It's been an extraordinary year in Haiti. On this, the one year anniversary of the earthquake, we find time to reflect on what has been and what's to come. Besides the pain and suffering there have been great moments of joy and hope. Yesterday, much of the media is focusing on what has not been done and what is claimed to be the failure of the international community. We have been working in Haiti for years before the earthquake and our view is different. Of course there have been frustrations but we are proud of what we have accomplished.
Together we have distributed millions of dollars in food and medicine, built health clinics, homes, one of the largest Cholera Camps in Haiti and in October opened our new Secondary School, the Academy for Peace and Justice. We are proud of our work and have spent nearly every dollar donated directly helping the people. Along the way and through all of the basic relief activities we met Rapheal Louigene, the hardest working Haitian we have ever met, and that's saying something.
Rapheal works for another great man Father Rick Frechette at St. Damiens hospital in Port-au-Prince. After long days providing care Rapheal would talk about the Port-au-Prince he knew as a kid. A city filled with tree-lined streets, working infrastructure and beauty, his
fondest memories were of going to see movies in the old colonial theaters downtown. All of those theatres collapsed in the earthquake and Rapheal dreamt of rebuilding them. In our spare time we built our own movie theatre in four days on a hill above a tent camp, the
first theater to be built since the earthquake (and the only functioning movie theater in Haiti). While it may seem frivolous in the face of such tragedies, it has proven that bringing joy and light and laughter is also an important part of the healing process. We spent months after the earthquake trying to heal the massive wounds at our hospital what we left behind from those wounds were deep scars.
Now, one year on, we are beginning to fix those scars and bring a country back to its feet.
Watch the full movie below and feel free to pass it on.
href="http://vimeo.com/15065164">SUN CITY PICTURE HOUSE from href="http://vimeo.com/user4358719">David Darg & Bryn Mooser
on Vimeo.
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