Haiti

The news and images coming out of Haiti are devastating. How does a country,even with the help of nations around the world, cope with a natural disaster of this magnitude? Once aid arrives – food, water, medicine, personnel – how will it reach those who need it when Haiti’s infrastructure, poor to begin with, is buried and tangled with rubble?

How do organizations and people charged with coordinating rescue and aid efforts put one foot in front of the other when chaos surrounds them? Where do they start? Do they work like Mother Teresa did, going out and picking up one dying person among hundreds of others?

This earthquake and its human toll focuses attention again on true poverty in our world, forcing those in wealthy countries to look at the uncomfortable truth of injustice and poverty that is easy to ignore most of the time. Our personal concerns pale in comparison to those of the people of Port au Prince tonight.

In Haiti, dead pile up in morgues and along the streets. Many survivors are afraid to go into homes and buildings left standing, fearing they, too, might collapse when aftershocks hit. Dazed,people wander the streets with no place to go. How do they cope in this country, poorest in the Western Hemisphere, and least equipped to handle this catastrophe? How does hope survive?

At times like these, when victims and those who seek to help both are overwhelmed, can we remember that God walks with us? Or believe that God exists? Even in the midst of unspeakable suffering some in Port au Prince must. In an AP article (Jan 14), correspondent Jonathan Katz writes of song rising from those huddled together as night falls. Their prayer is an unexpected one, like Job’s from the dung heap: “Beni Swa Leternel.” “Blessed be the Lord.”

Many organizations are accepting monetary donations. Click here to make donation: Catholic Relief Services