Hope Community Helps Haiti
Amy Gregson – Times Reporter
The Hope Community Church has dedicated time and money since 2001 to help build the Eben-ezer Clinic in Haut-Limbe, Haiti.
From April 1 to 9, 14 members from the church community traveled to Haiti to help in whatever way they could to continue building the hospital in the community.
The Eben-ezer Clinic is in a community of 16,000 people and is for those for whom affordable medical treatment is unavailable.
The clinic is run by Dr. Emmanuel Mareus, known as Dr. Manno to the Hope Community Church. His philosophy is that no patient will be turned away.
Since 2001, people and supplies from Hope Community Churches, not only from Strathmore but from across Canada, have gone down to help build the clinic.
Natasha Barron traveled to Haiti for the first time with the group from Hope Community Church on their recent journey.
While it was her first experience in Haiti, Barron had previously helped out at an orphanage in Mexico in October 2009 and said that experience opened her eyes to poverty.
“I came back a different person,” she said. “I’d really never seen poverty before and that was really overwhelming that things like that actually did exist.
You know it exists, but seeing it really changed me.”
Barron said since returning from Mexico she has wanted to help out the community and world more and that going to Haiti was something she always wanted to do.
“I couldn’t get on board quick enough to go,” said Barron about the opportunity to travel with Hope Community Church.
She said before going to Haiti she tried to prepare herself for what she would see, but that it’s almost impossible to do.
“Every second of every minute we were in Haiti there was something to be seen,” said Barron. “It definitely was a educational experience, so my brain was also working because everything was so foreign and new.”
Every time the group heads down to Haiti they work on whatever the hospital needs. This time it was laying tile and organizing medical supplies.
In late November, a church in the Hope Community family from Winnipeg sent a shipping crate to Haiti full of hospital supplies.
The crate had just arrived before the group from Strathmore arrived and all the supplies were in piles, which needed to be sorted.
A paramedic who went down with the group organized other members and they sorted out the supplies to make them accessible to the clinic staff.
“That took several days, just because of the way it had been unloaded out of a semi-truck, into a massive room in big piles,” said Evan Dewald, pastor at Hope Community Church. “It took a day just to figure out what was there and then to start figuring out how to organize it.”
He said the doctors and nurses don’t have time to organize the supplies because of how much they are needed for patient care.
Also in the crate were 30 hospital beds that are no longer used in Canada. An organization ships the beds to third world countries for them to use.
“By the end of the week, there was enough tile laid that we could set up the beds,” said Dewald.
Barron had a hand in mixing the concrete for the tiles. She said in Haiti, they don’t have the same tools we have in Canada to mix concrete so everything was done completely from scratch, from hauling the dirt, to separating the sand, to separating the rocks, to finding water, hauling it and mixing it.
“Just being with people in the community was one of the most rewarding things for me,” said Barron.
She said the group that went down was great and fun to work with.
“We had our moments of laughter and tears, but it was a good group to go with,” Barron said. “It was great to work with the Haitian people too.”
Barron said the biggest memory for her is the sense of community, the love the people share and the generosity they have for each other.
“I just found Haut-Limbe was a community of so little, but yet they had so much,” said Barron. “If I could bring something back to our community it would be that sense of community.”
Barron said she can’t wait to go back to Haiti and recommends that if someone has a passion or feels like they want to go, they should take the opportunity.
“I hope some of my friends and family come with me [next time],” said Barron.
Dewald has been to Haiti many times and he says it’s been great to see the hospital coming close to completion.
“We’re not done, but it feels like we’re coming to the end and there’s a real sense of satisfaction in knowing we’ve done something important,” said Dewald.
The clinic was designed to be a two-storey hospital; currently it is only one, but Dewald said they build in phases in Haiti.
“This time, because there was such a need for beds when we were there,” said Dewald. “We were laying tile in the same room as patients. There’s just so much need.”
The group also did a bit of traveling around Haiti, seeing other communities beside Haut-Limbe and seeing what they were like.
Someone form the church is sponsoring a compassion child and Dewald got to deliver a backpack to the child from them.
“That was super fun, that was a real highlight for me,” said Dewald.
Hope Community Church is considering a trip back to Haiti in November and are hoping that people outside of their church community will be interested in going with them.
“I would like to see us start taking people who are just interested in having a cross-cultural experience and make a difference in the world,” said Dewald.
The Church will also be holding a story-telling on April 25 at 9:15 and 11 a.m. People who went on the most recent trip will be sharing stories, videos and photos.