From Aiken to Haiti: Disaster affects local missionaries

Since Tuesday, two Aiken residents have experienced a wide range of emotions - their horror over the devastating earthquake in Haiti and relief that their friends in that nation appear to have survived.

Aiken physician Dr. Mark Meyer and Father Grant Wiseman of St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church visited the village of Cange in Haiti for five days in November 2009 through the Diocese of Upper South Carolina.

After Tuesday's earthquake, as many as 100,000 people may have died in the disaster that flattened the city of Port-au-Prince, including the president's parliament, schools and many neighborhoods, according to reports.

Meyer and Wiseman said they got e-mails from friends in Cange, assuring them the small village in the mountains - about 75 miles from Port-au-Prince - had escaped the damage.

"I heard from cousins in New Orleans who had looked at some of the photos from Port-au-Prince and how very much it was like New Orleans (in 2005)," Wiseman said Wednesday. "It took us a long time to help them in New Orleans. Haiti has far less opportunity for that kind of help."

Meyer's first visit to Cange took place in 1984, when the remote mountain village barely existed with a few hundred people living in the most dire of circumstances. He has returned three times since then and with the help of organizations like Partners in Health, Rotary and the Episcopal Diocese, Cange has made remarkable strides.

The village now has as many as 3,000 people and boasts a hospital manned by Haitian physicians, a dental clinic, a women's life facility, schools, a water system and a farm program.

"We went up there in November to look at the schools built by the local diocese," Meyer said. "I wanted to introduce Grant to the situation so he could become an advocate."

Now, Meyer is concerned about how the tragedy in Haiti will impact the resources of the small village. But there's an irony there, too.

"It's exciting that they're setting up in Cange to take casualties," said Wiseman. "They are ready to get in helicopters. They are the poorest of the poor and suddenly, they're the place that is providing for those in the big city."

What struck the Episcopal priest during his visit two months ago were the levels of poverty. There is a lack of food and an overwhelming lack of opportunity, he said.

"But there's not a poverty of hope," Wiseman said. "The people are hardworking, looking for a better life. If we have a half-finished building in America, we see it as abandoned. They see it with hope, with the idea they will continue to work on it when they get more money."

But what's going to happen to that determination, that sense of optimism despite the odds? Wiseman asked.

"You start to realize that for these people living in constant poverty and war," he said, "there's an inability for there to be anything of value - for them to feel safe, to feel full, to feel those things we live with every day."

For those interested in helping the Haitian people, Wiseman suggested two reliable programs that are already setting up assistance efforts.

Food for the Poor can be found at www.foodforthepoor.org. Visit Episcopal Relief and Development's site at www.er-d.org.

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.