The most emotionally charged session that I attended during the Spring SVN member gathering at Skamania Lodge was Haiti Onward.  In part, this was because the rawness of the earthquake and its aftermath, and in part because of my experience volunteering for several weeks with AMURTEL had me feeling connected deeply to the stories that were shared.  The session touched upon several organizations that are working on revitialization and the rebuilding effort and offered the SVN community the opportunity to be inspired to participate in that effort.  Following are a few brief pictures of what was heard during the session.

~~“I have this vision” begins Samuel, one of the youth trained by Nouvelle Vie to be a spiritual leader for his community.  He and 350 youths across Haiti have gone through training to provide breathing and meditation exercise for their compatriots.  The 20 person youth corp, Nouvelle Vie’s next project, will spread concepts of permaculture across the nation while doing essential work to reforest the country.

~~With the arrival of Life Giving Force‘s suitcase-sized water filtration unit, 7,500 gallons of medical-grade clean drinking water is available for 2,500 people.  This unit is solar powered and is installed at a solar powered orphanage.

~~ AMURTEL works to empower the women in the camps through Animators – women trained to inspire and work within a community.  One of the big requests they are hearing right now is for micro-finance programs.  The people are asking for help to rebuild their lives.

~~ Jim Gordon, of Center for Mind Body Medicine, is seeking to bring a basic system of mental health for the country since everyone is affected by the earthquake.  Words he uses to describe the Haitian – sweet, resilient, and remarkably open.

~~ Indigenous Designs founders and SVN members Matt and Scott have made a commitment to help in this effort; so far ideas of how they will engage include selling products made in country on their site or providing orders to trained artisans.

~~ Fonkoze, a micro-finance group in Haiti, has a multi-step process to help life the people up out of poverty (yes they are already speaking to AMURTEL.)  They also have 50,000 women in their system.

~~ The journey for Haiti to move from being a disaster stricken country to one with a sustainable future has both immediate needs and long-term ones.  In response to supporting the long-term needs SVN members and  Halloran Philanthropies and Generocity came together to provide the initial seed funding for HaitiOnward.org.  This website was designed to catalyze and mobilize the sustainable business community into action by providing direct investment pathways and resource corridors to reach established grassroots organizations in Haiti.

There are many opportunities for SVN members to get involved through monetary or business support in the revitalization of Haiti; in addition to those mentioned above several SVN members have stepped forward including Tow Willits of YourOliveBranch.org, Brad Michaels of SociaLab, and Doug Hammond of ALIVE Communties to continue this important work.

To end, there is hope for this country.  In the words of one of the youth from Nouvelle Vie “In order for the world to be sustainable, Haiti must be as well.”

This post was written for SVN during their spring member conference.

Click here to see the rest of the SVN coverage of the 2010 Spring Member Gathering.

In response to the Haitian earthquake I have been working on making plans to get down on the ground to volunteer with Amurt.  While waiting for those plans to solidify, I woke up this morning to news that a massive 8.8 earthquake hit Chile.  I still plan to head to Haiti to help out, but now my prayers and love are being sent to both places.

Unlike Haiti, I have connections to Chile through my close college friend whose children live there.  It was with his family in mind this morning that compassionate tears rolled down my face.  I hope for good news and soon.  But in the meantime, I can be there for my friend and make sure that he gets the support that he needs while so far away from his much loved little ones.  I can rally our friends to make sure that if he wants to or needs to that he can either fly his kids to the States or can head down to be with them.

My heart goes out to my friend because I know him.  It is hard enough being seperated from  your children without having a disaster happen.  Now?

In this moment while I am aware of my compassion I think also of the people of Haiti and those around the world whose lives are affected by natural disasters.  My actions are clear in the case of my friend, less so when there is not a personal relationship.  How do we positively act on our compassionate desire to help when faced with poverty, catastrophe, and injustice?

I know my path right now includes flying to Haiti and rallying support around my friend’s beautiful children in Chile. Understanding that there are others around the world whose lives also need help, I will continue to do my best in my daily work to find ways of addressing this need.