Immersion
Mercy Focus on Haiti (MFOH) regards the Immersion Experiences it has already provided for over 100 adults and students in Mercy schools and colleges/universities as opportunities for them to go to Haiti and “immerse” themselves in the daily life, experience, and virtues of our sisters and brothers living in the poorest country in the western hemisphere.
This “immersion” occurs in week-long service trips to northern Haiti where MFOH partners with many devoted Haitian leaders. When these trips are not possible – because of US State Department warnings and grave civil and economic disruption in Haiti – “immersion” experiences are brought to the United States through MFOH’s communications and its promotion of various MFOH learning activities related to our friends in Haiti. Either way, American adults and students can come to respect the poverty, resilience, hopefulness, and creative spirit of the Haitian people.
They learn what it actually means to be “ultra-poor” and to not eat every day; they learn what food insecurity and water insecurity really mean in a Haitian person’s life; they see the Haitian reverence for soil, water, trees, and family animals; they witness the strong commitment of Haitian men and women to the education of their children and themselves in ways that will improve their current and future lives; they witness Haitian people caring for the Earth and creating ecological actions and systems (solar panel installations, reforestation projects, cisterns for rainwater harvesting, composting toilets) that mitigate some of the causes and increasingly disastrous effects of our global climate crisis.
Through all this “immersive” learning, however brief, they develop deeper bonds with our Haitian family, and undergo what they say is “a life-changing experience.” Their understanding of our Gospel obligations is deepened, and they recognize the equality, goodness, courage, and inventiveness of their no longer “distant” Haitian brothers and sisters.
Haitian Immersion Experiences occur through travel to Haiti or by MFOH’s bringing Haiti to the United States through advocating stateside learning activities. These learning activities – for example, reading Steven Werlin’s To Fool the Rain or the novels of Haitian-American Edwidge Danticat; studying the negative effects of malnutrition in Haitian children; learning the self-empowerment achieved by Haitian women and their families in the MFOH-supported “Pathway to a Better Life” program; or listening to a lecture by the Haitian PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor — can enrich the lives of all who participate and enlarge our merciful embrace of the whole human family.
Anyone wishing to participate in this wonderful and renewing expansion of his or her neighborly love is invited to get in touch with MFOH’s Immersion Committee by contacting Andrea (Andi) Healy at andijhealy@aol.com.