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| Isle de La Gonave |
Like a rag doll in a cement mixer, so was
the Tuesday of my visit. The day starts with a pleasant, short 20-minute flight
in a Missionary Aviation Fellowship airplane across the water to Isle de La
Gonave. We climb steadily through the smog to 4,500 feet only to push the nose
to the ground as soon as we reach altitude. On approach to the island we pass
over the top of beautiful calm, clear, turquoise water dotted with small
fishing boats and coral islands guarding the coast. All of a sudden the dirt
strip on the beach is in front of us; it should have been an indication of what
was to follow.
About 60km off the coast of the main island
La Gonave has seen little investment over the years. There is one carpet road,
about 250m long from the harbor to the main town of Anse A Galets. The rest of
the island’s 200km road system varies between a few meters of nice smooth sand
to extreme, rocky, four-wheel drive. The community I was heading for, Nan Café,
is a bone jarring 22km and 2 hours away amongst hills clothed in avocado trees
and carved out of limestone.
We have been working in these hill
communities since 2002 and over the years we have worked with the communities
and other partners to ensure access to schools for about 95% of the children
with an increasing percentage of girls staying in and finishing school. When
we arrived on La Gonave there were 3 clinics and 1 health care
professional for the island’s population of 83,099 people. Today we have
established and handed over 9 clinics to the government and there are 22 health
care professionals serving the communities throughout the island. The
statistics for health problems as a result of poor sanitation have decreased,
and household incomes have increased because of improved agriculture practices,
fishing techniques, vocational trainings and charcoal production. (Instead of
cutting down the whole tree people have learned more sustainable ways of
harvesting the wood.)
Much has improved but there is still so
much more to do. The school attendance is high, but the percentage of children
that can read and write at the appropriate level for their age is very low,
much needs to be done to raise the quality of education. I met with 20 young
people who told me the stories of their schools and communities. All of them
are in or have finished school – an improvement – but then what? With our partners we have provided some vocational training but there are not
enough jobs on the island. Despite that the young men and women still want to
learn to be plumbers, electricians, tailors and of course, IT gurus.
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| Port de Bonheur, La Gonave, Haiti |
This program has 3 years to go before we
close out, but right now, after 12 years in the community we are planning and
working toward the transition to sustainability and complete community
ownership. Are they ready to continue on their own, can they do it? Their
answer: “of course we can, and we must, our families futures depend on it.”
Australian sponsors support about 6,700
children in three development programs, (Grand Lagon, PACODES and Port
be Bonheur) on La Gonave. If you are one of them I can tell you, after visiting
all three programs, that you can be proud of what the children and their
parents have achieved – lives are being transformed and hope is growing
stronger.
