- ATD Fourth World

ATD Fourth World has been present in Haiti since 1981, committed alongside families in hillside hamlets and urban districts, joining forces with communities and local partners, working together for all people to have access to knowledge, health services and training, and creating places for people of all backgrounds to come together in the struggle against poverty.

Just after the tragedy that shattered Haiti and the world, Eugen Brand, Director General of ATD Fourth World, entitled his press release, “Haiti: Together Now and in the Long Run.” By doing so, he expressed a hope and expectation held by Haitian people and all of us. He wrote: “Once again, Haiti has been battered in its progress towards a better future for all. We know the Haitian people, and we know that they should be a guiding reference for the world. Their courage, wisdom and solidarity are stronger than the misery and catastrophes gripping their country.”

A guiding reference for the world: According to Dany Laferrière, that’s the very role of Haiti’s poorest people. In an interview granted on January 15, 2010, to an AFP journalist (Agence France Presse), he stated: “What saved this city is the energy of the poorest people. Trying to help, to look for something to eat, all these people created a great energy throughout the city. They gave the sense that the city was alive. Without them, Port-au-Prince would have remained a dead city. (…) It’s time to go directly to the people and to finally do something audacious for this country.” Dany Lafferière, Haitian writer and winner of a major French literary award, le Prix Médicis, in 2009, was one of the guests at a literary festival to take place from January 14 to 21 in Port-au-Prince.

In Haiti as elsewhere, families living in situations of the most extreme poverty show solidarity with others, day-in and day-out, despite the countless tragedies they have been through. Will they be at the heart of their country’s reconstruction and future?

The testimonies included in this edition of the Letter to Friends confirm a central point: In Haiti and around the world, the poorest people are inviting us to take part in a historic occasion to shape the future of our common humanity. Let’s seize this opportunity.

Huguette Redegeld

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In this issue of the Letter to Friends (click below to download it), you will discover concrete efforts being made in Benin, Argentina, Portugal, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, New Zealand, India and Colombia.

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