When Chaos Reigns: Clinging to Hope as Haiti Teeters on the Edge of Catastrophe
Efanor Nore has lived his entire life in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, but never imagined his city would dissolve into the violence that currently reigns over the streets there. Hear how he clings to hope amidst the chaos.
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Show Notes
You can hear the weariness in Efanor Nore’s voice as he talks about the violent gangs that control the streets and neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. But there’s also a calmness in his voice. Hear how he remains unafraid and even hopeful as his beloved country dissolves into utter chaos. When the storms of life hit hard, we can learn from those, like Efanor, who keep their eyes on the One who remains in control.
When Chaos Reigns: Clinging to Hope as Haiti Teeters on the Edge of Catastrophe
Cathy: Welcome to The End of The Road podcast. My name is Cathy and I'm your host and tour guide as we journey together to some of the most remote, challenging places on the planet. I'm so excited to have you along for the ride. So buckle up, we're going to the end of the road. I'm joined today by Efanor Nore. Efanor is World Concern's Country Representative in Haiti. Efanor and I have the privilege of actually being in person together today. It's very exciting. Pretty rare that I get to interview somebody on the podcast where we're together in the same room, but Efanor is here at World Concern's headquarters for a few weeks of meetings. And so, it's a real joy and a real blessing to be together today, so Efanor, thank you so much for joining us.
Efanor Nore: Thank you, Cathy. This is a pleasure for me to be with you and in person after several years we haven't been met in the headquarter, so it's a pleasure.
Cathy: Yes. So Efanor, I want to just give the listeners a snapshot of what's going on in Haiti right now. We've talked about Haiti in some previous episodes on the podcast, but the situation, unfortunately, is really deteriorating in Haiti right now. So, describe what's going on in Haiti right now. When you walk outside the door of your home or your office and you step out onto the street, what do you see around you? What do you hear? What does the atmosphere feel like in Haiti right now?
Efanor Nore: This is a very interesting question and it's sometimes so difficult to talk about Haiti when thinking about what the situation is right now, but as I left Haiti the past four days, it's so hard, it's so hard. It's so difficult to explain, but after it's been several years, about three to four years since Haiti faced a long instability, political instability, then after also the assassination of the president, the Haitian president, it has been so difficult for Haitians. And the situation has deteriorate. After that, we got several other situation, like massacre that perpetuate by the gangs. We have several gangs in Haiti, Cité Soleil, and Croix-des-Bouquets. I hope you hear about the Quatre Cent Mawozo gangs. And there are other group gangs members in Haiti according to several reports that the Human Rights Organization issues.
So, there are more than 100 gangs member in country. Those gangs operates in several area in Port-au-Prince, mainly in the metropolitan area. So after the assassination of the president, as the president has been killed at his house on his bed, and only the president, all his guard was safe. His wife was wounded on her right arm. She's no longer in Haiti. She's in the states after the assassination, she came to the states. But right now, we are facing a situation that no one can explain what it is because we have no parliament in place. We only have ten senators around. Haiti is running by a prime minister, which is not common in our history. Haiti used to president, not government, but right now, we have won. After the assassination of the president, the prime minister is playing the war of the president.
So going back to what the situation looks like today, I can say it's a nightmare. People can can't circulate because the gangs occupy the different roads that connect the capital to the rest of the country. It's been more than one year since the national road number two has been inaccessible due to the gangs, a powerful gang that have their base locating in this location. So, it's been so difficult for people to go to the southern region. Even after the earthquake, it was so difficult for the humanitarian partners to bring supports to the people affected. As you know, World Concern is operating in the southern region even before the earthquake and before the assassination of the president, you can imagine how difficult it is operating in such context. And thanks God we've been able to serve people there anyway, but God is with us.
Cathy: So it sounds like, is it safe to say that the gangs control at least the city of Port-au-Prince, they're basically in control of the city. Is that right?
Efanor Nore: The right word is that. There is no other word we can use and saying that the capital is on the gangs control right now. Even if the police has made a lot of efforts to try to contain the situation, but it's insufficient because they do not have enough equipment or weapon to fight the gangs. And the past months, the government has tried to see how they can import some weapons and some equipment from Canada. It's taking so many times and no one knows when they will arrive. And remember, Haiti has no army. We only have around 15,000 police for 11 million, almost 12 million Haitians. And we share the border with Dominican Republic. And it is so difficult when gangs circle the capital and people can't move.
Even myself, when I have to go to work and go home, that's the biggest movement that I can only do and go to church. There is no leisure activities. No one can go out easily. Most importantly, kidnapping is still a real situation that's impact the life of the Haitians today. I know you heard about the gang, Quatre Cent Mawozo has kidnapped several foreigners, including the 17 Americans that were kidnapped by this gang. And this gang occupied the area that connect Haiti to Dominican Republic. Most importantly, Haitian can't cross this road. This gang is based in Croix-des Bouquets. Croix-des Bouquets is the area where I live too, but I'm in the northern part of Croix-des Bouquets. And my area is a little bit peaceful than the others. But right now, we can say there is no word to express what is happening in Haiti. It's for the first time in my life I see such situation in country, but I think God knows why it is happening.
And adding to the food insecurity, about 4 million, 4.6 million Haitians are food insecure, and about 2 million, more than 2 million Haitians, they are in severe needs for food right now. So, it is so sad. Sometimes in my neighbor, when I see Haitians, friends or people that I know, they need a bottle of water. They can't even find even less than 1 cent or 5 cents to purchase a bottle of water. So, the cost of living is so high and the description of the situation make me sad sometimes that's why I wouldn't even say that, but I'm grateful that God still keep Haitian survive because you can see smile in their face. They continue to struggle every day. They go in street even if they are hopeless for a future, but they have no choice. They have to continue to live the life. That's a kind of way I can describe the situation.
Cathy: It sounds almost like a war zone. And you live in the city, you're very close to the city, you work in the city, you've got a wife and two young daughters. So, what is that like? Do you fear for your safety, for the safety of your family? Do you hear gunfire out in the streets? Is it just chaos? Explain a little bit about what it feels like to be in that city right now.
Efanor Nore: Fear has invaded Haitian. I cannot say that I'm not fear because as a human being, what is happening in Haiti, I don't think it is happening nowhere in the world because everything is unpredictable. That's the challenge. So if I were in Afghanistan or any other country in the world, I could easily know where the target area and location. But in Haiti, the young boys, they have no choice, they have to register into the gangs to survive. It's like the weapon is easier to find, a mission is easier to find in Haiti than food, that's what I could see. It's not because Haiti couldn't produce, it's because there is a mindset and the constant political inability that create that problem over the years and lack of leadership that create that situation.
And now, we can see the gangs even defeat the government. They can even say, the government members, they are not going to this location, and they just block it and they just shoot and they prevent them to go. So there are several festivity, it's been three years from now, the carnival period, which is one of the period that Haitian used to go in street, to enjoy their time with families, with friends in the public place. So, these activities has disappeared over the time. So, it's like people are living in a situation that is nonsense to me today, but there is hope anyway. I know there is hope. For my wife and kids, I'm not afraid at all. And I'm glad God gave us strength to not be afraid because we know wherever we may be, if God wants things to happen to us, we can't prevent it to happen.
That's what I am afraid for Haitians because I can flee the country, I got a visa, I can travel, but others, they don't. Why should I flee my country? Why I leave others suffering without the same opportunity? I have more opportunity than others. Today, I'm in the United state. I could stay in the States, even if I would be illegal, but I could stay to protect my life. So I can tell you right now, it's been three days since the situation getting worse. I have just received news from Haiti that the Dominican Republic, they just send some special police officers to protect their embassy. And also, the banks are the main target right now in Haiti. There are a lot of looting in street. They loot several stalls in Port-au-Prince, in Delmas, in Pétion-Ville. And there are people, they block different corner, different streets so there is no movement.
And all these happened because the government has increased the fuel price, the fuel cost to more than 100%. That's two times they did it. It's been one year since they increased it two times. Now, you may need $5, more than $5 to purchase one American gallon, so I can say 3.78 liters of fuel. And it's difficult. Even before that, they couldn't survive. We can see the long queue of people searching for fuel. And in the black market, the cost is so high, you need more than $10 to purchase a gallon of 3.78 liters right now in Haiti. After this situation that lasts more than three weeks, even World Concern, we face that challenge, we couldn't find fuel. We have some visitors that went to Haiti. They couldn't go to visit the sites because of that. We couldn't afford fuel. If we go to the site by an hour, we may not be able to continue our work until we could find fuel.
So, it's a nightmare. It's something that no one can explain, but what I observed today, it's something that I would never expect to see. But it's true, there is a God. I still believe there is a God. Things will change. God made things for a reason, and I hope. One last thing I didn't tell you about my wife, what we do, I usually go to church to Delmas and because of the situation, one time, we have been stuck because of the gangs that were fighting. We have two men that we can take, but the gangs are fighting one time. And I remember my little daughter, Nora, she's four years old. She said, "What is happening?" And I had to turn the vehicle many times to see how I can to wait. After that, I had to return to my sister, find a safe place to my sister's house and spend the weekend there. I remember, I didn't think about the toothbrush for them. I had to go to purchase new toothbrush for them so that they can spend the time until the police could control.
During that time, the gangs perpetuate a massacre in Croix des Missions where they killed more 140 people. And on our return after several days, we could smell the body of the people. It was so sad, but there was nothing that has been done. And we know it's hard, but we know what happened to the people of Israel. We know when you are suffering, there is a reason. And we pray that God will bring new hope to the Haitians people. And I think it's time now for a change, it will change. That's what I appreciate the World Concern Transformational Development Approach, which is I can inspire of that approach. If our government could be more open to listen to the voice of God, to listen, to put aside selfishness because what we see, they need to reconcile to God to themself into the country. Haiti is a beautiful country. I can tell you, if you go there, you see the ocean. We have beautiful places to relax and we have the sea out there in Haiti and you can visit the north region to see how beautiful it is.
So beyond that, you see poverty when you get into different location because of political instability, insecurity, kidnapping. Many family are poor. They have to spend a lot of money to pay ransom for setting free of friends. They kidnap pastors, they kidnap priests, even people who don't have money, people who sell a bag of candies in street, they even kidnap those kind of people. Thanks God we are still there. I go back to the office I have not been. And none of World Concern staff would pray constantly. And I thank you so much because HQ always pray for us. And we see the power of the Lord. And thanks God we have about 63 employee in the country, but none of us has been targeted until now, and we praise the Lord for that. And I hope it's time to change. I remember after we experienced all of this situation, we will have more and more capacity to face the future.
It's like lessons that Haitians, we need to put aside our wrong thoughts to embrace the word of God that says, we set you free if the truth is coming out, so we need to tell the truth. The government need to come to God and tell the truth to the people and time may arrive for a change in Haiti. We need a new government. When I talk about the new government, we need election in Haiti. We ask prayer for Haiti because we don't need too much to change Haiti. Haitians don't need that much. They can live with whatever they have, but we need to afford to do things. So, they need a better life. They need a new life. They need some ways to change their living conditions because the condition today is like, we go all the way down from 19 or 16th centuries today. It's not good at all.
Speaker: We want to thank our listeners for joining us at the end of the road. And we hope you're enjoying hearing the incredible stories of what God is doing in the world's most remote, challenging places. We also want to invite you to prayerfully consider taking the next step and getting involved. You can support the life changing work of World Concern and help reach more people with God's love and meet critical needs by making a donation at www.worldconcern.org/road, that's world concern.org/road. Your support is critical to keeping this ministry going and growing. So, thank you. And now, let's get back to our conversation.
Cathy: I was going to ask you what's needed to see change in Haiti, but you answered that without my even asking, which is reconciliation with God because once we have that, then we can be reconciled to our brothers and sisters. And then the conflict, the violence will end if people are first reconciled to God, but it's just really hard to imagine some of the things that Haitians are experiencing right now, even you and your family, the story you told of you and your kids and your wife being basically trapped in a part of the city when you'd gone to church and you couldn't get back home. And so, thank goodness you had your sister's home to stay at, but you yourself saying you've never seen anything like this, you wouldn't have ever even imagined that this would happen in Haiti, a country that has already suffered and struggled for so many years. People living in real extreme poverty.
And just to put that in context for our listeners, we've had high fuel prices recently here in the US as well. And people see on the news that there are areas where it's up to 5 or $6 a gallon. For us, this is a frustration and an inconvenience to our budget, but when you're talking about people who are living on maybe a few dollars a day for food, for housing, for all of their needs and a gallon of fuel costs more than what they're earning in a day, you can see how it just would bring life to a halt because they can't even ride a motorcycle or take a vehicle to get to work or to get somewhere to get food. Or like you said, some people can't even access water, the basic necessities. It just really reminds me that what's needed right now and what we can ask our listeners to do is to pray for Haiti. So, if you could share a couple of things, one or two things that you feel like if you could ask people to pray for Haiti, what would you ask them to pray for?
Efanor Nore: Haiti needs peace. Haiti needs a new direction because it's been a long time we struggle. It's time that Haitian see in their horizon the hope that God intends for them. Haiti needs a new governance. There is no election yet. No elected people. That means we need peace so that election can organize at any time because we don't even see how it's going to happen, but what we see, if God can move prayers, God can move mountains, can help us what we don't see but God sees them, what we don't know. We don't know why these things are happening right now, but we know what we know. We believe that God can change water into blood and blood into water. This is possible. So, I count on prayer. I would ask to pray for several thousand or million of Haitian that are food insecure. They need hope.
And pray for the prisoner. Last month, several prisoners are dying because of food, not only that, but we pray for new opportunity for the people we serve outside because World Concern continue to serve. In spite of all this situation, we continue to serve people and we bring the message of reconciliation to the community. And as you know, I think drug might be one of the challenge that the youth are facing because without the word of reconciliation, which mean they need to find a way to go out of violence. So, who's going to do that? How we can establish peace, restore peace in Haiti? Peace can be restored when people have conscious that they recognize that they are guilty. So, I don't have word again to say. We constantly pray, but prayer can move mountains and we ask you to pray for peace.
Cathy: Amen. We will definitely join you in that for peace in Haiti. We will be praying for that. We'll be praying for new leadership and government in Haiti for new hope and for people to have just a fresh start, just to have that hope again. I love what you were saying earlier that you're not going anywhere. You could leave the country if you wanted to, but you will stay with your people and serve and work. And World Concern is the same way, we work in these hard places, and Haiti's a real example of that. And no matter how hard it gets, we're there with people. And so, you are the physical embodiment of World Concern there in Haiti, you and your team being present with them, staying with them. And we're so grateful for that. We're so appreciative of the work that you and the team are doing. Thank you for sharing a little bit with us today about what's happening in Haiti and what's been on your heart and how we can be praying. So Efanor, thank you so much for joining us today.
Efanor Nore: Thank you. The pleasure is mine. And I hope to talk to you again soon. I went to share greetings from all Haitians that are suffering and from Haiti church and to you and to the people that serve Haiti, that support our program in Haiti. Thank you.
Cathy: I want to thank our listeners for joining us today. I hope your mind has been expanded and your heart has been touched by what God is doing around the world. If you like what you're hearing on the end of the road, please give us a five star rating and review us on Apple podcasts or hit the bell symbol on Spotify to be notified when there's a new episode released. Stay in the know and never miss an episode by texting the word podcast to 34444. I want to thank CRISTA Ministries, World Concern's parent organization for making this podcast possible. And I also want to thank Casey Helmick and the whole team at Terra Firma for their production and editing and consulting expertise for helping us bring these stories to life and bring them to you. Thanks again for joining us today. We look forward to more stories at the end of the road next time.
