February 11, 2010
Message from Kobe,
A friend living in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Carrefour. He is working to interview and assist people living in an encampment of several hundred people there.
“The worst has begun because last night it rained. Most people are living under sheets, not tarps. I’m trying to build some better shelter, and need waterproof material. At the moment we need $200 US. I’m supposed to buy some fabric so we can cover them. It’s very dark and it is going to rain more.”

- PINP is sending money for the tarps.

Click button above (near bottom right of screen) to view in full screen.

See Haiti for yourself with a Reality tour by Beyond Borders. And visit your partner while you’re there!

Transformational Travel to Haiti focusing on the Restavek System in Haiti
Dates:  October 17 - 24, 2009

Click here for details
Click here for information about Beyond Borders

Here’s an informal announcement about an important new kind of project we are making possible at People in Need Partnership: Proposals. Through Proposals, any group of people in need can create a proposal on any community project - Carefully thinking it through, adding photos and details, raising funds, building and maintaining it, and interacting with the group of contributors to the Proposal.

Our first two Proposals are now open for your participation. One of them is a Goat proposal, which is a way to help very poor Haitians avoid the exodus to the slums of Hait. I met the Coordinator of this project, Ronald, while walking late one night in downtown, Port-au-Prince. Click here to see the Goat proposal.

-- Geoff

To partners and friends of People in Need Partnership:

Last week in Port-au-Prince, Haiti we held our first meetings to explore the dreams of people in need. During the meeting for children I noticed a girl who was particularly enthusiastic about her hopes to become a business owner and nurse. Then I noticed the fresh wounds on her arms and face. It turns out that MadMadelene St. Vilelene, a restavek (child slave), received the wounds from the woman she is living with and who abuses her.

It has always been a mystery to me why extreme poverty exists. We care so much for ourselves and our own children. Why should we not care for others, who in reality are the same as us? Surely the explanation is ignorance, and lack of insight and courage. If this is so, there is no logical reason that any problem that has at its root broken relationships could not be solved through direct, healing human action. This applies not just to poverty, but violence of any kind, as well as loneliness and depression. Dependence on large organizations (or medications) to resolve these global issues is an escape and fortifies the problem. The solution is hearts that are more open and courageous, and minds that are more clear and insightful.

At People in Need Partnership we are on a mission to see this theory through to its conclusion, beginning in Haiti slums. To that end, we have recently added several new programs that can help make your partnership more alive.

We are in the process of creating a new Digital Storytelling program. Each partner will create a 6 - 10 minute video, telling their own story of what matters most to them, including events from their childhood, their present life, and experiences with People in Need Partnership. They may include drawings, photos, or songs. Our video director Myriam is assisting each partner in creating the video, and will also be producing a monthly 5 - 10 minute video on an aspect of our programs, which you will receive. We hope that these videos will provide you with another window into our work and the life and realities of your partner.

With our new Coordinator system (each group of 5 - 8 partners has a Coordinator chosen from partners) we have been able to improve the ability of partners to send messages, and you can now expect to receive at least two per month, in addition to updates on the progress of your partner in our programs. If you are not getting these, please let us know ASAP! You may also now schedule a free live video conversation with your partner (we provide the translator), which is a great way to get a sense of her or his personality. We are also now providing the chance to send a package of up to three pounds directly to your partner, by simply sending it to our address in the U.S. Details about these and other ways to develop your partnership are available at your Partnership page, by clicking on the links on the right sidebar.

Achieve a dream!

Just this week we began to hold workshops on a new and unique feature of People in Need Partnership: ‘Achieve a dream!’ During this workshop we explore the meaning of having a calling in life, and help each partner design a preliminary five or ten year plan to reach it. This is a dramatic and even audacious ambition. Most development organizations assume that only those with their basic needs already met can focus on higher qualities such as what is in their hearts (a theory often referred to as ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy’). Our experience, in rich and poor countries, shows just the opposite.

Soon you will receive a copy of the ‘Life plan’ that your partner created. At the end of the first year of your partnership you will have three options: continue the partnership for an additional year; discontinue it; or join together in a mutual commitment with your partner to achieve a dream. Whether your partner wants to be a teacher, nurse, journalist, artist, or whatever they envision, this joint action can change the world by taking a person who otherwise might languish in suffering, and create repercussions that will be incalculable.

The child slave Madeline was utterly without the means to improve her desperate position until she found a partner with People in Need Partnership. There is nothing we can’t achieve when we set our sights with each other.

Life-plan workshop

On your Partnership page you will also find a link to our new feature that explores a universal theme using a Tree of Understanding and Action. Please feel free to explore the tree and add your own leaves or fruit! Also, Linda Khachadurian, a freelance writer, visited us in Haiti this month and produced a photojournal about her experiences, which you can find from a link on the home page of our site.

In providing all these opportunities, we don’t intend to ask anything more from you, and we especially are not requesting that you contribute any more money. Our goal is simply to create more tools that you can use to develop your relationship with your partner. The way in which you choose to do this is entirely up to you.

What do we mean by a ‘real’ relationship? It is not just learning about the life of your partner. And it’s not just care for their well-being. There is a deeper level, a quality that is rare even in the closest and more direct relationships: the capacity to address injuries not just to the bodies but the souls of others. This is what is needed for transformative effects.  It is compassion for the integrity of souls.

In Partnership,

Geoff
People in Need Partnership

Haiti staff

People in Need Partnership staff, Haiti: Sophia, Cajuste, Geoff, Myriam, and Marcel

P.S. Yes, our new name is People in Need Partnership (formerly People in Need), which we have chosen to reflect our mission and action more clearly.

To a partner, friend and sponsor of a person in need in Haiti:

People in Need was created to answer this question: Is it possible for one human being to truly care for another, even though they have nothing in common except for their shared humanity? This letter contains news about several new programs we have developed as we continually strive to answer that question by saying Yes!

Our new system depends on Coordinators, whom we have chosen from our Haitian partners. Each Coordinator assists a group of 5 – 8 members in their neighborhood. Mothers receive a telephone and a camera; Coordinators who are children are given a telephone but no camera. All this is part of our effort to decentralize, and to give more power and responsibility directly to our partners. It also makes possible more frequent updates, personal messages, and photos, and you can now expect to receive at least two per month. You will also now receive email notifications when messages are sent.

Video messages are a new way your partner can communicate with you. During the month of October, 2008 you will receive a short clip (one or two minutes) of your partner speaking to you about their life. (Another option coming soon is video conferencing, where you will have the chance to talk face-to-face with your partner!)

Another new program is Birthday celebrations. We visit your partner’s home on their birthday with gifts, cake and beverages. Though obviously not necessary in a practical sense, we are delivering a crucial heart-to-heart message, especially poignant since none of our partners has ever had a birthday party before. Your partner knows that this is a gift directly from you, not from People in Need. You can expect to receive a video clip of the celebration shortly after your partner’s birthday (the date is noted on your Financial plan). (Click here for a sample.)

Occasionally your partner visits our center in Port-au-Prince for workshops and classes. We recently held a drawing workshop. If you are the partner of a child, you will receive a drawing that your partner drew specifically for you within a week or two. Some of the children had never before had the opportunity to draw on paper.

On my recent trip to Haiti – I just returned yesterday – I was struck by the principles and commitment of our staff. All are working, at barely subsistence wages, because they believe in our project. You can read about them, and see their regular news updates, by going to News from People in Need (a link you can find on the home page of the website), and clicking on the picture of each (more will be added soon).

City of Brothers, Sept 25 2008

Haiti is a country that is among the most suffering on the earth. Four major storms (Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ika) have struck the country during the last two months. Six hundred people have died and crucial infrastructure, agriculture, and housing has been destroyed. None of our partners (who are located in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel, in the center and south of the country) were injured; but some of their homes were flooded, or were destroyed, and many are now in even greater need than before. A section on emergency help needed will be added to our website.

Getting around in Haiti is done on tap-taps (communal taxis in converted pickup trucks), or on the back of hired motorbikes. Just a couple of days ago I was thrown off of one of these underpowered vehicles as it flew backwards into the air, and I landed hard on my back on the pavement. Luckily I escaped injury. Our work in the slums (especially Cite Soleil) is also considered dangerous: most foreigners (and Haitians) wouldn’t enter without an armed guard (the United Nations has a large peacekeeping force in the area). But we are working with local community leaders who have the respect of their community, and who protect us. We have never encountered any real trouble.

Most trouble is a creation of the mind. This goes for trouble of all kinds – especially poverty, hunger, sickness, and exploitation (obviously once they are created they exist outside of the mind as well). Our minds create our culture; and culture creates our political life and everyday reality. With clarity and courage there is nothing we can’t do to create the world we envision. It all begins with the simplest human relationship: the one true way we have of dealing with a stranger. If we can do this with care and understanding, the nature of our position in the world changes. We are truly building ‘One relationship for the world.’

News about other programs is coming in future newsletters. As a preview, you may want to take a look at Other ways you can help (a link on the home page of our website).

In Partnership,

Geoff