Stephanie Forster is a determined woman. The founder of Nehemiah Foundation recently travelled from Vancouver to Port-au-Prince, Haiti to make a documentary. She hopes to do much more, including build a village for survivors of the massive April earthquake. Following are excerpts from her hard-hitting blog.

WHEN you see CNN talk about ‘tent cities,’ you think of a few segregated areas where these refugees are living; but the reality is the whole city is a tent city . . .

Everyone has a weapon; there are many guns. The people are desperate, and rightfully so . . .

I have found 80 percent of the orphanages here are run like a business; it’s a popular new business, since the earthquake. Many people who are not good people are taking advantage of this – and the children are the ones suffering, while the greedy orphanage owners buy Prada . . .

The orphanage I was at for nearly five days is one of the most disgusting travesties I have ever witnessed. There are 60 children at this location living outside in tents, with disease from the rotting piles of rats under their tents . . .

There is no proper running water, and the children are trapped there like prisoners. They never leave. They have no school bus, and have school in the orphanage – where they eat, sleep and play with deflated soccer balls. These children are at risk, and they need to be relocated . . .

The people have no food. I saw one woman who was actually eating chalk, like from a chalk board. I saw her eat the chalk, and dirt was on her mouth; I filmed her eating it.

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Never in my life have I seen such things – people so desperate that they would eat the dirt that is covered in feces and bacteria . . . One baby I met was found in a dumpster. He was seriously the cutest thing I have seen in ages; to think he was just thrown out into the rubbish is something my Westernized mind could not comprehend . . .

I was able to pray for a blind man who lost his sight in the earthquake, whom a pastor brought to me. I think we were the same age. He was very beautiful, but very sad – and his heart was broken, I could feel it. I had to pray for him.

He needed God to touch him so he could carry on. In some ways, his blindness is a blessing – as the devastation around him is another kind of hell on earth . . .

Can you imagine your friends, loved ones and neighbours all dead – and you having to burn their bodies in a pile, [wearing] no masks or gloves, in your back yard?

Despite all of this, I have faith that the foundation will be laid for the future, the way God has intended. The children are so adorable – but the realities here are shocking.

I have had a few good meltdowns and cries; but I am now adjusting to the way things are for these Haitians, and seeing what can be done that is in my power to do . . .

I am so grateful for my new Haitian friends and their hospitality. Truly, those who have very little in this world are indeed the most generous and gracious.

Info: stephprojecthaiti.wordpress.com.

Photos courtesy of Steph Forster

August 2010