I was picked up at the Edmonton airport in Alberta, Canada yesterday by my friend Karen. On the drive to the hotel I peppered her with questions about her narrow escape from the Haiti earthquake.
It’s an incredible story of “coincidences” that saved her life, but it’s her story so I won’t tell it. Not much of it.
At one point she and her team from Compassion Canada were camped out on the lawn and in cars at the Canadian embassy in Port-au-Prince. After a couple days they were sent home to Canada. But they didn’t want to leave. They wanted to stay and help. Help anybody. Do something. Anything.
That’s what compassionate people want when others are suffering.
But the embassy wouldn’t allow it.
If Karen’s team stayed they would need security. They would need water and food.
Security was needed to protect the doctors and nurses and firefighters and engineers saving lives.
Water and food were needed to keep those workers and saved lives living.
Staying to help would hurt Haiti.
I’m getting e-mails from people asking me to help them get to Haiti. I’m thanking every one of them for being so compassionate. But I’m also suggesting they stay home unless they’re a doctor, nurse, professional rescue worker or engineer.
Haiti is a tiny country with little water and food and space. Its people are in need of very specific critical care right now. The time will come when your youth group or mission team will be needed to build, paint, teach, dig. But for now, listen to Karen and the Red Cross and a host of other first-responders on the ground there: Don’t hurt Haiti. Stay home.
If you’re moved to do something immediately, then give.
Tyler says:
So if Compassion International is sending people in that aren’t doctors or can provide immediate help…wouldn’t that be bad?
Shaun Groves says:
What people specifically are you talking about?
The efficacy of Compassion’s relief work comes in part from the fact that the lead agency is the local church. We’re not sending in plane loads of relief workers. Our staff in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and our partner indigenous churches, from what I understand, are the bulk of the relief force.
There are non-Haitians I’m sure that are brought in but those are either Compassion staff (professionals, in other words) or medical personnel brought in by Compassion (also professionals).
That is FAR different from First Baptist Wherever sending in their college group for a mission trip. FAR different.
Does that answer the question? Or did I misunderstand?
Tyler says:
Basically yes. I just know Compassion in the past has done things in the name of awareness that don’t immediately provide help in areas of crisis. Not that it is bad per-say, just that I felt like you were saying it would be.
Adam Shields says:
I understand what you are saying. And I think I would have said the same thing a couple of years ago. But there are two things that have changed my mind. One is Shaun King and others using twitter to provide support services to people on the ground in Haiti. It is proving that people with a few contacts and some ability to move around freely really can do good without being all that skilled in special disaster skills.
The second was a books with a fictional disaster in Africa. The author is a mormon, but the characters that he wrote about were Catholic. Essentially there was a great description about people just needing love and care and that the root of Christian faith is to provide that care, even if it is dangerous.
I also think that many like the Canadian government think that the only way to serve is with a bunch of security and caution. But what that does is make sure that there are literally tons of supplies sitting on the ground in Haiti, not being distributed because there is a lot of concern about security and going through the right channels. So people will die for lack of the distribution and some of the supplies will be ruined sitting outside at the airport. So on the one hand there is an outside storage area about the size of six football fields, and then there are people willing to distribute supplies that are not being allowed to use them, and agencies saying that volunteers should not come to Haiti to help, and on the other hand there are people that don’t have anything.
Happy Geek says:
Adam, I am not familiar with Shaun King but I do know that in times past (such as Somalia) he who controlled the food controlled the country. Thus the great caution (and security) being used by my gov’t and many others. It would be horrifying for the food to fall into hands that want to use it for power and not to help those who need it most.
Adam Shields says:
Isn’t it just as bad to not distribute food that is available because you are concerned about its misuse?
Laura @ Texas in Africa says:
Amen, amen, amen! Thank-you for posting this, Shaun! Disaster relief experts know for a fact that it is FAR better for most non-professionals to stay home and give money to the pros. Unfortunately, well-meaning church groups are some of the worst offenders in the “show up to ‘help'” category. They end up using up resources and security from where it’s really needed. To take a youth group to Haiti right now (or even just to go ourselves) when we don’t have the specialized skills required in such a situation would honestly be selfish.
I think it’s also important to remember that Haitians are not helpless, hopeless, or voiceless. They were the first responders, digging goodness knows how many thousands of people out of the rubble before outside help could arrive. They are capable of cleaning up – and the UN is paying people to do so, which gives them much-needed income and the dignity of having a job – and of taking care of children, and rebuilding. It would be selfish of us in many cases to insist on going to rebuild ourselves.
Before ANY group goes, now or later, it should ask whether they would be taking away jobs from those who need them, and whether they might use the cost of plane tickets, etc. to fund salaries for Haitians instead. That people are poor does not mean that they need wealthy outsiders to come and “save” them.
Two really good resources on these issues are the Good Intentions are Not Enough blog (http://informationincontext.typepad.com/) and When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. The later is specifically aimed at helping Christians to help the poor in a way that is empowering and Biblical.
Kristie Wooten says:
My friend Martha (who IS a nurse, and a home school mom from our little group here in town) just got back from Haiti on Thursday–this is the video of them working (it’s graphic)….but this is the REAL STUFF they’re dealing with. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LmsEUveT74
As much as I’d love to go down there and help, I realize that this type stuff is all over the place down there, and other than praying (which I can do from right here), I don’t have a clue how to handle these situations! Praise the Lord for people with skills who can and do go. But right now, I can be much more helpful by skipping a few meals out, or even (GASP!) fasting and praying for a few meals this month and sending the money to a relief organization/Compassion instead.
PJ says:
I also read that Physical Therapists (as well as nurses) are needed.
Laura @ Texas in Africa says:
There are a lot of needs of that nature. The important thing for health professionals is not to just show up on the ground. They need to be invited and supported by a reputable organization. I know Partners in Health is taking medical volunteers in to the hospitals and clinics they’ve been running in Haiti for 20 years; their info is at pih.org.
n8 says:
Hey, Shaun,
It was good to see/hear you at the Phil Keaggy/Randy Stonehill concert last night. Appreciated the worship and what you said after. Especially of Exodus 16:4 — taking only what we need for the day, and giving/sharing what He’s blessed us with, with those in need. And then trusting Him with all we need. Then we can be more of a blessing to others. Thanks for that!
God’s Peace and Joy,
nathan
jamie says:
My husband and I have been to Haiti (to the island of La Gonave) numerous times in high school and college, and have a tremendous love for the people there. After the earthquake he got in touch with the missionaries we know there to see if he could come down and help, with anything at all that needed to be done. They were so appreciative of his offer, but told him that at this time he would be more of a liability than a help. Our church did just send a team of 3 medical professionals down to partner with a church we’re connected to, though, and they are working practically around the clock. Thanks for writing about this issue, and especially for mentioning that more people with a greater variety of abilities WILL be needed in the future, perhaps when most of the world has again forgotten or moved on.
Tammy says:
important to remember that Haitians are not helpless, hopeless, or voiceles
The above comment is true but I want to add that they are not ignorant either.As nice as the gesture I saw yesterday on ABC Good Morning America I had to laugh.When teams loose the Super Bowl the printed winning shirts are sent to a third world country where the people have no idea about the game never mind they really don’t know about that they are wearing the losing team shirts.
So it is nice the Colts shirts are being used but I am sure many will know that they are wearing the losing team shirts!I mean there were people from Haiti in the game!