PARTNERSHIP WITH THE COMMUNITY OF THE INCARNATION

Our primary destination in Haiti this fall is the Community of the Incarnation based in Pandiassou, a village near the City of Hinche in the Central Plateau.  Plans are being made now for our short visit.  Learning about The Little Brothers and Sisters of the Incarnation is an important part of the preparation for that visit.

Let's start here with their web site and their story told in their own words.  There is an English version for us who are linguistically limited.  Notice especially the large list of projects.  Two recent short articles about Brother Franklin Armand published by The Haiti Observer, a Haitian news blog, can be found here.  It is a convenient source of news about Haiti.

The Little Brothers and Sisters have decades of experience working with North American partners.  While their resources are gathered from many places, their connection to church-based partners is special.  Look, for instance, at their 20-year partnership with the Church of the Incarnation in Richmond VA.

One of the main reason we are attracted to the Little Brothers and Sisters is their approach to the mission of community development.  Notice that it is a holistic approach that includes both material and spiritual sharing.  It is not a one-way delivery of resources from the rich to the poor.  It is about building community and capacity together.  It invites a mutual sharing experience of solidarity in which all those involved can be transformed.  Certainly that is the testimony of those who made our first visit last year.  We have a new vision of Haiti . . . and of ourselves.

May I suggest that going to spend a week in Haiti -- or any place challenged by hunger, thirst, and insecurity -- is not a justified use of resources when measured only by the limited benefit of those in need and peril; more is required of us.  The trip is about being open to the prospect of our own transformation from being remote observers to being engaged partners.  The trip is about getting new, corrected vision. It is about what happens and what we do when we return.

Will we be partners instead of patrons?

--kjl