RELIGION

Aside from the large relief organizations, there is significant missionary presence which has appeared in Port Au Prince since the earthquake. Some of the groups mean well and are doing good work, some are attempting what is clearly some sort of food for faith evangelizing mission. We saw them in the streets on our way into the city from a Port Au Prince bus terminal in the middle of the night.

We were able to identify a couple of these persons affiliations and have found them to relate closely to persons having made disparaging remarks about Haitian cultural and religious traditions. From our work in Haiti we have learned that these traditions may be observed in some way or other, by the majority of the Haitian population. As this became more apparent, so too did the value of these practices to the people who practice them.

As an organization, CCRP is not in accordance with any of these attacks in any way. This unfortunate vulgarity lays bare the motivations of far too many relief workers in Haiti. Any attempt tie aid to what is essentially an attack on local cultural traditions smacks of Machiavellian fraud. Now, it is not as though Haiti is being overrun by white missionaries, but food for faith has attached to it strings. These strings can reach into the economic, and legal realm in ways that can affect the lives of Haitians in a profoundly negative manner,

This underscores our assertion that a self-reliant, locally lead approach to rebuilding the parts of Haiti damaged or removed by January's earthquake is the only feasible manner in which to achieve meaningful, sustainable solutions to the challenges Haiti now faces following such a disaster.