Helping Displaced Families in Haiti
Signs of hope can be hard to come by for those who’ve lost much. But Samaritan’s Purse and local church partners have been sharing the eternal hope found in Jesus Christ with Haiti’s displaced people. We’ve also been providing food and hygiene kits as well as medical care to a displaced population that has tripled to over 1 million in the last year alone.
The crisis is more than a number. More than half of Haiti’s displaced are children and many have relocated multiple times, according to the United Nations’ International Organisation for Migration.
Basic health needs can take a back seat when facing hardship or crisis, so Samaritan’s Purse helped to care for the displaced through mobile medical clinics, as well as with food and hygiene kits.
Long considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti has suffered a series of earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, and cholera outbreaks over the past two decades.
In 2021, the country’s president was assassinated, followed by years of transitional government leaders. Riots have postponed elections numerous times. Political instability and gang violence have exacerbated medicine and food shortages in the country.
Providing Groceries and Good News
To help alleviate the suffering, Samaritan’s Purse and local church partners are preparing and delivering food and hygiene kits to displaced families.
“We are truly speechless toward this great gesture of Samaritan’s Purse because today we have food for more than 20 days,” said a woman named Mary* during a food distribution at a displacement shelter. “As a pregnant woman, I used to spend nights without eating and sometimes even cry like a child, but today I have a big smile on my lips because I can cook what I want. I can make corn or rice or spaghetti, and I can drink milk as well.
“We send words of gratitude to everyone who contributed to this aid and also visited us at this site,” she said. “Thousands of thanks to Samaritan’s Purse.”
In 2024, our team distributed over 8,000 food kits and nearly 15,000 hygiene kits.
These food bags, given to displaced people in Haiti, are a joint effort by Samaritan’s Purse and church partners in the country to meet crisis needs.
In addition to the physical aid, our Haiti team prays with the displaced and tells them about the everlasting hope found in Jesus Christ. At one site, after team members proclaimed the Gospel, 13 people committed their lives to Jesus Christ.
This hope is a light in the darkness as many in the displacement sites are grieving the loss of loved ones, as well as their homes and livelihoods.
“Many of our friends and other people were killed by the gangs,” said Jimmy*, who was a teacher and farmer before being forced to leave his neighbourhood. “Today I am left with my hands swinging without employment.
“This is a situation that puts me thoroughly down but not hopeless because I see that the Lord sent [people] through Samaritan’s Purse to visit us,” Jimmy said. “They prayed with us, talked with us, and distributed hot meals to me and my peers. Their actions were a real blessing and a comfort to me, and for the rest of my brothers and sisters here.
“The gesture that the people of Samaritan’s Purse did for us today left a positive mark in our hearts that nothing can erase,” he said. “They inspired us in ways that were unimaginable.”
Offering Medicine and Prayer
David* thanks God for the medical help and spiritual encouragement he received through Samaritan’s Purse. He was a patient at one of our mobile medical clinics held last year in collaboration with local medical professionals and Haiti’s Ministry of Health.
Samaritan’s Purse partnered with Haiti’s Ministry of Health and local medical professionals to provide mobile medical clinics for those displaced by gang violence in the country.
A gang had taken over David’s neighbourhood, forcing families at gunpoint to vacate their homes upon threat of death or torture. There wasn’t time to grab or safeguard any belongings.
“The bandits left us with nothing; they even stole the doors,” David said. His family took shelter at a displacement site after having to flee their home. Exposed to the elements, David’s health deteriorated.
He suffered from body aches and sores. “This is possibly because I sleep on cardboard,” he said. “When it rains, I have to wait for it to stop before lying down, even though the floor is still wet.”
David is grateful to the doctors who provided medicine for his sores and most of all to God, who is the Hope that he clings to, especially during times of uncertainty and struggle.
“I am very grateful that Samaritan’s Purse came to us,” David said. “I give great thanks to God, who also used Samaritan’s Purse to visit and comfort us through prayer. This needed visit was a sign of hope for us.”
In 2024, we provided outpatient services like this to more than 6,000 displaced people, including nearly 500 children under the age of 5.
Please pray for the displaced people of Haiti to find hope and an eternal home in the living God. Pray also for our teams as we serve them in Jesus’ Name.
*Name changed for security.
Support International Crisis Response
Can provide all the essentials for a hygiene kit, restoring dignity to victims of crisis and showing them that the Lord has not forgotten them.
Will help meet the needs of vulnerable children after crisis, such as refugees or street children, reassuring them that God loves them.
Equips us to help displaced families settle in new countries while we also share the promise that God will be with them.
