Haiti Kidnapping

[Ernie]

I wonder if anything will come out in the next 6 months that would affect them re-opening in Haiti.

I'm quite sure the six months is a tentative goal.

[Ken]

I wonder if anything will come out in the next 6 months that would affect them re-opening in Haiti.

I'm quite sure the six months is a tentative goal.

I expect this is probably a larger conversation that all the international development and mission groups working in Haiti are having right now, internally and with each other. This doesn't just affect CAM, it affects everyone working in Haiti and there are dozens if not hundreds of different international and domestic projects and programs there.

I also expect that nothing much will change until the government becomes more stable and the security situation improves. Some groups will always keep working in any situation, but it will be on a more warlike footing like in say Syria or Yemen where security precautions are much more strict and you don't tour the countryside with families and such.

But that is just a guess on my part. I'm not tuned into the internal decision process of CAM or any other group working in Haiti. But I do have experience working overseas in insecure settings. Unless I miss my guess, every group working in Haiti is going through the same process and probably talking to each other.

[mike]

I wonder if anything will come out in the next 6 months that would affect them re-opening in Haiti.

I'm quite sure the six months is a tentative goal.

I expect this is probably a larger conversation that all the international development and mission groups working in Haiti are having right now, internally and with each other. This doesn't just affect CAM, it affects everyone working in Haiti and there are dozens if not hundreds of different international and domestic projects and programs there.

I also expect that nothing much will change until the government becomes more stable and the security situation improves. Some groups will always keep working in any situation, but it will be on a more warlike footing like in say Syria or Yemen where security precautions are much more strict and you don't tour the countryside with families and such.

But that is just a guess on my part. I'm not tuned into the internal decision process of CAM or any other group working in Haiti. But I do have experience working overseas in insecure settings. Unless I miss my guess, every group working in Haiti is going through the same process and probably talking to each other.

If the attitude of Barry Grant (CAM Haiti director) is an indicator, it appears the staff will want to get back to work in Haiti. But CAM as an organization has without a doubt been through a lot during this ordeal so who knows what will happen.

In his story, he basically says that although there have been more kidnappings in recent years, Haiti has always been a place of unrest and violence. It's not as if suddenly Haiti has become a totally different place than it has been, and so missions should not operate there. Haiti is Haiti, as he said.

[Ken]

I'm quite sure the six months is a tentative goal.

I expect this is probably a larger conversation that all the international development and mission groups working in Haiti are having right now, internally and with each other. This doesn't just affect CAM, it affects everyone working in Haiti and there are dozens if not hundreds of different international and domestic projects and programs there.

I also expect that nothing much will change until the government becomes more stable and the security situation improves. Some groups will always keep working in any situation, but it will be on a more warlike footing like in say Syria or Yemen where security precautions are much more strict and you don't tour the countryside with families and such.

But that is just a guess on my part. I'm not tuned into the internal decision process of CAM or any other group working in Haiti. But I do have experience working overseas in insecure settings. Unless I miss my guess, every group working in Haiti is going through the same process and probably talking to each other.

If the attitude of Barry Grant (CAM Haiti director) is an indicator, it appears the staff will want to get back to work in Haiti. But CAM as an organization has without a doubt been through a lot during this ordeal so who knows what will happen.

In his story, he basically says that although there have been more kidnappings in recent years, Haiti has always been a place of unrest and violence. It's not as if suddenly Haiti has become a totally different place than it has been, and so missions should not operate there. Haiti is Haiti, as he said.

Right. I don't think there is anyplace in the world that is so insecure that no international groups attempt to work there. Even actual war zones. It is more a question of what security procedures you follow and also when and where you work, how you travel, that sort of thing.

[Dan Z]

If the attitude of Barry Grant (CAM Haiti director) is an indicator, it appears the staff will want to get back to work in Haiti. But CAM as an organization has without a doubt been through a lot during this ordeal so who knows what will happen.

In his story, he basically says that although there have been more kidnappings in recent years, Haiti has always been a place of unrest and violence. It's not as if suddenly Haiti has become a totally different place than it has been, and so missions should not operate there. Haiti is Haiti, as he said.

I think that is probably the perspective of most of us who have lived and worked in Haiti.

This kidnapping was definitely a high-profile event, so it got a lot of attention here in the US and made folks on this end uncomfortable with the risks- but violence, even against missionaries, has historically not been rare in Haiti. For example, during our five years in Haiti, our mission alone had one missionary shot, another couple shot at, car windows smashed out while driving, armed intruders entering our compound more than once, including one night holding many of us at gunpoint and tieing some up, etc. During the same time we knew of numerous other Mennonite missionaries who were robbed, threatened, shot at, held, invaded, and otherwise endangered. Haiti is the wild west in many ways...and there is nothing new about that. But most of us were there with a strong sense of call and the conviction that the Gospel and love of Jesus must go forward to the least of these, regardless of personal danger. As a mission administrator, one of my goals was to try to limit risk - but I obviously couldn't eliminate it all. Also, the security situation tends to ebb and flow...and there have been times we've even needed to pull out for a bit until things "stabilized."

[Soloist]

Is the recording of Barry the CAM Haiti director’s story online anywhere? I’m listening to it from a forward on WhatsApp and it’s quite interesting.

I found it. It’s worth listening to the story from the director’s perspective. The differences of opinion among CAM leadership is interesting and not surprising I suppose. Barry was at the incredible intersection of faith in God, US and Haitian law enforcement, the Anabaptist perspective, and the CAM organization.

A lot of the questions we banter about here in abstract terms were reality for those who went through this crisis.

http://www.accfonline.org/mp3_files/2026.mp3

We are working on a transcript of this.

Wife: Looking forward to this. My MIL has been wanting to read them since she can't listen to them, and I haven't had the time or energy to listen to more than Barry, Phil, and Sam.

[RZehr]

This is the first place the captives were held, and where they later escaped from: https://goo.gl/maps/Bqzus7VA7yaEVpTPA

This is the second place they were held:
https://goo.gl/maps/Qy68PWuySYoCVQkv5

[Soloist]

Thats basically the area I showed my wife after listening to the first talk.

[Dan Z]

This is the first place the captives were held, and where they later escaped from: https://goo.gl/maps/Bqzus7VA7yaEVpTPA

This is the second place they were held:
https://goo.gl/maps/Qy68PWuySYoCVQkv5

Maybe 10 miles west of where we used to live

[Ernie]

Here is what the missions security folks think about paying ransoms.

https://wng.org/podcasts/paying-for-freedom-1641964492