Fleeing Home to Return Home

by Beth Hanlon

Manita Blec was born in the rural community of Meno and had her first child there. But the search for a better life led her and her husband to move to Port-au-Prince fifteen years ago. There, the family made a home, and three more children were born. When the quake hit the city, the entire family survived, although one child was injured, and their home was destroyed. Having lost all their possessions, the family set off by foot in the direction of Meno as soon as the injured child was able. Hungry and penniless, they walked for days over the mountain paths.

Manita and her family were a small part of the huge exodus from the capital following the earthquake. An estimated 600,000 people fled the city, many of them traveling to rural communities that they, their parents, or even their grandparents had left years or even decades earlier. They flooded into communities that were lacking basic necessities—decent housing, basic healthcare, schooling, and sufficient nutrition—as well as adequate infrastructure—roads, electricity, water, and sanitation systems. While these rural communities are hard pressed to absorb these new residents, these new arrivals bring more than just hungry mouths. Many people return to these communities with education and skills that could help revitalize these rural communities. Beyond Borders is working to help many rural communities both face the challenge and seize the opportunity these new residents bring. Manita and her family, for example, returned to a community where Beyond Borders has been working for about three years. The community has a vibrant school with teachers who have benefited from training from Limyè Lavi, our sister organization in Haiti. Adult education programs are offering training in parenting, participatory leadership, and sustainable agriculture.		Manita Blec, alongside one of her sons, in a classroom in the community school of Meno. Photo: Beyond Borders

We have a series of initiatives underway to help make life more hopeful and manageable for displaced people. And it is our deepest hope and prayer that as we work to ease the many pressures on overburdened rural parents, they are more likely to keep their children with them, rather than send them away into servitude.

A new wing under construction for the Meno school was destroyed by the quake.  Photo: Beyond Borders			Through Limyè Lavi, Beyond Borders is partnered with more than 200 rural communities. Depending on the success of current fundraising efforts, many of these communities will be receiving large festival tents to replace classrooms destroyed by the quake or to provide space for new students who have just arrived. We will also be working to identify those adults returning to the community who have a level of education that qualifies them as candidates for teacher training.

When Manita and her family reached Meno, they were greeted with tears by their extended family. While conditions are crowded and life is a struggle, she and her husband are grateful to have a school to put their children. They have returned to a community with much more hope than the community they left fifteen years ago.

One additional way we’re investing in rural communities is by helping with the launch of Partners for Local Development (PLD)—a new Haitian organization devoted to empowering rural people to overcome poverty and improve their lives. PLD staff have expertise in participatory rural development and are working now to strengthen rural grassroots organizations serving over 115,000 people in 122 rural Haitian communities.  

Programs offered in these communities focus on sustainable agricultural production, income generation, local micro-credit and savings assistance, community and reproductive-health training, collective leadership development, and natural and disaster risk management. Beyond Borders serves as fiscal agent for PLD and its new U.S. affiliate, Groundswell International (www.groundswellinternational.org), with significant seed funding coming from the Vista Hermosa Foundation.