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Sudbury: Haiti’s good neighbour in the global village - Gerry Lougheed Jr.

On Jan. 12, a massive earthquake hit Haiti. It lasted for less than one minute and changed the lives of Haitians forever. It killed more than 150,000 people and left 1.7 million homeless. It reduced buildings to crushed concrete.
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Gordon Lewis (Mission of T.E.A.R.S.), Gerry Lougheed Jr., Curtis Belcher and Sally Fausey celebrate the dedication of the new school with local residents. The classroom will have a cornerstone dedicated to Sudbury’s Jean Hanson, in appreciation of her leadership to raise more than $30,000 from the Rainbow School Board schools, prior to her retirement as director of education.

On Jan. 12, a massive earthquake hit Haiti. It lasted for less than one minute and changed the lives of Haitians forever. It killed more than 150,000 people and left 1.7 million homeless. It reduced buildings to crushed concrete.

The Haiti human condition was left hungry and hurting. The world responded. Our country responded. Our community responded.

Money, medicine, tents, toys, clothing, crutches, soaps and sundries were the tangible response. Volunteers from the Canadian Army to the Salvation Army were the people who responded. In our community, many groups, both spiritual and secular, also responded.

The original school that collapsed after the Jan.12 earthquake that “reduced buildings to crushed concrete.” Supplied photo.

The original school that collapsed after the Jan.12 earthquake that “reduced buildings to crushed concrete.” Supplied photo.

Curtis Belcher, who owns the KFM Radio stations, was approached by the Mission of Tears (Teaching Educating Advocating Resourcing and Serving) to promote a benefit concert. The music from that evening inspired a symphony of sharing by Sudburians. Our donations have helped generate more than $200,000 for the Mission of Tears projects.

All help to Haiti was, and is, good. In my fundraising experience, anything is better than nothing. The Mission of Tears orphanage and school programs were something Sudburians helped.

On May 20, Curtis and I, along with three representatives from Mission of Tears, travelled to Haiti. Our purpose was to see the investment of the Sudbury donations — we would also dedicate a school and dormitory in the spirit that “Sudbury is Haiti’s good neighbour in this global village.”

Amidst the concern of people who care about me, and the possibility they could be raising funds for ransom money or funeral flowers, my logical left brain did ask, “Does this three-day trip have any real purpose, and what can it accomplish? Am I wasting my time and my money (we paid our own way) while risking a malaria mosquito bite, colon cleansing, E. coli or a Haitian holdup?”

My right brain, inspired by the sharing and caring of our community, knows this is a mandatory mission for accountability and increased appreciation on how our Sudbury’s “something” can make a difference. I get the necessary needles and take the prescribed pills. I go to Haiti. We arrive. It is hot and humid. The Port au Prince airport has been relocated into an airplane hanger. The exit doors open.

.. this is a mandatory mission for accountability and increased appreciation on how our Sudbury’s ‘something’ can make a difference.

As we stand waiting for our ride, a handless boy demands a donation because God told him I must give him something.

I respond to the divine declaration with a dollar. The boy and God are happy (I guess). Our baggage handler arrives.

He is missing an arm. The double duty on his remaining limb does not hinder his efficiency to navigate these turbulent seas of humanity. He loads our luggage into the truck. The owner and driver is Karen Belje, the director of Coram Dio School.

Coram Dio means “In the face of God.” I looked at Karen and did see the face of God. She has translated the greatest commandments to love God and to love your neighbour in Haiti since 1996. She is a Canadian from London, Ontario.

She is 46 years old. She is quiet spoken, unassuming and totally focused on helping others. In the next three days she will answer the question about the purpose of our trip. We drive through narrow streets crowded with people, obstructed with rubble and punctuated with more potholes than any Sudbury winter could propagate.

We arrive at Coram Dio. Karen honks the horn. The substantial metal gate slides open. We enter the compound. It has a large, house-like building, a yard with a basketball rim, playground fixtures and a newly-built dormitory for its students. Karen proudly proclaims that the donations from Sudbury have built that dormitory. She says it’s beautiful and will be getting its beds next week, so that during the rainy season the students will not have to sleep outside in the compound.
We meet the young people who will never see the beauty of Sudbury’s scenery, but are convinced we are a beautiful people because of their beds. Benson is 11 years old. He was badly burned as a baby. Significant scars are seared into his scalp. He is bright.

Gerry Lougheed Jr. interviews Karen Belje, the director of Coram Dio School. Belje, 46, is from London, Ontario, and has been working in Haiti since 1996. “She is quiet spoken, unassuming and totally focused on helping others,” Lougheed writes.

Gerry Lougheed Jr. interviews Karen Belje, the director of Coram Dio School. Belje, 46, is from London, Ontario, and has been working in Haiti since 1996. “She is quiet spoken, unassuming and totally focused on helping others,” Lougheed writes.

Junior is 22 years old. A concrete block hit him on the head during the earthquake. It cracked his cranium, exposing his brain. He went untreated for one week. The Face of God (Coram Dio) saw his confusion and contusion. Karen got him medical treatment. He speaks four languages and plays the guitar. His brain is no longer bruised.

Emmanuel Zimmerman — better known as Manu — was an orphaned, dehydrated baby left on death’s door. Karen rescued him. He is the top student in his class. He wants to be a police officer.

MacDonald Jean is a 22-year-old who has some form of muscular dystrophy. His deteriorating motor abilities are going to leave him at a dead end in life. Karen is seeking assistance in securing a French upgrading program so MacDonald’s fingers can do his walking on the information highway.

While Curtis and I inspect the dormitories, Karen’s cell phone rings regularly. Other missionaries seek her guidance and help to get a young boy’s badly broken leg reset and a middle aged man’s cleft palate repaired. Karen is concerned a double arm amputee girl needs help to go to the United States for treatment, but her mother cannot get the appropriate travel documents to accompany her.

It is time for the trip to the hotel. Again the streets are crowded with able bodied people standing everywhere. They are waiting and watching for what? Thousands of igloo-shaped tents create townships of tarps. More than 23,000 non-profit agencies help stake and serve the tens of thousands living in the streets. There are no street signs or signals. Karen carefully navigates the rubble and these urban refugees.

Haiti is a place where everybody is waiting. It is a place where philanthropy needs to meet practicality. The army of do-gooders needs to enlist and engage those watching and waiting. I put my head on the pillow. I wonder if anything can really help Haiti. I’m unsure, but I do know Karen has helped Benson, Junior, Manu, MacDonald and others. I know Karen lives for the moment – more correctly the circumstances of the moment. I know Sudburians have helped improve those circumstances.

Next morning we go to the Christian Light Ministries School. It is run by a woman from Jacksonville, Florida. Her name is Sherry Fausey. She is a dynamic lady who, in 2000, sold her house and opened the school with the proceeds. Two hundred children attend the school. They are very excited. People who they do not know, from a city they do not know, from a country they consider “good,” are giving the money to finish building their school.

The cornerstone we present to their construction project reads “Sudbury, Haiti’s Good Neighbour in the Global Village.” The classroom has a cornerstone dedicated to Jean Hanson, in appreciation of her leadership to raise over $30,000 from the Rainbow Board schools, prior to her retirement as director of education. I explain to the children and their parents how Jean Hanson has a passion for special education. She has broken down barriers and built bridges of accessibility and opportunity for our kids. In this spirit, we hope this classroom will break down the barriers of devastation and provide the opportunity for education and a future for them.

Gerry Lougheed Jr. (right) stops to talk with Haitian youth, including “Junior” (far left), who walked around with a cracked cranium for a week after the Hatian earthquake.

Gerry Lougheed Jr. (right) stops to talk with Haitian youth, including “Junior” (far left), who walked around with a cracked cranium for a week after the Hatian earthquake.

I conclude by saying Sudburians would be proud that our rainbow has improved the light of their school. Curtis and I present a cheque for the construction and the food program. Sherry Fausey provides food for all the neighbourhood infants so they have a healthier start in life and can be better students in her school. She gives us the royal tour while the students, staff and parents celebrate the Sudbury donation with cupcakes, watermelon, pineapples, Coke and 7-Up.

One boy tells us it’s the first time he got to drink a whole bottle of pop without having to share with his brothers.

Meanwhile Sherry stands amidst the concrete blocks and building supplies indicating locations of classes and dormitories. She takes us down the road to the original school destroyed in the earthquake. The broken building did kill one young girl, but miraculously the other children escaped that terrible Thursday tremor. The concrete carcass is surrounded by tents and toilets. Motorcycles are parked outside the tents. Music blares within the tents and, again, the people wait and watch – for what? Sherry Fausey feeds 250 people with her food program. The monthly grocery bill is $4,500. She never has more than a month at a time saved up. Thanks to Sudbury, this has been a great lunch and launch for the school.

Karen takes us to four hospital facilities. She tells us the doctors and nurses do a very good job. Whether the tent hospital of the University of Miami or Doctors without Borders, or the bricks and mortar of Haitian private and public hospitals, she can always find help.

We tour the downtown of Port au Prince. The Royal Palace, Police Barracks, business properties and the Cathedral are collapsed. We walk around the cracked church and view a marketplace with hundreds of vendors and thousands of tent dwellers. Everything from antiquated typewriters to pirated DVDs are available.

The U.N. is useless. During the earthquake Karen had a man with an amputated foot bleeding profusely. She hailed a U.N. patrol for help. They didn’t stop, gave a thumbs up and walked by. She ended up getting help from Mother Teresa’s nuns.

The Haitian people are still proud and try their best to be self sufficient when given the opportunity — whether selling mangoes on the curb or converting their tent into a cinema to show DVD movies for an admission fee. As we tour, I note the people do not speak to us unless we speak to them first. We are ghosts, not because of our skin colour, but because we often are uninvited guests from away who tramp through their lives, as if visiting a human zoo.

I go to bed with a comfortable pillow and an uncomfortable head. Maybe the people are waiting and watching for us to ask them how to help. Maybe wearing matching T-shirts proclaiming volunteers’ efforts to distribute foodstuffs or remove some rubble are not an appreciated intervention but a rude intrusion.

Prior to my departure, Milad Mansour, a successful Sudburian, advises me he will be in Haiti at the same time our delegation will visit Haiti. He invites us to join him and several government officials for dinner. Karen and her team have never met these local leaders. It is a wonderful evening.

On behalf of Sudbury and Canada I offer a toast in the spirit of the Haitian national motto “Strength in Unity.” If we work together we can rebuild a strong Haiti — but only if we understand it must be a solution made in Haiti. One of our team, Tim Bos, has made 17 trips from Canada. He reinforced this concept. Tim tells of a church group who brought a refrigerator with a European electrical system. They presented it to a long-standing mission in Haiti. The do-gooders took photos, which they then posted on their website. They proclaimed they had helped the Haitian people. Since it had an incompatible voltage, it is now a book shelf, rather than a refrigerator. The missionary exclaimed “Hallelujah! Junk from Jesus.” People laughed.

Maybe the Haitian people are watching and waiting to share that laugh. To be given the resources and support to run their own humanitarian programs, to address their hunger and homelessness on their terms. Maybe our empathy, inspired by the earthquake, needs to be channeled like the Sudbury donations to those who can walk unafraid with those who live in the most dangerous slum in the world. The leadership of Haiti is negotiating with Milad Mansour to convert their rubble into roadways. Meanwhile, one of his dinner guests told Karen that, within 48 hours, the mother of the armless girl would get her passport. Sudbury provides another solution by providing a local network to help one another. I go to bed knowing the trip was worthwhile. I realize our community has helped build a school and an orphanage. I realize our “Sudbury something” has helped someone named Karen, Sherry, Benson, Junior, Manu, MacDonald and others who do not want a handout, but a hand up for Haiti.

Gerry Lougheed Jr. is managing director of Lougheed Funeral Homes, and is a Greater Sudbury community leader and activist. 

 

 


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