IGN Blog Articles
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   Photos taken from previous trips to HaitiPeople have been contacting us with questions about how IGN is going to respond to disaster in Haiti. Because we mobilize volunteers and have spent time in Haiti, most people assume that we will be taking a team to help take care of the hundreds of thousands of grieving, hurting people. This is a course of action that I would discourage anyone from taking right now unless they have formal disaster relief training or they are a medical professional of some kind. Here is the thought process behind this advice:
- There are no lack of volunteers: Remember hundreds of thousand of people lost their homes and are fully capable of helping each other.
- If you go, who's going to take care of you? It will be more of a burden having to feed you, provide potable water and a place to stay.
- Wouldn't the money you would spend on plane fare, food, water, housing, not to mention taking time off work be more efficiently used to buy food, clothes, water and basic necessities for people who are in terrible need.
- Consider the dignity of the people. How would you feel if people invaded your home after a natural disaster, helped you pick up a few things but took pictures and video of the wreckage and of you in your distress and angst and then left after a few days?
- There are a lot of fantastic organizations that are there doing the difficult work of restoring the broken lives of the Haitian people and have been there long before the earthquake ever took place. Consider supporting of them. Here are the ones that I would recommend:
Invision Global Network will be working with our partners in Haiti and the Dominican Republic to see how we might be a part of a long-term strategy to rebuild and restore so many fractured lives. We will keep you informed on how you might also be a part of that process.
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A few weeks ago I was sitting in a ro om in northern India with Pastors and Leaders of NGO's living and working in some of the most volatile places in the world. Each shared about how they we re helping the people of their community learn life skills that are forever changing the lives of the people and leading them to a better future. In some of the communities they have seen much success where children are being educated, families have food to eat, roofs over their head, and jobs to go to. They are learning skills for preventing disease and they are seeing the effects as the death rates decrease and wellness increases. They are learning moral values and neighbor is coming alongside neighbor to help one another when in need.
Other leaders just starting out looked for encouragement and advice knowing the long road that lie ahead. The work these men and women are doing in their communities is impressive, then add where they are and it becomes even more remarkable. These leaders and their communities face unspeakable persecution and their very lives are in constant threat of harm. We saw a glimpse of how devastating lives being lost and threatened are when we watched the news of the attacks in Mumbai India this week. I hold the men and women I met in India in High regard. They are living life boldly and making a difference in the lives of those around them.
Who or what do you live for? How do you affect the people in your community? What obstacles are in your way?
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The CHE networking meeting was absolutely wonderful. People from 15 organizations and even different countries were represented. These were people with years of experience in both national and international wholistic development.
Topics included the value of collaboration, empowering practitioners and project assessment tools and training for who relate to story telling far more than written language and lecturing.
Some of the things I learned about included Asset based programs as opposed to Needs based programs; making better use of the resources available as opposed to, "filling a need" with resources that are not available. Also we work towards interdependence not independence. Independence is a Western world value.
It was such a great privilege for me to interact with this amazing group of people and tremendously encouraging to know that as we work together with the shared values of CHE we will one day see an interdependent world caring for people at all levels.
If you would like to learn more about CHE you can go to www.cheintl.org. |
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During this Christmas season we spend a lot of time with friends and family eating and celebrating and in the midst of it all it's easy to forget those who are most in need. After spending almost a quarter of this year in developing nations I'm compelled to think about the less fortunate. I am truly overwhelmed with gratitude and I consider how blessed I am. I have a loving family with whom I go to church to commemorate the birth of Christ and what does that mean. It means that God so loved the world that he gave the gift of his Son. My challenge is how to respond and give back to the world in gratitude for all that I have been given? |
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