Noise in Haiti--July 2021

 

Photo by Leon

There is a lot of noise surrounding the killing of Haiti's president. 

Who killed President Moise or had him killed? And why? Who is the Prime Minister now? Who is the acting Haitian President now? Will the Americans come and patrol Haitian streets again? Will the UN return to Haiti to do both good and bad?

These are important questions but discussing them does not put food on the table of hungry Haitians today. 

And I don’t mean to sound snarky with this question but how much worse off are the majority of Haitians now that their president is gone? Killing him and severely injuring his wife was absolutely wrong in every sense, but most Haitians lives have not changed since his murder. Is all the noise surrounding this so important?

Haitians were suffering greatly before their president died. And this afternoon gangs are still shooting as they were before the assassination. Haitians are still afraid and hiding in their homes. Chaos seems to be the only constant in their lives. 

How do we ignore the noise that is so distracting from the critical needs of 11 million people? How do we help them today? 

My simple answer is to forget the tired old adage of "teaching people how to fish". Why not use a transfer service to wire money to a Haitian family and let them use it as they see fit? There will be no middle man to help himself to the money--except, of course, the Haitian government which removes $1.50 on each transfer. In 2020 the Haitian diaspora in the US sent 3.8 billion dollars in remittances back to their Haitian families. 

Ignoring the noise is so hard to do. But staying focused on helping Haitians in their acute need has never been so important. 

John A. Carroll, MD

www.haitianhearts.org