January 15, 2010
By Matthew Davies

The effort to assist victims of the Haiti earthquake should be expressed through prayer, financial support and advocacy, the Episcopal Public Policy Network has urged in a policy alert issued Jan. 15.

"Like hundreds of millions of Americans and other people around the world, my heart has broken as I've seen the images of the devastation brought to Haiti by this week's earthquake," said Alexander Baumgarten, director of government relations for the Episcopal Church, in the alert.

"The most immediate thing that Americans can do to be helpful is to donate to organizations such as Episcopal Relief & Development that are assisting with the immediate relief, rescue and recovery effort," he told ENS.

Baumgarten, who traveled to Haiti in November 2008 with a delegation led by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, said it is important to "hold all of the people of Haiti, and all those with friends and loved ones in Haiti, in your prayers."

He noted that the advocacy efforts of the government relations office has three immediate focuses: "ensuring adequate short- and long-term U.S. assistance for rebuilding Haiti, as well as adequate U.S. personnel and infrastructural support; and ending the interdiction and return of Haitian migrants found at sea; granting U.S. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitian refugees in the United States."

Later on Jan. 15, Baumgarten said that the White House has agreed to grant TPS to Haitian refugees. "This has been an advocacy push for the Episcopal Church for more than a decade," he said, "and while the circumstances that made it happen are heartbreaking, we can rejoice that this will save many lives now and in the future."

Baumgarten applauded President Barack Obama's pledge of $100 million in U.S. assistance to Haiti, and his administration's decision "to halt, for the time being, U.S. efforts to return Haitians refugees already in the United States to their own land."

The Jan. 12 earthquake and a series of aftershocks have devastated the island nation, affecting about 3 million people and claiming at least 50,000 lives, according to early estimates, although some reports predict the death toll will exceed 100,000.

Through the EPPN website, individuals can send letters to Obama urging him to work with lawmakers to ensure that the U.S. commits to sustained investment in efforts to rebuild Haiti and provide American infrastructural and personnel support.

As he traveled around Haiti in 2008, Baumgarten said he "experienced a nation whose people – despite the most difficult recent history imaginable – were working joyfully to build a future of prosperity and peace."

The Episcopal Church in Haiti, numerically the largest diocese in the Episcopal Church, "has been a leader in cultivating hope for the Haitian people, sponsoring religious, educational, health, and vocational-training institutions throughout the country," Baumgarten said.

Natural disasters often sweep Haiti. Four storms battered the country between mid-August and mid-September 2008, causing destruction from which the country had not yet fully recovered.

"How unfair it seems that just as the Haitian people were gaining some traction in overcoming a history of poverty, internal strife, and other natural disasters, devastation of this magnitude returns," said Baumgarten. "Like so many other Americans, I've felt moments of helplessness this week, wondering what I can do."

Encouraging people to pray for the earthquake victims, Baumgarten highlighted a special service to be held at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 17 at Washington National Cathedral. Jefferts Schori will preach and Bishop John Bryson Chane of Washington will offer the invocation at the prayer service. The offering will benefit relief efforts in Haiti.

"As the president and others have said, getting relief dollars into Haiti is the only thing that will be effective in the immediate sense," Baumgarten told ENS. "Looking beyond that, it's clear that there's a great deal that our government can and must do to ensure a healthy recovery and rebuilding the devastation in Haiti."

The EPPN policy alert, which is emailed to about 25,000 Episcopalians and religious advocates, highlighted an Executive Council resolution from 2004 in support of peace and human rights in Haiti.

Baumgarten said that the Episcopal Church has for many years advocated for the cancellation of decades-old debt owed by Haiti to international lending institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. "We were overjoyed earlier this summer when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton negotiated a deal to make this possible and give Haiti a fresh start," he said. "We will be carefully monitoring Haitian needs in the coming months to ensure that any future assistance Haiti required from international lending partners do not create a new impediment to Haiti's future ability to provide for the needs of her people."

Episcopal News Service
Matthew Davies is editor and international correspondent of Episcopal News Service.