Community partnerships

ELDI Corporation

Malawi partnership

Haiti program

Mission & vision

Haiti

The needs in Haiti are tremendous: food, clean water, clean air, affordable health care, and employment are all in short supply. Despite unbelievable deprivation, the faith of Haiti’s Christians remains strong. ELPC strives to stand beside our brothers and sisters in Haiti as solutions are sought for Haiti’s desperate situation.

ELPC’s support of work in Haiti is accomplished through Functional Literacy Ministry of Haiti, a Pittsburgh-based organization that partners with Haitians to provide education, health care, and hope, through Christ, to people in communities above Port-au-Prince. FLM-Haiti’s school provides not only an education but also a daily nourishing meal to 550 children. Its community health center treats several hundred people each month and offers health education programs. At 55 adult literacy centers, adults learn to read for the first time in their lives. U.S.-based medical and educational mission teams go to Haiti twice a year to enhance the efforts of the Haitian teachers and medical professionals.

ELPC has supported FLM-Haiti financially for a number of years. Our children and young people raise money for the school lunch program. Members of the church collect medicines for the clinic pharmacy. The knitting group makes hats for newborns, and the toy-making group makes toys for the children. Club 116 participants repackage medicines and make hygiene kits. An ELPC member is on the board of directors and serves as treasurer.

ELPC members are invited to see for themselves what God is doing through FLM-Haiti by joining a mission trip: help set up mobile medical clinics in the mountains, present a Vacation Bible School, participate in teacher enrichment programs. The needs are great, the opportunities to serve and love are boundless.

The Haiti effort is also active at the national level through the PC(USA), our governing body. Cooperative efforts of the Presbyterian Hunger Program are addressing critical food and water shortage issues prevalent in Haiti. Raising healthy animals as part of an improved ecosystem, developing labor and water conservation techniques, strengthening community, are examples of blending new ideas with Haitian know-how.

Christians of Haiti face many challenges as they strive to be the body of Christ within the instability and poverty that affect their country. Our Haitian partners have prioritized their ministry and outreach efforts in the fields of education and health. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) supports the Christian witness to the people of Haiti through partner church relationships and mission personnel working within the ministries of our partners. We work alongside our Haitian partners in medical facilities, agricultural and environmental education, literacy, vocational training and community-based development.

The Haiti Mission Network is among more than 25 networks that connect Presbyterians who share a common mission interest. Most participants are involved in mission partnerships through congregations, presbyteries or synods. Network members come together to coordinate efforts, share best practices and develop strategies.

Photo credits Bill Bollendorf and PC(USA).

Respond to the earthquake in Haiti

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has issued an emergency appeal for Haiti, where millions of people have been affected by a major earthquake that struck the country on Tuesday, January 12. The PDA rushed an immediate $100,000 to help provide immediate emergency relief to the affected people. You, too, can be part of God’s answer to prayer for those affected by this disaster by donating to the ongoing relief through PDA’s secure online website. (Gifts can also be made by phone at (800) 872-3283 weekdays between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. (EST) and checks can be mailed to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA  15264-3700.) You can also donate securely to the Haiti Relief through the American Red Cross’s secure website.