imagine now it’s not a hand up we’re dealing with, but masses of people who have now been stripped of everything they have that even identifies them, let alone esteems them. How crucial is it that we carefully steward the dignity of those we reach out to?
Yes… this is actually my point – that at a time when the world has all it can cope with just transferring aid from the tarmac to the people, we need to be very thoughtful and on-purpose about ‘how’ we get that aid to them. Why? Because it matters! It matters to a child that they understand this was not their fault and they have not been reduced to animals in a cage where the strong survive. It matters to a just-widowed woman who is beyond herself at this moment coping with her loss. Remember that day you experienced not that long ago when so many things just went so bad that you could no longer cope with important decisions or even routine tasks? So how is a widowed woman in Haiti today supposed to stand in line elbowing her way to the front where the handouts are? It matters to that man, husband, father who has proudly worked hard all his life to put food on his family’s table. Now his dignity has been reduced to who can run the fastest to collect food from the drop zone. Imagine the man who wasn’t fast enough.. returning to his hurting family all looking up at him in the hope of something, anything… but he has returned empty. Do our hearts not break for that man… that woman… those kids? Anyone today in Haiti who is desperate for food and supplies, is absolutely just as desperate to find dignity for their families.
In disasters like this, dignity is not really something that exists for the people. They hear stories of dead family members and friends being discarded ‘on top’ of land fills without being buried or identified. Their minds are filled with panic-stricken thoughts on where their family will find shelter and safety. Most of all they think only of where they will find their next meal or uncontaminated water. In all of this their only hope for dignity is if someone brings it to them. So this leaves us with this crucial thought; there is a large difference between “giving” help to someone, and “ministering” help to someone.
Can I encourage you who are reading this today, please support an organization such as Feed the Hungry where “how” people are helped, is as important as “what” help is given. Tour the FTH website to gain a clearer understanding of ‘how’ people are helped. FTH does an amazing job of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and caring for the hurting… but more than that they are careful to minister their help to people, providing safe and careful environments where supplies are distributed, where help is given and where people’s dignity are elevated.
Take a look at this amazing verse from Proverbs 31:25… ”she is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come”.
Notice that strength alone is not enough? We want to feed, clothe and protect Haitians right now… but we also want them to be able to laugh at the days to come. That can only happen when dignity is present.
.don
I have finished my time in BC and leaving now just before they finish trucking in all the snow for the Olympics next week.
