After the deadly Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, Mission Waco founders Jimmy and Janet Dorrell revisited Haiti, where they have ministered to the poor for 20 years. They share their thoughts on how the country is faring and offer ways to stimulate economic growth.

Q: When were you in Haiti?

Jimmy: We went with 22 others to Ferrier, Haiti, from March 5 to 12. We don’t call ourselves missionaries. We call these mission exposure trips. It’s ludicrous for people to go out of country — where they don’t know the culture or speak the language — and think in one week’s time they’re going to do any high-impact things. We also go several times a year to Mexico City, Haiti and India. We have been going to Ferrier, Haiti, since 1984.

Q: What did you do in Ferrier? And how was it changed by the earthquake?

Jimmy: Ferrier is about 15 miles from the Dominican Republic border. We operate a church-based clinic. Our project this time was to expand that clinic that was under construction. We took two doctors with us and we tested and helped fund the digging of new water wells.

Janet: There were at least 350 people who had fled to Ferrier from Port-au-Prince after the quake. There also were about 40 orphans who a local minister was helping to house and feed.

Q: You work closely with these local ministers?

Jimmy: We really believe that our role is not so much to go do for them but to empower the Haitian leaders and to provide resources.

Q: How much money did Mission Waco raise for the earthquake victims?

Jimmy: We raised $31,500 to send to Port-au-Prince. We sent the money to two missionary couples we knew working in Port-au-Prince: Troy and Tara Livesay, who live here now. And another missionary who did poverty simulations with us in Waco and now works in Haiti. All the money given for earthquake relief has gone to Port-au-Prince or to people in Ferrier who fled Port-au-Prince. The money helped to pay for food, shelter, medical and other needs.

Q: Janet went right after the earthquake to Port-au-Prince. What was it like?

Janet: I was there Feb. 9-15. We went with a team of five area churches, including Harris Creek Baptist Church and Antioch Community Church. We stayed at a private school with the Marines, the Army and the Navy and volunteers from all over the world. We were five miles from the epicenter. We saw a lot of chronic ailments and children needing bandages changed and stitches removed. One boy had three fingers that had been crushed by bricks and were completely gone. We had to clean the wounds and take the stitches out. He was in a lot of pain. Another 3-year-old boy had burns to one-third of his body. We had to peel a couple different layers of skin off him and keep morphine going because he was in so much pain. There were women having babies and motorcycle wrecks everywhere. Everyone was on edge. They were just really rattled.

Q: In a Feb. 5 memo, Jimmy wrote “Janet cried as they went through the middle of the earthquake epicenter since it was even more overwhelming than the cameras had depicted.” Describe what you saw.

Janet: It was heart-wrenching. It was bad enough before, and you think, “How in the world is this happening and is God watching?” There were huge crevices in the street. The burn victims were in unbelievable pain. In one tent camp there were 500 to 600 people in an area with 70 to 80 tents, and they really weren’t tents but tarps pieced together with boards. They had no latrines. I saw one woman selling dirt cookies made of dirt and butter and salt, which are like little mud pies dried in the sun. That’s to keep the babies from crying when they are so hungry because they cannot afford to buy food.

Q: Haitian missionaries Troy and Tara Livesay — who are featured in the April issue of Waco Today magazine — said many people don’t understand the Haitian culture. Why?

Janet: Many people who came in didn’t understand Haitians. They are loud people and they tend to be dramatic. My perception is that if you’re walking into this kind of setting and you are causing a scene, then walk away and return later. It’s important to work with the local leadership. For example, this pastor was our ticket into this tent camp.

Q: So what did you do at the tent camps?

Janet: The minister and I went from tent to tent with a translator and we gave out cash. These women were sitting in the tent camps with nothing. They needed cash so they could buy what their families needed.

At first, we drew a crowd and it became unruly at one point, so we had to stop and the interpreters would try to calm everyone down and we’d tell them if it gets too chaotic we’ll have to leave but the women and children will suffer because we will only give cash to the moms of every tent.

The men would start gathering around and get hostile. I held tight to a little 3-year-old and I knew if I couldn’t keep him safe then we’d have to leave.

At one point it got kind of crazy. They were desperate people and I’m not sure that the rest of us might not exhibit that kind of riotous behavior if we were starving.

Q: How much money did you give out?

Janet: We gave $30 per woman. That would feed them for a couple of weeks. They also would pool their money together and care for entire groups. One man asked us to buy 10 bags of cement so they could finish building a latrine at a camp, which we did.

Jimmy: We rarely give out cash. That’s not something we normally do. But in that particular situation, cash was the biggest need and was done in a dignified way with the Haitians alongside us. Empowerment is our motto. Empowerment helps the people make the choice. So for those women to go buy what they needed for their own families is a big part of the dignity that we believe in. You have to give poor people dignity so they can make choices.

Q: With an estimated 230,000 dead from the quake, was there an overwhelming sense of loss?

Janet: The earthquake really messed them up mentally. We were handing out a lot of anti-anxiety medicines because the kids were having nightmares. Everybody was sleeping in the streets. We were rushing to go to another tent camp to hand out cash and a woman said “Just come sit with me and drink some water with me and let me tell you why I’m so sad because I have not seen my son and I don’t know where he is.”

Q: Is fear pervasive?

Janet: Even the children who were supposed to be in school in Ferrier were not going to school because all of their relatives were afraid that the buildings were going to fall down. The whole country was living with fear.

Q: What were the clinics like?

Janet: I entertained the children who were in pain. They would call me when children were screaming and I’d let them listen to my iPod or we’d dance to Michael Jackson songs or I’d teach them a hand-motion song. I’d sit by their bed and kept morphine in their IV lines.

Q: Was that your primary reason for going?

Jimmy: The reason she was there was because she’s trained in water purification.

Q: Did you get to help with water purification?

Janet: I did. When we were getting a tour of the private school, we were shown where the Army had its supplies and other items, and then they said “This last tent is where everybody is sick.” They were suffering from headaches, sore throat, low-grade fever, stomach aches, nausea and diarrhea. So I asked about the water system and I tested it and we had to change out systems because the people were getting sick from bad water.

Q: How long have you been doing water purification?

Janet: Four years ago I started testing water and I also took a well-drilling training course. I have a master’s degree in science from Baylor where I studied water and environmental studies. I started testing the water in Ferrier after Jackson Nelson, the director of World Hunger Relief-Haiti, asked me to. I came back and trained with HOCK International. It’s not rocket science by any means, but you have to make sure you don’t contaminate the water yourself when you do the tests. I also do a lot of water purification during my Mission Waco trips to India. India has arsenic in their water so it must be filtered.

Q: How many people can one water well serve?

Janet: About 700 people and costs about $2,500. In March we did 15 water tests in Ferrier and only two were bad. So it’s exciting that we have cleaned up that water.

Q: There have been reports of women and children raped in tent camps. Were you scared?

Janet: I don’t doubt that those things happened or that bad things could have happened to me. But I would still believe that God is God. We choose not to live our lives in fear. We choose to help.

Q: You said you don’t consider yourselves missionaries. Why?

Jimmy: We go because of God’s love to care for people and that’s a missional mindset. There is no question we are going under the love of God to bless those in pain, but the label of missionary has so much attached to it. So when you call someone a missionary there is a stigma that goes with it.

Q: Is it ironic that the earthquake seems to have brought attention to Haiti?

Jimmy: For decades nobody cared about Haiti. We watched the poorest of the poor suffer immensely. I was very encouraged when President (Bill) Clinton went over there about 18 months ago. There was a sense that it was getting better. Then the earthquake hit. It’s so sad to see a people where everything that could go wrong does go wrong. You think, “how can people live in this culture?” And yet they do.

Q: About $1.5 billion has been raised since the quake, but the Haitian government recently said $11 billion will be needed to rebuild the country. What needs to happen for Haiti to recover?

Jimmy: Long-term community development has to happen. We believe in long-term relationships so we’re going to be there. The emotions are going to go away. The rock stars are going to go away. The money will go away.

I do believe governments will continue to be more sympathetic. However, Haiti needs to show it can create a healthier infrastructure. Some of the nations will hold back giving until Haiti shows true systemic change.

Q: When is your next trip?

Jimmy: We are going May 18-27 and will be taking two doctors, the pastor of Antioch Baptist Church and several Truett Seminary students.

Q: Are you raising more money to take?

Jimmy: Yes. Last month a Houston church, Fort Bend Community Church, sent us $20,000. In May we are starting a micro-loans program. During the March trip, we met with 37 women to begin a micro-credit system.

Q: How does it work?

Jimmy: We will confirm some local women as leaders. Those wanting loans (of about $50) will put together a business plan — say to start selling bananas.

If approved, the women will decide how much to pay back per week. We have $7,000 now to start.

When you move out of relief into development, the people with the problem have got to be part of their own solution. That’s the empowerment model that we think is critical to Haiti in the next few years.

We have to move Haiti out of a relief model where people just give stuff to finding them jobs and teaching them their own medical care so they can help their own people. That’s where we think our future is in Haiti.

Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Trib assistant opinion editor Sandra Sanchez.

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