Donate & Learn

I caught the tail-end of the Oprah Winfrey Show today. Wyclef Jean was talking about his trip to Haiti. He cried, Oprah cried, I cried. The scenes were more than heartbreaking — bulldozers scooping up dead adults and children to be dumped in mass graves, injured kids crying out for parents that will never be seen again. As Oprah said, we can only see what the camera shows us through a small lens; we can’t fathom the massive horror that is Haiti right now. And as much as the newscasters try to bring us positive stories of people being pulled from the rubble, it’s tough to focus on those good-news soundbites when upwards of 200,000 are dead and the country’s already-weak infrastructure is completely destroyed. When doctors are using rusty hacksaws and vodka to do amputations, you can’t imagine things getting any worse.

The unprecedented disaster in Haiti leaves all of us feeling hopeless. How can we help the poorest country, the poorest people, the most desperate during a seemingly insurmountable desperate time? Unless you’re a surgeon or pilot (Partners in Health is looking for both right now) there isn’t a whole lot we can do right now other than donate and learn.

DONATE to Partners in Health. Or to Doctors Without Borders. Or to the Red Cross or your church or any other organization.

LEARN about Haiti. I didn’t know much about Haiti other than the really bad stuff — Papa Doc and Baby Doc — until I read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder a couple of years ago. Kidder tells us about Dr. Paul Farmer, a Harvard-educated doctor who has made his life’s work in Haiti. Farmer is also one of the founders of Partners in Health, a group that treats thousands of Haitians for free every year. Farmer has proved that infectious diseases like tuberculosis can be treated effectively, even in poor countries without fancy, over-priced medical facilities. Kidder chronicles Farmer’s mission and also gives readers a good dose of Haitian history. And Haiti’s history is anything but rosy. The book paints a realistic picture and it’s a mix of bad news and good.

Haiti may be poor but it has given us its riches in the form of Edwidge Danticat. Best know for her memoir, Brother, I’m Dying, Danticat won a genius grant last year.  Danticat shares the story of her family’s experience coming to America as well as life in Haiti. Her short story collection, Krik Krak, was a National Book Award Finalist.

I’m not the first one to Google for “books on Haiti” or “Haitian history.” Here’s one blog with a few recommendations. There are plenty of others. At least learning gives us perspective and it may also help us to remember that Haiti will still need our help in the coming months when the nightly news begins to focus on the next big headline. 

It’s hard to imagine Haiti rebounding from this disaster even though Haitians have suffered through and rebounded from century after century of wars, oppression, and poverty. I hope Haiti does much more than return to its previous state of poverty. I hope that the United States and other countries help rebuild their poorest neighbor in the Americas into something much, much better.

p.s. So’s you don’t think I’m a total downer, Americans have donated $207MM to date. Pretty incredible.