Long before the crippling earthquake of January 12, 2010, Jesuit Refugee
Service had a grassroots presence in Haiti, providing humanitarian assistance
to displaced Haitians both in the town of Ouanaminthe on the northeastern
border with the Dominican Republic, and in the Dominican Republic itself. JRS
responded to the needs of Haitians during a decade of political upheaval, successive
natural disasters, and a food crisis, which devastated the Haitian economy. We knew
Haiti in both her pain and her laughter – as a country where many children under the
age of twelve in the countryside have no clothes to wear; a country where people
spontaneously gather in community during frequent black-outs to sing songs, play
dominos, and keep the night at bay. Haiti is also a country with a rich artistic and
political tradition, inhabited by a deeply faithful people who have continued to hope
for a better life despite devastation and adversity.

JRS–Haiti has accompanied the people of Ouanaminthe, a town of 100,000
inhabitants, through a series of challenges by offering schooling for the children,
helping to organize sustainable farming cooperatives, organizing well-digging projects
and engaging in human rights monitoring. Through these efforts, JRS has strived to
create creating an environment in Haiti that would offer impoverished Haitians an
alternative to migration by enabling them to sustain a dignified and secure life within
their country.

In addition to its work within Haiti, JRS has served the needs of Haitian refugees, forced migrants, and stateless people in the neighboring Dominican Republic for more than 15 years, expanding upon the migration and refugee work carried out by the Jesuits of the Dominican Republic and Haiti for the last 70 years.

Now, the earthquake has brought a drastic change in the focus of JRS’s work. While continuing its existing programs, JRS–Haiti is focusing on new relief efforts in Port-au-Prince, working in seven camps that serve the needs of more than 23,000 displaced persons.