Chapter Two: Healing Haiti

Healing Haiti is a nonprofit organization founded in 2006 by Alyn Shannon. Shannon and her husband went on a mission trip to Haiti earlier that year. Alyn’s husband Jeff shared that the trip, “broke their hearts wide open.” Upon their return to the United States, they started up Healing Haiti with the goal to make a difference in lives of the people suffering in Haiti.

The value of family is an emphasis of Healing Haiti. A belief of the organization is that strong families make the world a better place, so they strive to help Haitian families. This in turn will strengthen the community in Haiti and help to break the continuous cycle of poverty in Haiti. Delaney shares another goal of Healing Haiti that she found on her experience to Haiti, “They go by the saying “If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish you feed him for a lifetime.” Their goal is to help Haiti grow and rise up from its poverty gap.  It is such an inspiring purpose to me, that I wanted to be apart of.”

The organization also has a center on Christ. They work to spread the love and Word of God as well as help the people there. They have set up churches there and given the people an opportunity to worship and learn more about God. They also strive to live out their own faith life through this organization which is to care for the poor as Jesus did. An experience that the volunteers of TG had in Haiti was washing of the feet- similar to what Jesus did to the disciples on the Last Supper. Delaney Finn shares, “One of my favorites was visiting the elders. They have lived through so much, yet each one said they live their live in praise to Jesus. It was such an inspiring day to meet them and see their faces light up when we brought them food, washed their feet, and painted their nails. It was especially remarkable to me because we visited them on Holy Thursday and that is the day Jesus washed the disciples feet.” As stated by Delaney, the organization incorporates Christianity and faith into their service in many ways.

Although Healing Haiti is making great progress and helping many, there is a lot more to be done according to Sam Presseller. He states, “It’s gonna take a lot more than a group of a dozen people coming there once or twice a month to change anything there.” Healing Haiti does make a significant impact, but more help is needed in order to help the millions of struggling people.

The organization sends volunteers to Haiti for a week long period. Volunteers must be 15 years or older, but there are ways to help Haiti without making the actual trip there. People can donate items to send there that makes a huge difference in the lives of the people there as well. Healing Haiti encourages everyone to get involved in the healing of Haiti whether it be through their program or others because we are all called to love and help God’s children especially in their time of need.