Global Partners

Since 1964, the United Church has worked in solidarity with partners in Haiti who focus on issues including education, human rights, and sustainable agriculture.

• The Methodist Church of Haiti
• The Karl Lévêque Cultural Institute (ICKL)

For more information on Haiti, see:

• BBC Country Profile: Haiti

Resources

• Attitude Adjustment [PDF: 1 p/61 KB]
  In the August 2010 Mandate, Jim Hodgson writes about a global network of disabilities advocates that is changing perceptions.
• Patience and Perseverance [PDF: 2 pp/31 KB]
  A personal reflection by Jim Hodgson on the history and resourcefulness of the people of Haiti.
• Unwrapping Development
  Jim Hodgson's 2011 blog Unwrapping Development asks important questions about what's happening in Haiti and shares stories of partner work for change.
• Empire and Environmental Destruction in Haiti [PDF: 2 pp/29 KB]
  Written in 2006 by Marc-Arthur Fils-Aimé of the Karl Lévêque Cultural Institute, a United Church partner, this article explores the connections between economic injustice, globalization, and ecological destruction in Haiti.
• Living Letters team testifies to the deadly violence of poverty in Haiti
  When a World Council of Churches "Living Letters" team visited Haiti in November 2008, a United Church of Canada staff member was with them.
• Patience and Perseverance [PDF: 2 pp/31 KB]
  A personal reflection by Jim Hodgson on the history and resourcefulness of the people of Haiti.
• View photos of The United Church of Canada's partners in Haiti.
• Why We Must Cancel Haiti's Debt
  A brief history of Haiti's onerous, "odious," and crippling debt load written by KAIROS' economic justice program coordinator John Dillon.

Methodist Church of Haiti

After the earthquake, life continues."

—Rev. Gesner Paul, President of the Methodist Church of Haiti

It all happened in about 35 seconds. The Red Cross says three million people were affected: in the poorest country in the western hemisphere, a catastrophic toll.

Members of the Methodist Church of Haiti (EMH) got to work immediately, rescuing people trapped in the rubble, distributing food and water, and later working with international partners to chart a bottom-up plan for lasting change.

In the aftermath, the church identified six priorities:

• Education: to get schools up and functioning again—the church is responsible for more than 100 schools that are open to all, involving the soul, body, mind, and hands
• Reconstruction of permanent buildings
• Development: re-creation of the popular finance program supporting small enterprises and women who don't have banking access
• Health: one of the church's six clinics was destroyed
• Evangelization: “understanding that we are not just citizens of heaven but of this earth"
• Christian education: rebuilding learning networks

The church was established in 1817 and has 30,000 members and constituents, a dozen ordained ministers and 450 lay preachers. The United Church of Canada has been in partnership with the EMH since 1964.

The Methodist Church of Haiti has initiated an Extra Measures project relating to Access to Education.

The Karl Lévêque Cultural Institute (ICKL)

There needs to be a new vision for Haiti, and that vision needs to come from the people."

—Marc-Arthur Fils-Aimé, director

The Karl Lévêque Cultural Institute (ICKL) is a centre for reflection, social analysis, and popular education that works for grassroots reconstruction of Haiti. It trains and supports networks of impoverished farmers in building a democracy where employment, housing, education, literacy, and health care are available to everyone. ICKL organizes farmers into self-support groups with practical assistance, analysis of the causes of poverty, and regional networks that organize mass actions.

ICKL co-founded two national coalitions: the Platform for Haitian Human Rights Organizations (POHDH) in 1991 and the Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development (PAPDA) in 1995. POHDH focuses on human rights education, trains communities in documenting human rights offences, and monitors elections, while PAPDA challenges economic globalization policies. In addition, ICKL publishes a journal in French and a newsletter in Haitian Kreyol, produces a radio show, sponsors a summer university program, hosts international study groups, and conducts conferences and workshops.

ICKL's office was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake, but its staff were leaders in distributing international emergency aid and developing reconstruction strategies. Part of the United Church's emergency response is being used to help rebuild four rural schools supported by ICKL.

ICKL has initiated an Extra Measures project relating to Access to Education. The United Church's partnership with ICKL began in 1993.