Learning to Help Without Hurting in Haiti

My name is Randy, and I want to explain briefly how I have been blessed by the book, "When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself," and the distance learning courses offered by the Chalmers Center. As Director of Adoration Christian Centre, I have been living and working in the middle of Port-au-Prince, Haiti for the past three and a half years. The LORD spared our lives during the earthquake last January, but our entire ministry centre collapsed. Shortly after this time my wife (Karen), daughter (Maia), and co-worker (Kim) were evacuated. I stayed to try to figure out how our organization could help during this incredible time of need and suffering.

In trying to figure out what to do, I was looking to find resources to help with this daunting task. The LORD led me to find the book When Helping Hurts. Since reading this book and watching the webinars, I have been trying to answer this question: What changes do we need to make in our church and ministry to apply these principles? So I would like to share a few of the things that we have done since then and a few things that we hope to do as we continue to evaluate and discern.

First of all, I need to say that I was guilty of so many of the shortcomings that the authors of When Helping Hurts describe: all types of paternalism, doing relief — not development, defining poverty in terms of physical stuff, needs assessment, etc., etc. I really needed to repent and ask for forgiveness.

This book really helped right after this disaster because we were able to map out a plan better — a three- stage process — Relief, Rehabilitation, and now Development. I really sought to dialogue with other, more experienced, non-government organizations (NGOs) and also the local people in how to best help and go about each phase. Other NGOs gave us some wonderful advice for disaster relief.

As we had lost all our physical structures and things, we were given an opportunity to start over and to re-plan or design our ministry and organization. At all levels of the organization we are working through a discovery process where every board member and sub-committee member is reading When Helping Hurts. We are discussing the book and evaluating and revamping our entire organization based on its principles. These principles have been such a blessing to us, because we continue to walk through this process together. Each sub-committee — whether it is fundraising, short-term missions, public relations, church, development, etc. — knows which principles we want to hold on to and how we want to move forward.

We are evaluating our free school, our free medical clinic, the way the church operates, and all our other programs. We notice in so many ways we need to change. We need to involve the locals more; we need to listen to them; we need to empower them; we need to appreciate them. And we need to do development, not relief. Right now I still have more questions than answers, but I now know who to go to with my questions.

Another thing we have started to do with our teachers and employees is Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). We want to continue to use ABCD with the parents of the students, with our high-school students, and with the members of the church. I am excited about this process and hope to try to do some Participatory Learning and Action and Appreciative Inquiry exercises to see how each work and how they differ.

Just reflecting, one thing that stands out in my mind about how I have changed and grown is that I am trying to consciously not provide answers to problems that come up, especially in other people's lives, but instead try to get the locals to provide the answers. I love problem solving, and like most males, when I see a problem I want to fix it. It just seems to be way faster if we do it ourselves. Not providing answers to problems, but helping others do this has been a hard process for me, and a very rewarding one. I am in no way an expert, but I am making tiny steps.

The on-field staff homework right now for the organization is to define the poverty that is existent in our community. We are working through that process right now. It requires a lot of question asking and spending time with a lot of people to find the answers. This is a very valuable project.

Anyway, in summary, God lead me to this book and from the book to the Chalmers Center's distance learning course in a very timely fashion. It is an answer to prayer and has been a blessing. I am learning a lot. I am trying to put these principles into action and am trying to continue to get our whole organization and people we partner with to follow these principles. In fact, we had another partner organization do the same thing our organization is doing, and we can see the fruits of it already. We are so thankful. It helps us be aligned in our philosophy and how we approach church and the NGOs who are serving the community. To God be the glory, both now and forevermore!

Randy Lodder is 33 years old and has a BA in Religious Studies (Youth Ministry) and Physical Education from Redeemer University College (Ontario, Canada). He has spent time teaching, directing a Bible Camp, and framing. Randy's wife, Karen, is 26 years old and has a degree as a Medical Administrator from Mohawk College (Ontario, Canada) and has spent time working in hospital administration. Randy and Karen have been in Haiti for three and a half years serving at Adoration Christian Centre, a centre that seeks to help with poverty alleviation through community development and Biblical teaching. The Centre is operating an elementary school, sponsorship programs, youth programs, food programs, a medical clinic, and is supporting a local church, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Delmas, which meets at the Centre. They have one
daughter, Maia Joy, and one child on the way in November!