Children beaten after a football match turned violent, a woman accused of witchcraft and murdered, a person killed while traveling from one village to another — these are just a few of the stories of Haitians suffering under gang violence.

Death or attack feel unpredictable in the country, leaving many anxious to survive.

Though gangs were partially pushed from Port-au-Prince, their violence has spread to the outskirts and rural areas. Roseline DeHart from For Haiti With Love said, “Lives are getting harder every day. Things are very hard right now in Haiti, and Haiti needs help from its neighbors.”

Aerial view of Port-au-Prince (Photo courtesy of Matteo Favre via Pexels)

Since July, more than 1,200 people have been killed in gang attacks, self-defense retaliation, and army operations. Over 700 were wounded. On top of that, sexual abuse and kidnappings are widespread. Victims of the gangs are often chosen at random, including children.

DeHart added, “We need other countries to realize that Haiti needs help, to come and help Haiti.”

For Haiti With Love continue their work of Gospel in Haiti, helping those displaced, local communities, children, and more. They are also preparing a Christmas celebration for hundreds of kids with hot meals, toys, and the Gospel.

DeHart says, “We want to help as many as we can, but so many people have moved into the Cap-Haïtien area, and there are street kids everywhere. It’s become overwhelming, and we’re doing the best we can with what we have.”

Among their ministries is a free burn clinic. After patients are treated and reach for their wallets, staff tell them Jesus has already paid the cost. DeHart explained, “That’s when they break out crying and want to know who this Jesus is. And then we tell them about Jesus!”

The overwhelming need for help opens doors for prayer and giving. Find your place in the story: join the spiritual battle for the people of Haiti, and if you want to help in practical ways, visit the For Haiti With Love website.

Man standing on the mountain, Haiti (Photo courtesy of Kelly via Pexels).

Makenson Saint Fleur is an attorney with For Haiti with Love. He says gangs carry on their criminal activity regardless of international designation. 

“The US tries to help Haiti with the situation, but for now, nothing is well. Everything is getting worse and worse every day.” 

Gangs have expanded their reach from Port Au Prince and are now trying to take over the entire North. 

“They take Mirebalais, they try to take Plateau centrale, they try to take Cap-Haïtien. They want to take all the country,” Saint Fleur says. 

Up to now, For Haiti with Love has been helping the needy of Cap-Haïtien with a burn clinic, food, and housing assistance. But Saint Fleur says if gang activity worsens in the area, the ministry will be forced to vacate. 

“If they take the city, you can do nothing – just leave the city,” he says. 

Currently, the burn clinic remains in place; but Saint Fleur says the ministry has had to cease meal distribution due to the unrest. 

“We can’t do everything we used to do,” he says. 

Even now, the Gospel remains central to FHWL’s efforts. 

“We always pray with them, and we teach a part of the Bible in every activity we do,” Saint Fleur says of their interactions with Haitians. 

As the team at For Haiti with Love cares and prays for their people, would you pray for them? 

“We need help. We need prayer,” Saint Fleur petitions. “We need every single prayer because Haiti is getting worse and worse again.”  

(Photos in this article courtesy of For Haiti With Love)

Despite the announcement, American Airlines and JetBlue Airways delayed the resumption of service again.  For Haiti With Love, Roseline DeHart explains, “The gangs had taken over the Port au Prince area, even the Port au Prince airport. Everything was shut down; no airlines, nothing because there’s so much gang violence down South.”  Military planes began landing in Port-au-Prince, carrying civilians contracted to ready the area for the arrival of a multinational security support mission.

Urgency to restart

(For Haiti With Love’s headquarters, courtesy FHWL)

However, just 11 days earlier, the gangs now in control of Port au Prince launched another attack on the airport landing strip.   The airport’s loss is crucial to quickly moving supplies into the poverty-stricken nation.  DeHart says, “There was nobody going in. Everybody was trying to get out for their safety. It was just locked down.”   But the arrival of the contractors means “the airport has opened back up; the airlines are opening up so we can take supplies down there again for the clinic.”

(For Haiti With Love’s burn clinic, photo courtesy FHWL)

Their arrival brings hope, especially for smaller ministries that have been devastated by the lockdown. “We ran out of supplies for the (burn) clinic,” says DeHart. “People were coming to us, hurting; we couldn’t help them. We couldn’t buy the supplies down there. There was nothing we could do.”

Refugees in the North

The United Nations estimates roughly 1.4 million Haitians are on the verge of famine, and more than 4 million require food aid.  The gangs suffocate the country, reducing many people to eating once a day or nothing at all.    “Pray that we get food down there to help the people and the people coming to live in Cap Haitien.”  DeHart says many people coming to the North moved for safety, many with clothes on their backs.   “They don’t have anything in Cap Haitien.  We pray that we can help as many people as we can so we can continue to be God’s hands and feet in Haiti.”

Food program, For Haiti With Love (Photo courtesy FHWL)

Meanwhile, Spirit Airlines resumed flights in the North between Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport and Cap Haïtien, Haiti.   Getting supply runs moving again is urgent.  Thousands fled the gang’s violence in Port au Prince and took refuge in Cap Haitien.  “There’s a lot more people now in Cap (Haitien).  Before then (gang takeover), it had problems, so now it’s even worse.”  To add to the pressure, “It’s been raining also for 15 days in Cap Haitien.  There’s been flooding and mudslides.”  The emergency is why officials began pushing people out of hazardous areas, especially during the rainy season.   The loss of homes in the mudslide also adds to the number of people made homeless by the security situation in Haiti.

DeHart outlines the reason they stay despite the overwhelming circumstances. “For Haiti With Love has been in Cap Haitien for over 40 years, and we will continue to do it.  When all the other missionaries are leaving Haiti, we always stand firm because we know God is able, and God can do miracles.”

With news like this, Roseline DeHart at For Haiti with Love reminds us, “Just because they see something in the news about Haiti, not every Haitian is bad. Not everybody is bad. There are good people and there are hurting people in Haiti.”

The violence is really limited to southern Haiti. For Haiti with Love runs a burn clinic out of Cap Haitien in the north where there’s no gang violence.

(Photo courtesy of For Haiti with Love)

DeHart says, “While this bad news has been going on again, we have people calling us to see if we’re safe, if I’m safe, am I okay? I keep telling them that Cap Haitien is okay. It’s fine. It’s normal.”

Sadly, “Every time Haiti is on the news, our contribution goes down because people don’t want to send the money thinking that it doesn’t go down because of all the problems that’s going on,” says DeHart.

“So our contribution is down, and we’re having a hard time buying supplies for the clinic. When somebody comes in to clinic, we can’t tell them no, because they’re hurting. So we would like prayers. Maybe God will talk to somebody to help us to buy the stuff we need for the clinic.”

For Haiti with Love needs your support to minister in Jesus’ name. Click here to give!

Header photo courtesy of Jorono/Pexels.

The situation has gotten more critical since we brought the food crisis to your attention three months ago, when For Haiti With Love shared an opportunity to deliver emergency food to Haiti. Since then, Roseline DeHart says donors funded the shipment from Feed My Starving Children, and it successfully arrived to its destination.  DeHart says, “Thank you to our donors, and everybody that donated. That food is at the headquarters in Haiti, helping the hungry people in Haiti.”

Often when goods arrive to one of Haiti’s ports, the shipping containers get stuck at the dock customs or even held up by the local gangs. However, For Haiti With Love received the container of emergency food without any delays.

The food program is an addition to the burn clinic For Haiti With Love already operates at no charge. They don’t turn any patients away and even receive some referred from hospitals. In a typical month, the clinic will treat around 200 patients, and the supplies for each treatment cost on average five US dollars. Patients with severe burns have to revisit the clinic several times until they are completely healed. Without proper treatment, many of their patients would have died from infections.

The food program and clinic are saving the physical lives of Haitians. Both services also provide many opportunities for the staff to be witnesses for Christ. For example, the staff pray for the people who receive food.

DeHart says,

“We tell them that it’s all because of God that we are here to be able to feed them. And they always ask us about who God and who Jesus is.”

For Haiti With Love needs ongoing support to continue serving Haitians. Learn more about the ministry and how you can help.

“We are God’s hands and feet and we try as best as we can to help as many people as we can,” says DeHart.

Photos courtesy of For Haiti With Love.

The latest deluge compounds the misery left by nationwide flooding earlier this month. Flash floods and landslides washed away more than 32,000 homes, affecting at least 37,000 people.

“The flooding is very bad. People have lost their belongings and had to move to higher grounds,” For Haiti With Love’s Roseline DeHart says.

She adds that intense rainfall and widespread flooding are “very unusual” at this time of year.

For Haiti With Love operates a burn clinic in northern Haiti. More about that here. Unusual weather and its consequences increase injuries, sending more people to the clinic.

“The burns are more [frequent] when it rains because people are cooking anywhere that they find dry [locations] outside,” DeHart explains.

“They have a lot of accidents, especially with kids running around.”

Believers like DeHart share the hope of Christ as they treat burns or deliver food aid on home visits. “We always tell them Jesus loves them and how they need to come to Him, and He will always help them,” DeHart says.

(Photo courtesy of For Haiti With Love)

Ask the Lord to help believers endure as physical needs increase and more people visit the clinic.

“With the flooding, cholera will be worse, and malaria from the mosquitoes will get worse. There’s a lot of water sitting on the ground,” DeHart says.

Send financial support to For Haiti With Love here.

“Pray that we can continue to help the people in Haiti because it’s getting harder and harder to get contribution[s,]” DeHart requests.

“We want to continue to do it (this work) until God calls us home.”

Header image is a representative photo depicting 2016 flooding in northern Haiti. (Photo courtesy of For Haiti With Love)

However, a more holistic picture of Haiti is needed, because Eva DeHart at For Haiti with Love says the northern part of the country tells a different story.

For one, several mountain ranges divide the country, and ministry in the north is not as treacherous as the south. 

“We have the international airport up there and we have the port that we can take anything in by ship. The activities in Port-au-Prince might as well be in a different country. They’re three mountain ranges away and they just don’t affect our ministry because we don’t work down there. We’ve always worked in the north,” DeHart says.

When people outside Haiti have the impression that For Haiti is affected by the violence in the south, DeHart says it is difficult to garner support for the ministry, much less get any outside missions teams to come assist.

Yet, the ministry is remote enough that they don’t feel the same effects of what is happening down south.

“We’re just an isolated little world up there. We fly in, do our own thing, and fly home,” says DeHart.

(Photo courtesy of For Haiti with Love)

For Haiti’s primary ministry is a burn clinic on the northern coast. While other NGOs and some ministries are pulling out, they are determined to continue operations and remain as a Gospel remnant to Haitians in need.

“They’ve got probably more needs than anybody else in the Caribbean, and yet they get so much publicity because of the things that go on in Port-au-Prince that it kind of takes the rest of the country down with it,” says DeHart.

“If we could just get people to focus on the whole island and not just Port-au-Prince and look at ministries that don’t deal in Port-au-Prince and aren’t affected by those events that take place in the capital, then the number of people that can be helped is endless. They all really need us. But the events in Port-au-Prince get the headlines and people who are not familiar with the whole island tend to back off. Then that hurts everybody.”

Now more than ever, For Haiti needs ongoing ministry support. You can give to For Haiti at their website here.

DeHart says, “If we can just stay focused on the north and stay focused on keeping burn supplies in that clinic and keeping it staffed, then God is answering prayer.”

Header photo courtesy of For Haiti with Love.

Eva DeHart of For Haiti with Love says, “When I asked Roseline, she said, as far as she’s concerned, it doesn’t seem to make that much difference. The only thing is, nobody’s demanding any paperwork. So she figures once there’s a government in place that want to get all their paperwork back caught up, and she’ll have to do all of that again.”

Gangs

The leadership vacuum means more power for Haiti’s gangs. They have run rampant in the country since President Jovenel Moise’s assassination in July 2021. Canada and the U.S. have both sent armored vehicles to Haiti in an attempt to help the police against the gangs.

Dehart says, “I think everybody in Haiti has their own security. So you have to double down and ensure everybody has fences and gates. You make sure you don’t let anybody in that you don’t know.”

“Cap Hatien, where we work, has a pretty good handle on who they let into the city.”

Haiti also faces a fuel shortage and a cholera outbreak.

For Haiti with Love treats burn victims for free, sharing the love of Jesus with them. You can support this work or learn more here. DeHart says, “The burn supplies for the burn clinic are very expensive, and nobody gives us the pharmaceutical places used to donate. They don’t anymore.”

The header photo shows Haiti’s flag. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

“The population is saying that they’re not going to stop until the Prime Minister leaves Haiti,” DeHart says.

“Every time he (Prime Minister Ariel Henry) goes on the radio to address the nation, things get substantially worse.”

Store shelves are bare because delivery trucks cannot reach the city. “Many Haitians live hand to mouth; they’re out trying to get enough food for their families for that day,” DeHart says.

“This (unrest) is making it even harder because now sometimes they can’t find anything, even if they have money.”

(Photo courtesy of For Haiti with Love)

For Haiti With Love operates one of the few medical clinics in Cap Haïtien. More about that here. “We were on the verge of closing because [we were] running out of supplies, but the plane got in and got us everything we needed,” DeHart says.

“[Our partners brought] everything that they had in their hangar for us, so they totally resupplied the clinic. Now, we can patch them (citizens) up when they get shot or cut on the streets.”

Believers share Christ daily in word and deed at the clinic. “The fact that we are still open in the midst of all of this is a big testimony. God gets all the credit for that,” DeHart says.

Donate here to help For Haiti With Love keep its medical clinic open and stocked.

Meanwhile, here’s how you can pray alongside a five-year-old Haitian boy: “His prayer was, ‘Dear God, Haiti is in trouble. Please help Haiti,’” DeHart says.

“‘Please make the people change so they will love You. If they love You, they won’t do the bad things. And, I want to go to school. Please make the streets safer again.’”

Header image courtesy of For Haiti With Love.

Challenges

Haitians grow desperate as gang violence ravages the country. Travel remains difficult due to the constant fighting, and prices for food and fuel have sharply increased. The inflation rate has reached 30 percent.

Henry’s office promised to alleviate the situation, including social programs for extreme poverty and stocking gas stations.

Eva DeHart of For Haiti with Love says, “They have a very expensive cost of living now because they import so much stuff here. As our prices go up, theirs go up, plus the cargo. And because of the restlessness, they’re keeping the kids home from school, keep them safe in the streets.”

“That is usually just Port-au-Prince. But this time, it’s Cap Haitien as well. It’s pretty much country-wide.”

With violence and protests in the street, DeHart says burn injuries have become more common. In their Cap Hatien burn clinic, they treat people’s wounds and also share the story of Jesus with them. “We pray with them, bandage them, and let them know that no matter what’s going on out there, God is still with them. That’s about all you can do because it is so unpredictable.”

Pray the gang violence in Haiti would dissolve, leaving families and communities to live in peace.

The header photo shows tires burning in a 2019 protest in Haiti. (Photo courtesy of Voice of America, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)