Reviving Haiti through partnership and prayer

By Harriett Jane Olson
deputy general secretary, Women's Division
General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church

The attention of the world has been captured by the results of a deadly confluence of racism, international policies and natural disaster in Haiti and United Methodist Women see it as a moral imperative to engage in the response to help combat these harsh circumstances.

For 140 years, women in Methodist congregations have been organized to respond to the needs of women and children in the United States and beyond. In moments like these in Haiti, our faith impels us to respond to the needs of others. Drawing from our experience, our beliefs and the power of our nearly one million members, we are emphasizing these approaches to aid with the relief efforts in Haiti.

First, we are drawing on our long-standing relationships with grass-roots groups in Haiti and the Dominican Republic to ensure that immediate needs are addressed. We have released emergency grants to these groups and are collecting more funds for their continuing work. Almost daily we get reports of the progress they are making and the obstacles they are experiencing. We have also made time for prayer, joining the women of the Methodist-related Evangelical Church in the Dominican Republic in the week following the earthquake.

Second, we are working closely with the United Methodist Commission on Relief (UMCOR). Along with others around the country, the United Methodist Women is contributing to the funds collected for Haiti and have collected materials and assembled health kits that are flooding the collection depots for distribution in Haiti. Unfortunately, we also join many others in mourning the loss of our UMCOR colleagues who perished in the quake and its aftermath.

Third, we are working with other women's groups to ensure that women's voices are heard as relief and recovery efforts are organized. We are working with others at the Commission on Status of Women at the United Nations in this effort. Women in Haiti should not be ignored and must be heard in the places where decisions are made in order for the relief efforts to connect to the needs of their children and communities. This is an opportunity to reverse some of the harms of the past. The women in these communities are the experts in what they need, how goods should be delivered and what the community can handle itself. The work will require the wisdom of these women, and creating a response that supports their needs is essential.

Fourth, we will continue our advocacy for a serious reexamination of the trade and monetary policies that contributed to the economic condition that exists in Haiti. We celebrate the grant of Temporary Protective Status to Haitian people in the United States, and join Secretary Geitner and the G-7 leaders in calling for complete debt forgiveness for Haiti. Sustainability must be part of the design of the work in Haiti. We also ask the United States and others to review trade policies which block agricultural products from Haiti and we join with groups who bring a long-term commitment to reforestation of the denuded hills of this country.

We expect to be long-term partners with the women and the grass-roots organizations in Haiti. We will look for ways to hear their voices, to support their capacity development, and to follow their wisdom in all the ways we can. This means that we will continue to learn. We will express our "love of God" and our "love of neighbor" together and we also will be forever changed. As with the four other approaches, our faith calls on us to do nothing less.

Harriett Jane Olson is the deputy general secretary of the Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. As such, she is chief executive officer of the Women's Division, the national administrative and policymaking arm of United Methodist Women.

By Harriett Jane Olson |  March 8, 2010; 1:02 PM ET Save & Share:                 
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