ACT Alliance

By Maria Halava

The head of the world’s largest grouping of Christians has described ACT Alliance projects in earthquake devastated Haiti as important.

World Council of Churches General Secretary Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit said on the first day of a visit to Haiti that he felt honored to be in the country and see how the churches could respond to people’s needs.

Tveit and an ecumenical delegation have visited projects supported by ACT, a coalition of humanitarian and development organisations whose members are related to the WCC and the Lutheran World Federation. ACT for many years has had a strong presence in Haiti. In the wake of the earthquake, it now works to provide cash distributions, food, emergency shelter, psychosocial support, tools to clear rubble, kitchen and hygiene items, and water and sanitation facilities.

Over 2 million people were affected by the earthquake, which killed an estimated 230,000. Nearly 188,000 houses were destroyed or damaged leaving 1.5 million people displaced. Around 1200 settlements were created to house the homeless. Just over 85 percent of schools in affected areas were damaged or destroyed.

Tveit visited a community centre on the outskirts of Port au Prince supported by ACT member Norwegian Church Aid which carries out various psychosocial activities ranging from painting, dancing, martial arts inspired dance, capoeira, rain water harvesting, supplying biogas digesters and tree planting.

"It is important that churches and church-related organizations give their input in this situation.  The projects carried out by ACT Alliance members, for example, are important,” Tveit says.

He was pleased to see that local people were involved in the activities. "They are not just receivers of aid, but they have taken the responsibility themselves. Even in a situation like this, they continue their lives,” Tveit said after visiting the centre. "It is significant that the Haitians themselves are involved in all reconstruction work.”

Change will take some time

The ecumenical delegation saw that people living in the camps were still under plastic sheeting and vulnerable to the rainy and hurricane seasons that had already started. "It will take a long time until we can see the change,” pastor Bernice Powell Jackson, president of the WCC from North America said.

She compared the situation with that of New Orleans where Hurricane Katrina hit five years ago. "It looked like the damage was so bad that nothing could be done. But now five years later you can see the progress,” she said.

The delegation visited camps in Petion Ville together with ACT member Church World Service which supports an organisation working with people with disabilities. "Before the earthquake, there were approximately 800,000 people living with disabilities. Now there might be a million,” Jackson said.

For Haitians to rebuild their lives, mental and spiritual healing would be needed. "Together we can try to find ways how to strengthen the fellowship of churches,” Lorenzo Mota King, executive director of ACT member Social Services of the Dominican Churches said. The Dominican Republic has shown extensive solidarity towards Haiti after the earthquake and exemplified the work of global south members of ACT.