New PM for Haiti

April 28, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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Just a quick post for those wanting to stay up to date with the situation in Haiti.

The President named a new Prime Minister yesterday. This AFP news report says that 63 year old Ericq Pierre has been handed the position. I truly hope that the government can move quickly to help the people of Haiti.

Haiti on Sunday named a new prime minister two weeks after his predecessor was ousted over rocketing food and fuel prices that sparked violent demonstrations claiming several lives.

President Rene Preval chose Ericq Pierre, 63, a respected Haitian economist with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, to be the country’s prime minister, government sources told AFP.

Pierre, whose nomination must now pass a vote in parliament, would succeed former premier Jacques-Edouard Alexis, who was forced to resign on April 12 after a no-confidence vote followed food riots that killed six people and wounded around 200.

Now is not the time for token political gestures; it’s time for real action that will put food in the mouths of the Haitian people. I truly hope that this latest move will have real and immediate effects.

Compassion Day on Thursday the 15th of May will focus on making a difference for the people of Haiti.



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Don't forget Haiti

April 25, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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haiti.jpgHow would you tell the four hundred thousand residents of a Haitian shanty town that your emergency food supplies would only be able to feed around a thousand of them? How would you choose which thousand people would be fed? That was the situation faced by U.N. food distributors recently.

It’s easy to sit at home in Australia and forget about those living in desperate poverty in developing countries around the world. We can get caught up in our own issues like rising interest rates and ever increasing fuel prices but after seeing the huge need in places like Dominican Republic and especially Haiti, I can’t allow myself to ignore the need.

An article by Reuters today, titled World Food Program launches emergency call for Haiti, says that the situation in Haiti remains critical with the World Food Program being critically short of the funds needed to feed millions of starving people. The United Nations agency is calling for urgent and massive aid.

“The situation is particularly serious because 56 percent of the Haitian population was already living with less than one dollar a day,” the WFP regional public information officer, Alejandro Lopez, told Reuters.

“We don’t have enough food to face the demand and we will need even more funds than what already requested.”

He said the agency had a $37.8 million shortfall in the $45 million budget anticipated for this year in the Caribbean nation, where recent food riots killed six people.

The program aims to feed 1.7 million Haitians but predictions show the number needing help to cope with the current food crisis could reach close to 5 million.

It’s just over two weeks since I was part of a Compassion Australia team that had to escape Haiti as riots and looting escalated. We managed to fly out of the country after a scary and sometimes dangerous trip to the airport in Port-au-Prince.

I can’t be content with the fact that we made it out safely. Something needs to be done for the millions who weren’t able to simply board a plane and head to a safe, comfortable existence on the other side of the world.

I want to thank everyone who followed our travels and prayed for our safety but I urge you, please don’t forget Haiti now. You can make a difference in Haiti through Compassion Day on Thursday the 15th of May or by contributing to an emergency aid fund today.



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Rain, Rain Go Away

April 23, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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TinRoof.jpgIt’s a wet day in Perth and I’m enjoying the rain at the moment. It’s lovely to see everything looking fresh and clean, washed by the rain.

Mind you, when I hear and see the rain I’m also a little saddened. It makes me remember one of the nights I spent in Haiti recently. We were in our hotel watching rain fall across the city of Port-au-Prince. It was nice for us but our minds turned to the hundreds of thousands of Haitian families, trying to sleep in their one room homes with leaking tin rooves.

We were told how they just keep trying to find a dry corner to get some protection from the weather. Many of their homes are too small for the entire family to sleep at one time so they sleep in shifts. You can imagine how much harder it is when the rain starts falling.

It’s hard to even begin to contemplate avoiding rain all night then having to get up the next day for work; if you have any work to go to.

I’m very much looking forward to Compassion Day on the 15th of May when we can make a difference for some of those people.



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Breaking the cycle

April 20, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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CircleBroken.jpgWhat does it really mean when we talk about breaking the poverty cycle?

It’s the kind of phrase that we often use when we’re talking about helping those in the developing world but do we really understand what it means in practical terms?

Look at the man in the photo in this post. That’s what it means to break the cycle.

When we talk about the cycle we’re talking about those living in poverty having children who live in poverty with their poor lifestyle being handed down from generation to generation. When someone has little money they’re unable to create a foundation for their children to build a better life. Unless someone is prepared to step in, desperate poverty will be handed down through each generation.

The guy in the picture above came from a poor background and was sponsored through Compassion.

Something exciting has happened through the sponsorship of this young man. He is now the accountant for one of the Compassion projects we visited in Dominican Republic. He’s no longer relying on the support of others, he’s working and earning money for his family.

Now here’s the exciting bit … his son isn’t part of a Compassion project. He doesn’t need to be. Thanks to the generous support of this man’s sponsor, the cycle has been broken. Not only is he able to take on meaningful, paid employment, his son doesn’t have to rely on sponsorship to give him a hand up and he won’t have to pass down a life of poverty to his children.

As I saw time and time again during my trip to Haiti and Dominican Republic, sponsoring just one child does far more than touch just one life. Sponsoring just one child may effect generations of his or her family. What an amazing oppoprtunity we have to break the poverty cycle.



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A story of hope and Compassion

April 17, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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DR_Girl.jpgThis Sunday I’ll get the chance to tell my story.

Well, it’s not really my story, it’s the story of the girl in the picture and of hundreds of thousands of other children who have been helped towards a better life thanks to people like you.

It’s great to be back home but the journey has only just begun. Now comes the task of communicating what I’ve learnt while in Haiti and in the Dominican Republic.

Compassion is doing a wonderful job of bringing hope to children around the world. On Sunday I’ll be letting people know about how much a life can be changed with a handful of dollars and a few encouraging words.

I’m going to be talking about our rushed escape from Haiti and the danger we faced as we made a dash for the airport. I’ll talk about the relief we felt as we saw a vehicle full of armed police who agreed to escort us the rest of the way. I’ll also talk about those we left behind in Haiti who are still dealing with desperate hunger and the powerlessness of not being able to feed their families.

I’ll be sharing the stories of those in the Dominican Republic who live so close to such a wonderful, bustling tourist city, full of all the excesses that such a place offers, yet they are only just surviving.

I won’t be telling a sad story, I’ll be telling a story full of hope. I can’t wait to tell you about Ada and the enormous life change that she found through the simple act of sponsorship from a young Australian lady.

If you want to hear what I have to say and see some of the photos from the trip just be at Altone Park Leisure Centre, Benara Road, Beechboro at 9:30 a.m. I’ll be talking for about 10 or 15 minutes during the Sunday morning service at Beechboro Baptist Church. Go to my contact page and email me if you’d like more details.



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