Hannah & Haiti: Foster

I wanted to write a piece about the verb ‘to foster.’ I wanted to contrast NGOs that foster dependency with those that foster relationships. I was motivated by two groups of short term volunteers working in the area and the stark contrast between their work and that of Friends for Health in Haiti. I had clever lines about Foster Farms and Australian beer but in the end the entire piece turned into a big chunk of cynicism. In brief, and with minimal sarcasm, here are the salient points:

1) Orphanages are awful endeavors that should be the last resort only when extended family cannot foster the children. The “three meals and two juices a day” you may think you are providing are likely not there when you are not.

2) Short term mission groups should learn A) how to pronounce the name of where they’re working and B) what it is they can reasonably accomplish that doesn’t just foster dependency. For example, if a patient comes to your LPN-only clinic and states they are only there because they can’t afford the $1 consultation fee to be seen at the doctor’s clinic, you offering to pay their fee guarantees only one thing: that all of our patients will now be coming to you first.

3) Long term commitments that are requested by, supported by, and accomplished with local people are the best way to bring about positive change in any setting – especially resource-limited places like Haiti. The only way to do this is by first slowly and patiently fostering relationships with the very people you’re trying to serve.

Development takes time. People who wake up at 0200 to walk for miles to sit outside a little hut for hours and patiently wait for their 10 minutes with the doctor don’t want a clinic that is built overnight. Rome wasn’t built in a day and if it had been who would have cared if it fell down the next? Easy come, easy go.
Very little about establishing the Centre de Sante de Gatineau has been easy. The journey to the clinic –both literally and figuratively – is littered with more than its fair share of pot holes. But this journey also brings greetings from friends, waves from smiling children and random gifts of fresh fruit and bread. It’s enough to make even the biggest cynic smile.