- ATD Fourth World

Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
I heard them weeping in the night. At daybreak, people found the strength to say, "Things are all right, thank God." Only later in the conversation did we learn that the man before us lost his wife and two of their children, and that this teenage girl is now alone to raise six younger siblings. What voice will they and others of this bereaved country have in the International Donors’ Conference? Michèle Montas, a Haitian journalist and former spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, shared with me her concern that social issues will not be sufficiently taken into account: "Rebuilding a country is not just about construction. We need to enable a people to rebuild the human community together. All of us can tell you our stories, but in truth, we are not really here, our spirits are with the departed, with those who remain under the rubble."

When this city was divided into sectors to receive aid through the World Food Programme, Grande Ravine—an impoverished hillside district with tens of thousands of residents—was not included. The pathways there are too narrow and steep for trucks. Security was considered too risky because of the district’s "bad reputation." All the distributions stopped at the barrier of social exclusion, a barrier that remained firmly in place despite the earthquake. ATD Fourth World’s team, which has been in Haiti since 1981, convinced Action Against Hunger (AAH) to bring aid to this district with the goals of reaching those who remained invisible, and of ensuring the respect and dignity of each person. One of the youths of Grande Ravine said, "The local leaders here don’t know those who are the worst off. We know that the leaders can have their own personal interests, which leads to conflicts. But ATD Fourth World has developed trust. Residents know its concern for reaching every family. This trust is the best security, even though gangs do operate here." This youth and others put all their energy into climbing the hillsides under the hot sun to ensure that no one would be forgotten.

Knowing well the families of this district was essential. One of AAH’s concerns was targeting children under age 6, for which they proposed measuring the children with a string in order to estimate their ages. But Rosana François who grew up in Grande Ravine explained to them, "People will be shocked if you visit them with a string. They measure height only when someone is dying and the coffin must be made. Parents will be angry, and then others will wonder why they refused to cooperate!" In the end, the distributions took place with no serious incidents. Although people sometimes began shouting, worn out by hunger and anguish, our team took time to speak respectfully with each one, and calm prevailed. Everyone was proud: "This is the first time that something in our district has been intended for everyone. And it was peaceful. This proves that our district is better than its reputation."

We know that our efforts must continue because, despite everything, some families were left out. We are very concerned about how to progress in partnerships with humanitarian organizations that are under pressure from their donors to be able to distribute items quickly, without the goal of reaching everyone in a given area. This leads to distributions where the slowest to arrive miss out completely, which foments anger and violence. Through this distribution in Grande Ravine, the members of ATD Fourth World teach us that having the goal of reaching everyone is what creates trust. The "other" no longer represents a risk, but a fellow citizen.

Michèle Montas asked ATD Fourth World to be a partner in the UN program "A voice for the people.” The goal is for all Haitians to have the opportunity to say what they want their country to be like and how to build it together. Ms. Montas knows that the voices of families like those in Grande Ravine have not yet been heard. Our members met with many young people and adults living in deep poverty, who said: "I wish they would stop pitting people against each other and leaving people out. I wish people would get together, that we no longer have ’middle-class children’ and ’poor children’." These families are unanimous in seeing international aid as a necessity. But they do not want the international community to supersede the national community. The families hope that each person will be taken into account in the reconstruction process, up to the poorest, up to the one "ki pi anba."

Increasingly frequent natural catastrophes rock a humanity that is already scarred by the violence of social exclusion, the violence of a society that is too sure of itself to consult people. This is why it is a mistake for our societies to delegate a few volunteers to care for emergency situations while others strive toward long-term projects. It is under emergency conditions that people committed with all their intelligence and humanity can pioneer the forging of a new human community based on the equal dignity of all.