A friend was in Haiti this week setting up a non-profit that will support rebuilding churches in Haiti. A recap of his time is below along with a link to images he captured. Thomas is a Pulitzer nominated photographer and the images are both beautiful and heart rending.
For those whose immediate reaction is why help churches instead of providing humanitarian aid, Thomas makes a brief mention of the reason below. For Courtney and me we are contributing to both causes. The humanitarian need is obvious, but the reason to consider helping rebuild churches is these communities are the primary providers of vocational training, health care, and loving support in a devastated nation. From a practical perspective it is an effective way to support systems that will help the country rebuild both hope and physical needs.
Thomas letter and link to the video below:
From Thomas Hurst:
Friends,
One week ago I was invited to be apart of a small team of men looking to get into Haiti to assess and assist the rebuilding of churches in Port-Au-Prince. The idea behind the mission was simple; because countries rely on networks of local churches to be a primary conduit for the flow of health care, humanitarian aid, and even education, rebuilding churches is an obvious means of helping to restore infrastructure in a country that so desperately needs it.
Within hours of the first conversations we were given access to a private jet loaded with doctors and medical supplies, and a specific flight arrival and departure time by the U.S. Government. Our team of nine had only 32 hours to be on the ground. The documentary portion of that team, a fantastic 2-man video crew, and myself, had roughly 12 hours to capture as much footage as possible.
Since the inception of the idea only 10 days ago, the organization, Churches Helping Churches has been founded, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised, the organization has hired it’s first Haitian staff member, and an outline for long term involvement, through education and job training, is being crafted.
For me personally, in the almost 20 years I spent in photojournalism trying to inspire and educate people with my images, what I was apart of in those 32 hours in Haiti, and the results of that work, have never meant so much, done so much, or impacted so many. I am humbled.
If you would like to see the results of my work in Haiti go to:
http://churcheshelpingchurches.com/index.php/media
Lastly - If you are moved by what you see, please take a minute to give. http://churcheshelpingchurches.com/index.php/give-now-2/
Thomas Hurst
