Haiti by Hand • by Rebecca Sower

Haiti has been a part of my heart and my life for several years. To date I have only traveled to Haiti once, returning back home eight days before the earthquakes of January 2010. My husband and daughter have each been twice, and it was the photos from their first trip that planted the seeds for Haiti By Hand. I would look at their photos brought back from Haiti, focusing on the faces of the women and mothers. And I couldn’t look away. Even after the photos were tucked away, the faces of utter hopelessness and resignation appeared in my head, usually in the middle of the night. But what in the world was I supposed to do to help these women? I didn’t know exactly, but I knew I had to do something.

I have no medical training so I couldn’t help them in that way. I am not an educator so I wouldn’t be able to teach them. I do not have millions of dollars stashed in a bank account, so I hadn’t much to give financially. I am an artist, a creative person … how in the world could I make a difference? What could one woman do that would even matter?

Like most creative people, my desire to create is as real and physical as my desire to eat when I am hungry and sleep when I am tired. For example, much of my artwork is textile based, featuring detailed hand stitching. When an idea for a piece appears in my head it works its way down to my fingers and I cannot rest until I go into my studio and pick up my needles and threads and linens and begin creating. When I am running low on a certain color of thread, I get in my car, drive to the store, and buy more.

I was standing in the aisle of a large craft store one day, letting all the colors of the threads make me happy, when everything came rushing together in my mind: What if? What if, when I felt the need to stitch a piece of artwork, I didn’t have a needle or threads or fabric? What if the same desire to create was there and I had nothing to create with? What would that do to me emotionally, mentally, even physically?

And standing right there, in the aisle of Hobby Lobby, I began my work to help at least one or two women in Haiti. I vowed to provide them with what they needed to get in touch with their creativity. I prayed it would be the path toward providing them with a glimmer of hope.

And so, just after Christmas 2009, my 18-year-old daughter and I, along with our fearless leader Matthew (a young businessman from the States who is doing an incredible work helping the Haitian people become self-sustained) boarded a plane for Haiti. We took suitcases full of beads and threads and all sorts of art and crafting materials.

For several days, my daughter and I sat and crafted with a group of women in Despinos, Haiti (about 15 miles from Port-au-Prince) at the Haiti Gospel Mission. We laughed and sang and stitched and beaded. We prayed and hugged and bonded. And by the end of the week I was told that we had given these women something they had been void of for a very long time. We had given them hope.

I came home from that trip bursting with excitement to go forward with my plan. Haiti By Hand would be an artisan group formed to empower these Haitian women toward earning even a small income to help support their children. Just bringing in a few dollars now and then makes an enormous difference for these women — many of whom are single mothers who cannot leave their children to find jobs — and could literally be life-transforming.

In spite of the earthquake disaster, we are determined to go forward with Haiti By Hand and establish this artisan group. Our dream is to build a small structure on the compound of the mission to showcase their wares and handcrafts to sell to humanitarian, medical, and mission groups who come through at least weekly.

These women want to create. They want to be self-sustained. They want to provide for their children just as you and I do. And sometimes in order to do this, all they need is a needle and some pretty threads.

To learn more, visit rebeccasower.typepad.com.

Comments

[linda]

Wow, what a brave and generous thing to do...to go out on a limb and just follow your heart to do something - whatever you can do to help. I admire the courage and creativity in it. I think many of us have felt that same way when questioning "What can I do?" - but as you noted, it's really just bringing hope in whatever way you can. Hope is the most powerful thing...can I say wow, again? :P

[Julie B]

I love that your heart leads you to help these women. What you (and you daughter) have done is so much more empowering than a simple gift of money; you have given them a way to move forward. Thanks for sharing here (and on your blog).

[Dede Warren]

I love your spirit Rebecca! When so many pay lip service to charity, service, and paying it forward you are moved to action. I know you've motivated MANY MORE to action by giving a voice and a face to these women and their lives. God bless you and all you do dear Rebecca!!

[shona cole]

Rebecca, what an amazing and touching story. You are an example to us all. thank you

Shona cole

[julee]

i get it! i have had that feeling before... when i have returned home from trips to South East Asia. there can be so many obstacles to doing this sort of work, but there you are making it happen. wow... you are an inspiration, rebecca, to us and to those women in haiti.

xoxo
jul

[Rhonda Podlesak]

What an amazing story and your thought process sounds so familiar to me. You are doing exactly what I would like to do, share the wonderful experience of creating. It has changed my life and I know it would change others if you could just reach to them. Your inspiration is giving others strength to help.

[Susan Reaney]

Rebecca,
I am so grateful for what you have done. I am welcoming home two young friends who just got back from helping in an orphanage there...that, too, is important work. I do think there is something about art, though, that feeds the soul and makes is whole. i have several medical conditions and can often forget my pain when I do art.
Years ago, I spent time volunteering in Jamaica and I wish I could go do work in Haiti but I am not able so instead, I will support people like you who are taking art to the people.
Thanks. Truly.
Suz

[Valerie Burgess]

When my family met you at The Creative Connection we were able to see first hand the glow that you give off and the enthusiasm you had for the work you have created in Haiti. I frequently think of you when I hear of the Cholera, and riots and the inherent dangers of returning to Haiti. I pray God's Speed be with you and those whose lives you have embellished.