Relationships Matter

I wanted to tell you a short story about how important relationships are in Haiti. And no, I am not talking about personal intimate relationships; I am talking about relationships between organizations that are trying to uild a better Haiti.

When I first moved to Haiti in August of 2009 I had the opportunity to work with street children through an organization called SOPUDEP (www.sopudep.org). Thanks to the hard work of Rea Dol, Director of SOPUDEP, H.E.R.O. has formed a strong partnership with SOPUDEP. Together H.E.R.O. and SOPUDEP have worked to educate street children, distributed disaster relief supplies, and learned Kreyol (H.E.R.O). and English (SOPUDEP). This is a partnership that has worked most importantly to benefit the people of Haiti.

When I returned to Haiti on March 30th, 2010 I looked around and commented on my Blog that I did not see the presence of the American Red Cross. After my Aunt Carolyn e-mailed the media relations department, I toured their work in Haiti, I printed my retraction. To top it off, the American Red Cross has gone beyond this, upon my humble request, and donated 100 tarps to SOPUDEP. Wow!

SOPUDEP is in the process of building temporary classrooms for their students. The school was damaged during the earthquake, and they are currently holding classes outside in the hot sun. This project is utilizing locally harvested bamboo, tarps, and a small concrete block foundation to create classrooms.

The lesson to obtain from this is that relationships between organizations in Haiti are the most important factor that will result in a better Haiti. The American Red Cross (a very large organization), SOPUDEP (a medium sized local grassroots organization), and H.E.R.O. (a small organization) effectively partnered together to benefit the children of Haiti. This is what collaboration, disaster relief, and efficient programs look like. Together, we can do even more!

Sincerely,

Steven Kirby

President