Haiti - Now an Opportunity for Partnership

As the first wave of emergency relief activity in Haiti begins to wane, the even bigger job of helping an entire nation rebuild itself from this incredible disaster now becomes the critical need for the months and even years ahead. And, just like other world-class crises such as this one, it also offers a great opportunity for God's people to demonstrate partnership and a deep and meaningful level.

That is what we here at Partners International US are already engaged in doing as we connect and coordinate our efforts with our affiliate colleagues around the world. As I write this blog post, my counterpart, John Rose, the CEO of World Share UK is meeting with Luckner Simphil, leader of the Haitian Calvary International Ministries (HCIM.) After surveying the devastation that impacted his ministry including the destruction of three churches and the total flattening of one school, brother Luckner made it back to Florida to begin marshaling resources needed in responding to the needs of his people.  We hope to have a full report from him a another day or two.

Thanks to a generous response from many Partner's friends here in the US, we have been able to gather a sizeable fund that we are ready to mobilize in response to HCIM's needs. The same is true of our affiliates in Australia, Canada, Singapore and the UK.

What makes partnership particularly important at a time like this is the ability to laser our resources right to where they can make the best and longest impact for individual people in Haiti. Obviously, our funds do not have the impressive million-dollar size of other global relief organizations. But sometimes they can do things those huge funds cannot. That is because we work directly with a proven national, indigenous ministry like HCIM where we can know what each dollar is going to do and hear first hand reports from the men, women and children who are assisted by our help. And, because our partnership with these national brothers and sisters is not a short term, flash-in-the-pan kind of help, we can continue providing assistance in ways that will truly help them rebuild their homes, churches and lives for long-term sustainability.

Stay tuned over the next few days as we hope to have much more to share on just how that help can make a difference.