Joe Desrochers love of Haiti is relatively new. His first trip to the Caribbean country was in April 2012, and came about because his aunt Claire has been helping for the past five years with different organizations helping the hard-hit nation.
Haiti has made worldwide news several times in the past few years thanks to a massive earthquake in January 2010 that left a huge number of people homeless or dead (the exact numbers are disputed, with the Haitian government claiming over 300,000 dead and more than a million homeless; USAID numbers are significantly smaller). This tragedy was followed by Haiti’s first outbreak of cholera in October of that year which was subsequently made worse by Hurricane Tomas.
Currently, the country suffers from 80 per cent unemployment, said Desrochers, and the people survive on $2 a day.
But numbers don’t tell much of a story, statistics are faceless and don’t speak to what life is like these days in Haiti.
Desrochers’s presentation at the Seniors Hall in Nakusp painted a different picture. Armed with a computer full of photos and a heart filled with memories, Joe told the room about what has become the focus of his life for the past year.
Reading through Joe Desrochers’ journal entries about his trips to Haiti, there are consistent themes: the heat, the everyday work involved in the construction of projects, and overwhelming heartbreak and love.
It was through giving donations for projects in the country that Desrochers first became involved with Haiti. Wanting to see where his money was going, Desrochers decided to go on an 11-day “fact-finding” mission to the school and women’s co-op in Jeremie he was sending funds to.
It was clear early on in his presentation that Desrochers found far more than just facts when he reached the country. Several times during the slide show he had to stop and wipe tears from his eyes, his voice breaking with emotion.
“These people don’t have anything,” he said in one of these moments, standing in front of a house cobbled together from tin roofing and palm mats. It’s easy to see he’s not exaggerating.
At the orphanage near Port au Prince, the kids have been left without even parents. Some have been orphaned by the destruction of the quake, others by disease taking their parents, and others face hardship along with what’s left of their families. There are still many refugees from the capital in the countryside
Stories of children being sold and prostituted to earn money for food, stories of abuse and neglect, have traveled with Desrochers from Haiti and stay with him still. What he discovered he was funding at the orphanage and the school was a place where kids without families get fed three meals a day and get medical attention when they need it.
Rules surrounding adoption of kids in Haiti have become more strict as a result of the abuse that took place in the aftermath of the quake, making the process more official, safer and more difficult.
It is clear from his journal that for Desrochers getting buildings up wasn’t enough. Although the construction of housing for more babies was important, it is the moments when the kids are able to be kids, laughing and playing, that give him the biggest reward.
“There’s nothing like 20 happy laughing kids to end the day,” he wrote during his first visit to the orphanage.
Children aren’t the only ones who benefit from the work Joe and a crew of volunteers give. Six new medical rooms and a waiting room allow a clinic to be run, staffed by medical teams from Canada and the U.S. The number of people who need medical help is staggering: between 200 and 300 people per day visit the clinic needing anything from antibiotics to surgery.
In Jeremie, a group of a hundred women farm and sell produce thanks to the help of the nuns who live at the convent there. Food was one of the gifts Desrochers gave. Rice and beans were the daily fare (with the occasional spaghetti dish too, one of Joe’s favourites).
“There was never enough food,” said Desrochers who recalls efforts to feed the village. People came from all around, and in the photo he showed us, the barred kitchen was surrounded by the hungry who jostled for position in line. Eventually figuring out how to distribute fair portions, Desrochers and the other workers handed out plates of rice and beans to children and mothers first.
Getting enough food to feed the hungry wasn’t the only tense moment Desrochers encountered. In order to transport goods, the polite Canadian had to learn how to “drive like a Haitian,” which meant learning to lean on the horn and go. A tangle with a local weed he decided to clear out of one area resulted in near blindness when its sticky juice got into his eyes.
Treating the stuff by putting sugar in his eyes, Desrochers sight was sensitive to light but still there the next day. A night arriving late to the gates of where he was staying and seeing two men approaching him in the dark got his heart racing. Fortunately, one of the men was someone who knew him, and hollered for the night guard to let Joe in.
None of these hardships put Desrochers off his mission. In fact, reflecting back on his time in Haiti threw choices he’d made before his time there into sharp relief. Buying a new truck or car or boat now seemed like “idiotic purchases” to him.
“What was I thinking?” Desrochers wrote wrote in his journal, questioning the value of his own wealth when others have virtually nothing. “My perspective on life has changed… How can we have so much when others have so little?” The experience of helping people in Haiti has been life changing, one that has opened his eyes to the deep value of generosity.
Desrochers is careful to give people something they will use. In Haiti, there are buildings that don’t get used because there is no money to fund staff or fill the buildings with the equipment needed to run a school or clinic. The next project he is taking part in is a water line that will bring water down from a hillside spring, saving the time and energy of the women who have to walk for hours every day to get water for their households. Local people will work together on a common goal, building a spirit of cooperation as well as the water line.
Desrochers emphasized he is no saint, that he is dedicated to helping because it makes him feel good. He isn’t alone; a crew of volunteers and paid staff keep working to help people in Haiti help themselves, and he invites anyone interested to help too.
“Anyone wants a project,” he told the audience at the Seniors Hall, “let me know.” Desrochers has already had local people donate, something he is very grateful for and one of the results of sharing his experiences in Haiti.
“Most people don’t get it. I didn’t get it,” he said, “I knew there were a lot of hungry people in the world, and they were pretty easy to ignore. But once in Haiti, I was invited into their homes, to actually see what little they survive on. It became very personal. It was so hard to see and not do something about it. It hurt so much, but it also felt so great to help. I have never felt so good and so bad at the same time. Such a mixture of emotion. It really is indescribable.”