Haiti. World Factbook, 2006

The first Mennonite missionaries, two couples from the Mennonite Brethren and Evangelical Mennonite Brethren churches in Saskatchewan (1948-1949) came to southern Haiti under the West Indies Mission (later Worldteam). In 1979 Mennonite missionaries working with the group of national churches with which Worldteam was affiliated numbered 17.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) assistance began in 1958 with two Pax volunteers assigned to an agriculture project in Petit Grave with Haitian Methodist pastor Marco Depestre. Later MCC began sending nurses to Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Deschapelles. A program began in Grande Rivière du Nord in 1959 at the invitation of the Haitian government. Until 1979 MCC administered a hospital, assisted local schools, organized a cooperative of handicrafts producers, and carried out numerous activities in agriculture and community development in Grande Rivière du Nord. Since 1979, MCC programs in the northeast and Artibonite Valley have focused on community development, food production, reforestation and community health.

Following hurricanes in 1963 and 1966, Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) and MCC cooperated to construct houses in Côtes de Fer and Marigot. Various MDS team members continued to relate to several Haitian pastors they had met, particularly in Miragoane. Several independently constituted Mennonite organizations began visiting on a regular basis. Short-term workers came under the auspices of these organizations to work with the Haitian pastors in health clinics, agriculture, well-drilling, and construction of schools and churches.

Mennonite Churches in the West Indies, 1980s, Mennonite Encyclopedia, v. 5, pp. 736-737.

In 1963 MCC introduced several representatives of the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite (Holdeman), to the government of Haiti and was instrumental in helping them get established. Registered in Haiti as "Mission Mennonite" (Église de Dieu en Christ, Mennonite), they became involved in church planting, nutrition, tuberculosis control, and water catchment for poor families. Goshen College established a Study Service Trimester program (SST) in Haiti in 1969, bringing college students to the island for short-term service and international education. Since early 1986, the SST unit was not operational. Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities (MC) has been involved since the mid-1960s in the Extension Bible School Program (EBEX) of the Council of Evangelical Churches of Haiti (CEEH). In 1986 an Eastern Board missionary couple was seconded to CEEH to work full-time in the EBEX leadership training program.

Among other Mennonite organizations with significant programs in Haiti are Mennonite Economic Development Associates, Blue Ridge Christian Homes (Beachy Amish Mennonite Fellowship), Palm Grove Mission Board, Virginia Conference Mission Board, Christian Fellowship Mission, Gospel Mission to Haiti and Sonlight Mission (Église Mennonite Sonlight Mission). A meeting of the proliferating Mennonite groups working in Haiti was organized in 1978 for the purpose of sharing concerns and common interests. This meeting, usually held in January, has continued almost annually since then.

See also Communion Mennonite d'Haiti.

Bibliography

Additional Information

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, pp. 360-361. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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