I am afraid I will forget.

It’s been almost a year since an earthquake shattered Haiti. In fact my birthday, January 12th, will be the first anniversary of the devastation, and by the time that date passes, thousands will have died from the cholera epidemic that hit the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere just one month ago.

I work for an international disaster relief organization whose people have been laboring around the clock in Haiti these ten months. Most of my work revolves around marketing, social media, and creative input in various communications projects. I make sure our supporters know what our international staff is up to and I work to gain the awareness and support of still more individuals. Haiti, though, has changed the way I think about these things.

Cholera hit nine months after the earthquake, and two weeks into the outbreak, most Americans had all but lost interest. Even now, the highest levels of response and engagement come when we report that the number of deaths and infections has risen. The statistics are always repeated and my organization is viewed as a reputable source for information. And yes, those are goals I have in my line of work. But.

But will the 200 people in the 125-bed clinic live to see tomorrow? Will the nurse be able to get IV fluids into the two-year-old girl who is so severely dehydrated that finding a vein is proving impossible? Will the man who was driven to the clinic on a motorcycle, while unconscious, ever open his eyes to see the bright Haitian sky again? Will the boy who’s playing soccer in Cite Soleil take a swig of cholera-infected water when he flops down to break from the heat?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, and to be quite honest with you, I don’t think about these questions as often as I wonder how I can use that picture of the dying child to get you to care enough to follow our updates on Facebook. Yes, it sounds shallow.

But I don’t really care about the tweets or the status updates or the number of views on YouTube. I care that there are thousands of people infected with a disease that is alarmingly preventable. I care that relief supplies are being held useless and that manipulation of last Sunday’s election could stall aid for desperate people. I care that a lot of organizations collected money in January and only a few are doing the large majority of actual work.

I care that most of you didn’t know these details, but that these facts are pushed into my face day after day; they are told beside pictures of mothers cradling their sick children, filmed by friends who’ve just returned from the clinics, spoken through the clenched teeth and tear-filled eyes of exhausted medical staff as they hydrate one more patient, sing to one more sick babe.

I care that I am at a loss for how to make America give a damn.

Since 2001, I’ve pitied people whose birthdays or anniversaries fall on the eleventh of September, a date that will forever pass in infamy in the minds of American people. I can tell you from experience, that kind of shadow will not always fall over January 12th—indeed, most people today could not name the date the ground cracked beneath an already broken land.

I am afraid I will forget. I fear that January 12th will pass for me as another year I’m single, or another year I’m not where I thought I’d be in life. I fear wishing I had a little more money in my bank account, rather than wishing I could save a few more people from death by waterborne disease.

I’m afraid I’ll never be capable of adequately conveying the urgency of this situation to a population who may not hear about it anywhere else. I’m afraid Haitians will keep on dying, and I’m afraid we could be stopping it.

Haiti Cholera Edpidemic - Urgent Appeal from Matt Powell on Vimeo.

Progress in Haiti

It's been a bit over six months since the earthquake in Haiti, and all the news most people are hearing is negative. Progress isn't being made, the streets are still filled with rubble, thousands remain homeless, recovery is paralyzed.

A lot of these things are true in some ares of Haiti. But there's more. The reporters saying these things are primarily in Port au Prince because that's where much of the destruction took place. There were more buildings before the quake and thus, today there is more rubble. There's a lot of red tape involved in relief, and in many cases it's easier to get things accomplished outside of the cities. There's space available to construct temporary shelters, there's land to create shelter communities, there are people who escaped the chaos of the city-- there's room for progress-- and I assure you, that progress is being made.

This video is a bit long, but you can see for yourself, good things are happening.

Wednesday Letters: Dear Haiti

Dear Haiti,

I wish I had words to speak that would bring healing, comfort, even just the basic emotion of feeling safe. I wonder what it must be like, to feel the earth move beneath you, followed by the chaos of struggling to survive.

I am sure you felt that struggle long before the ground shook. I am sure your faces have woken up to the kinds of sunrises we dream about here beneath the florescent lights of our offices, and longed for the kind of food we consume in our rush between meetings. I am sure that sleeping beneath the stars last night was not so very different for many of your people. I am sure that a majority of us who saw your rubble on the news this morning do not know you are the poorest nation in our hemisphere.

Or sadly, we do, and yet it took the literal moving of the earth for us to send so many to your rescue. I'm sorry, Haiti. I'm sorry that I am one who did not pay attention. I'm sorry.

So now, late but not too late, you are in our prayers, our thoughts, our pleads to the God of love. Let us be the hands of Jesus as we descend upon your land.

Here's more info about Haiti from One Day's Wages:

Haiti ranks as one of the least developed countries in the world, and has an approximate population of 10 million, with most citizens living below $2 per day. According to the World Food Program, more than half live on less than $1 per day – in extreme global poverty…One Day’s Wages has committed $5,000 from our General Giving Fund to aid in the relief efforts and now, we invite you to join us.

*There are many ways to help Haiti today. Here are a few:

- Compassion (or click the button, top right)

- American Red Cross

- Samaritan's Purse

- Donate $10 to be charged to your cell phone bill by texting "HAITI" to "90999."

- One Day's Wages

- UNICEF

- A list of 11 more from Desiring God

___________________________________

Why Wednesday Letters?

When I moved recently I found a book my mom gave me once called The Wednesday Letters. It's one of those sweet little Christmas or beach reads about a man who wrote his wife letters every Wednesday of their married lives. I've also come to love reading Patricia's Monday letters to her daughters over at Jonesbones5.

My friend Tara and I recently decided to become pen pals and send real letters, using actual pens and stationary because that art should not be lost in these days of micro-blogging & texting. My handwriting looks like that of someone my grandmother's age, and somehow I feel the need to preserve the beauty of cursive script & the way words flow over pages you can feel between your fingers.

On the other hand, I do so love to blog. So I've decided to institue Wednesday Letters here. I like Wednesdays (and not only because the aforementioned Tara's dog is called by the same name), and I love the format of a letter written. And so, this was the first one.