Changing the lives of survivors and volunteers worldwide
Voices from the Field: Vicky
Vikki was the manager of our scholarship programme for more than two months. She wrote this essay just before she left. Vikki’s words echo many other volunteer experiences with us in Haiti. We’d like to thank Vikki and all of our volunteers for their work!
Port au Prince is unlike anywhere I have ever experienced. Only here can you witness so much dust and rubbish and yet so much colour and music at the same time…There is often a very negative press about Port au Prince – TV documentaries portray the city as a cholera ridden den full of wanted criminals and violence…the vibrant, determined, brave, strong, diverse, musical, friendly city of Port au Prince is buried under the rubble so to speak.
EDV’s motto, ’changing the lives of survivors and volunteers worldwide’, pretty much sums up the experience I have had in Haiti - the latter definitely being true. One of the things which has made my time in Haiti special is the different people I have met and been able to work with. [We have come together from all over the world] to…try and make a dent in the extreme poverty and vulnerability that so many Haitians have to live with every day. We’ve changed our own outlook and perspective on life in the process.
I am a lucky human; I have never been deprived of food, education, shelter or love. I have only been in Haiti a short time and cannot pretend that I have seen or know everything, but I do know there are too many people living without the majority of these basic human rights. The most upsetting thing is the futility of the situation.
The number of NGO’s in the country is overwhelming and the country does seem to be very aid dependent, but without this aid the pointless question is: would the situation be so much worse? There is not an answer to this and one thing I have learnt from being here and working with EDV is that all you can do is start at the bottom and address problems one at a time.
Using local knowledge and working with the local community means actual issues can be addressed for the long term and I am a firm believer in this after seeing it in action here in Port au Prince. Whether it is building a drainage system to prevent cholera in an orphanage; giving school scholarships to 25 children; delivering health classes to a women’s group; building classrooms for schools or simply playing with kids who have lost everyone they love in the earthquake, these in themselves are small steps but they are a start and that to me is the most important thing.
