HAITI (MNN) — In Cite Soleil, one of the most destitute neighborhoods in this poverty-ridden city, Marines and sailors team-up with a U-S based evangelical organization to provide much-needed work to the residents of Haiti’s slum by the sea.
Small children play barefoot in the streets as Marines and sailors provide security for local Haitian workers, wearing rubber boots and using pitchforks and shovels, the workers scoop seemingly endless amounts of garbage, sludge and human waste into back-end loaders and dump trucks.
The clean-up project is a joint venture of Marines and sailors from Combat Service Support Detachment – 20, Marine Air Ground Task Force – 8 and Food for teh Poor, a Florida-based non-governmental organization. The project has been underway for more than two weeks and has proved beneficial for both the Marines and the Haitians living in the area.
“Since we’ve been out here, we’ve removed eight to ten dump truck loads of trash a day from this area along with strengthening the bond between the forces here and the Haitian people,” said Chief Warrant Officer Michael A. Chin, CSSD-20’s maintenance detachment commander.
Chin and his Marines have been actively monitoring, coordinating and providing security for local workers contracted by Food for the Poor to clean the drainage ditch that runs through the neighborhood’s collage of half-built cinder block shelters and tin huts. Much of the black sludge which normally lies stagnate in the canal, has overflowed into the streets and surrounding area since the start of Haiti’s rainy season.
Food for the Poor is assisting in their physical needs in hopes of having an impact the Haitian’s need to know Christ. Pray that this assistance will allow many to see Christ.
