One year on from the devastating earthquake which killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people on Haiti, there are “stories of hope” emerging from the rubble, according to a west Fife charity.
Dunfermline’s Vine Church, home of the charity lemonaid, has worked tirelessly on the island over the last year. But its involvement with helping those less fortunate goes back much further, spanning three decades and many countries.
The charity was working on Haiti itself long before the disaster struck the island. Just days after the earthquake hit, a team from the charity was on the island seeing what it could do to help.
While the world’s focus has moved on to other crises around the globe, the volunteers are still quietly getting on with their work, making regular trips with vital supplies and aid.
Lemonaid founder Justin Dowds is on his way with 2500 rehydration packs and cholera vaccinations and plans for the new hospital, which will replace the old Wesleyan hospital on the island of Lagonave.
The organisation Vine Church is on a former soft drinks factory site in Dunfermline had planned to rebuild the hospital before the quake, but saw its plans restarted from scratch as it was irreparably damaged.More information on lemonaid’s works can be found here.While there were fears of widespread cholera, Jimmy, the father of Justin and pastor of the church, said the charity’s hospital had not seen one single case.
“The problem really is clean water and rehydration over there, so we are working on a water treatment plant to get that up and running. We had the wells in place, but some of the water wasn’t good, hence the need for a water treatment plant, which can purify the water, get the salt out and make it good,” he said.Colossal taskThe challenges are huge for everyone involved and setbacks are nothing new, as Jimmy explained. “We built a road, then the floods came and washed the road away, then we started again, then the earthquake hit, so we start again.”
Now there are plans for the hospital. But that isn’t always as straightforward a task as it might appear, either.
Jimmy said, “There is the logistics of getting steel, wood, materials like that, into a place like Haiti. We are thinking of starting a factory that would also give work to some of the people there and we are still working through that.
“There was a government ban on using local earth for bricks as it wasn’t good enough quality, then there was a year’s ban on new constructions as there had been no construction regulations.
“We have a team going out in March for the usual inoculation project, but there will be others going along and we’re hoping to get the foundations of the hospital down.”
There is a resilience to the Haitian people and a determination to rebuild what they have lost, despite the horrendous conditions they are living in. The volunteers see remarkable things which bring joy to them. This includes the story of a youngster badly injured in the quake.
“They had amputated part of one foot and were ready to amputate the other foot when Justin said there was no need as there was no gangrene,” Jimmy said.
With their intervention, and the discovery of a team of medics who stepped in to operate, that wee girl is now reported to be “running about Lagonave.”
“She has part of both feet missing, but that’s not stopping her,” he said.
While not disputing they are still only steps along a very long road to bringing some kind of better life to the islanders, Jimmy added, “Our adage for 30 years has been that no one can change the whole world. But every single person can change somebody’s whole world. That’s what we try to do.”
While there are doctors, nurses and dentists heading to the island in March under the lemonaid banner, the team is on the lookout for an optician who would be interested in helping.Anyone who would like more information should contact the Vine at 01383 631001.