Building from the Rubble Up

Food For The Poor’s dauntless staff writer Debi Springer has an extraordinary compassion for the children and families we work to support here at FFP.

Please take a few minutes to read about a family she met on a recent trip to Haiti. 

Have you ever come face-to-face with someone who has a dream? I mean, a real, tangible, I’m-going-to-make-this-happen kind of dream? I did.

I met Alina and her three sons in Leogane, Haiti, the epicenter of the 2010 earthquake. Inside Alina’s tiny shack was a pile of rubble that was so mish-mashed I had to ask if it was left over from the earthquake. That’s when Alina told me that she’d been collecting those odd pieces of rebar and metal since 2010. She has a dream. She wants to build a safe, sturdy house for her and her children.

I stood there, looking at Alina’s rusty, falling down shack, and the miserable little stack of unusable rebar and metal pieces she had painstakingly gathered over the past several years. I tried not to let her see my doubt about her dream.

One of the people visiting Alina with us was an engineer. She told Alina that used rebar is not safe, and that she shouldn’t build with it. Bent, crippled rebar made up the majority of Alina’s stash.

An undeterred faith

I felt bad. I wanted to tell Alina that anything was possible, and that she could do “all things through Christ who strengthens her.” But, did I? No. Instead, I stood there marveling at how impossible it all seemed. Alina didn’t notice my doubt. Sure, she was living in misery. Definitely she was struggling to care for her three sons. Absolutely her hunger was with her every day, hollowing out her stomach and zapping all her energy. But Alina has a lot going for her.

Alina believes in her dream. She has patience. But most of all, she has faith in God’s timing. She believes that one day, all of her hardship, hunger and suffering will come together for good, and that her dream will become a reality. She’s made me a believer, too.

Click here to see photos of Alina’s home in Haiti.