Hope for Haiti

Today has been filled with thoughts of Haiti!
After a couple weeks I thought this feeling would subside, but instead it has only gotten more intense!

Today as I researched more about Haiti, I came across some statistics that rocked my world...

According to the Worldwide Fact Book, these are some statistics that compelled me:

1. One of every five Haitian children dies of malnutrition, dehydration, or diarrhea.
2. Less than HALF the population has access to clean drinking water, a rate that compares poorly with other less-developed nations.
3. There are 120,000 people in Haiti living with HIV/AIDS and 7,200 have died from it.
4. Major diseases include:
Food and Waterborne - bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, Hepatitis A&E, and typhoid fever.
Vectorborne - Dengue Fever and Malaria.
Water Content Disease - Leptospirosis.

When looking at these statistics, my heart hurts. How can we as Americans sit here complaining when we don't "think" we get enough to eat or aren't content with our dinner when there are kids out there dying of malnutrition?! How come, and I am guilty of this more than anyone, will refuse to drink tap water because I don't like the taste of it? Instead I'll go spend money on a water bottle that I won't even reuse. Yes I have recently been buying the Ethos water from Starbucks which part of your money goes towards building fresh water wells in Africa but what about the people in Haiti? They're my passion, what am I doing for them in this sense? How can I be so selfish and picky about what I eat and drink when they're lucky to find a puddle of muddy water, which carries disease, just to get possibly their only drink of the day? I somehow feel responsible for the things they go through being an American. After this last earthquake in January of 2010, the American Government promised Haiti 1.15 BILLION dollars in relief funds to this country which till this day, still has yet to arrive. These are people's lives that we could be taking care of right now...what are we waiting on? As Americans we are so impatient about everything. We want what we want, how we want, and when we want it, not a second later...Shouldn't we be doing for other nations what we would want for ourselves? I understand they are complications dealing with this amount of money but let's get real. Couldn't something have been done in the last 8 months?

As I complain of all these things, I'm again reminded of how much complaining really helps...it doesn't! So instead of complaining about the problems there, I'm going to go out and fix them!

Even though it sounds big and impossible for me, it is not impossible for God. Impossibility is needed for God to perform a miracle...Bring It On God!

http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/images/haiti_nutrition_300x200.jpg