Huntersville 2 Haiti: Saturday Morning

OFCB

For nearly two centuries, subsistence farming has characterized the livelihood of 80,000 people in rural Bayonnais, Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere. This is not uncommon. Following colonial independence in 1804, former slaves exercised newfound freedom by cultivating their own land in the countryside. Today, OFCB (Organization of the Christian Force of Bayonnais), a ministry founded in 1993 through the vision of five inspired individuals, provides this generation with a new opportunity: education. Subjects such as history, biology, language arts, social science, philosophy, and visual art are now available to this community for the first time. Adults and children comprise a student body that has grown from 103 to 1460, and for many, the rice and beans served at lunch may be the only substantial meal they eat all day. Not only have national exam scores been some of the highest in the region, OFCB has sent 20 students to Haitian colleges! In an effort to stimulate long-term development, the college scholarship program stipulates that each student return to OFCB upon graduation to serve the community for 10 to 15 years, depending upon the field of study. One college graduate has become a doctor, currently in residency, and will return to start Bayonnais’ first health clinic! Deep in the heart of a country plagued by extreme poverty, political violence and corruption, the people of Bayonnais are finding new hope.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Saturday Morning

Today is Saturday and we spent the morning traveling to Gonaives, the closest city to Bayonnais and where Actionnel's home is. This is also the area of Haiti that was hit the hardest by the Hurricanes Hanna and Ike in September of this year. Even though it has been close the three months since those storms. the devastation is still tremendous. Several homes were completely destroyed and many people in this area now reside in tents provided by international relief agencies. Several areas are still

flooded. The streets are very difficult to travel on, which, in the city is complicated further by the wheel barrels full of mud that the residents are moving out of their homes and onto the side of the road.
Because of the storms Gonaives has a new lake - Lake Hanna/Ike. You can seen the lake in the pictures - when we drove though this area last year, there were homes and farm land in this very spot.

As devastating as this has been, Actionnel said that the lakes have been providing fish for the residents of Gonaives - a blessing in disguise - a very thick, ugly disguise, but a blessing, none the less.