Here's the transcript of my on-air interview by a local radio station (Castle Rock Radio) last week. I've edited out all the ums, hums, ahs, you knows, yahoos, and shazams, etc., so I appear to have at least some semblance of command of the English language. Special thanks to Charles Oster for the opportunity to talk about World Orphans, especially our work with the Haiti Orphan Relief Team (HORT). Charles asked some GREAT questions (and I didn't even feed any questions to him beforehand!) Thanks also to Terryll for typing this up. It's long, but I encourage all to read it to get a perspective on the current state of affairs in Haiti, and for what I think is the very best response.
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ADVANCE! With Charles Oster, Castle Rock Radio, 3/2/10
Charles Oster: We're going to be focused on Haiti today. We've got a special guest that I'm going to be introducing here in just a few minutes. Just honored and privileged to have an opportunity to do that. We broadcast live the day that the earthquake happened. We didn't know the extent of it, really, until the weeks following - how bad it really was. So we're going to be addressing that in the final three segments of the show today.
(First show segment)
We're going to shift gears here a little bit. As you know, all of us are committed to community, and not only to here in Castle Rock. We have people listening literally from all around the world. And we have people signing in and saying hello from Brazil to France to Germany. I've had texts come in from friends over in Nairobi. You know, the mantra here is we're locally focused, nationally relevant. We're globally heard and I love this medium so we can get out, not only just focused right here in Castle Rock, but everywhere. No matter where you are in the world today listening in, we can make a difference.
The Haiti earthquake on January 12th. There was an earthquake - 7.0 magnitude. We're hearing a lot about earthquakes right now and this was a devastating, devastating earthquake because of where it was located. It was in a very, very, very densely populated area. And, and I've heard all kinds of figures - and hopefully we're going to get some clarification today from our guest - that left a million people homeless and hundreds, hundreds of thousands of people dead. Hard to really wrap our minds around that. So today, and back on January 19th, I challenged everyone to do something, whether it was to give 5 bucks, pray . . . to do something.
I'm proud and honored that we have a guest today, Paul Myhill from World Orphans, and let me just share a little bit about this organization. They're an organization headquartered right here in Douglas County, right here in Castle Rock. And, I've many friends that work for the organization, that give so much to be a part of this organization. Paul Myhill is the President of World Orphans. They work all around the world, working and mobilizing local organizations in those areas to be able to respond to not just disasters but challenges that these different areas have, and specifically how it pertains to the motherless and the fatherless. So I'd like to welcome Paul Myhill to the program today. Welcome.
Paul Myhill: Thank you, Charles. It's a pleasure to be here.
Charles Oster: Good to have you. If you could, before we go to break, Paul, give us a little bit of background about World Orphans, where you work and maybe just a brief little history of what the organization does.
Paul Myhill: World Orphans, Charles, was founded on the belief, 17 years ago, that local communities of faith, churches around the world, are the best positioned to be able to take care of orphaned, abandoned, street children, and vulnerable children. As an organization we're really not going and doing our own thing, running our own thing, staffing our own thing. We're really just coming alongside these communities of faith, these churches, that know their neighbors, know their communities far better that we ever could, that are already reaching out into their communities, that know the families that are already at risk, the children that are at risk. And as an organization, we help increase their capacity to be the front line rescue and care mechanism for children in highly vulnerable situations.
What that can look like is anything from keeping families together, keeping families from selling or abandoning their children, keeping them alive longer, to try to prevent the orphaning or abandonment event on the front end and, where necessary, having these churches be able to take children in to small family-style homes. We very much believe in the family. We don't believe in institutional care. We don't believe in that model. And so, in a nutshell, Charles, it's about coming alongside churches to enable them to keep kids in families.
Charles Oster: Ok, guys, it's going to be a great show. This is some unbelievable stuff that we're about to delve into. We're going to go to break. Come back we'll continue our conversation with Paul Myhill from World Orphans. Stick with us. You're listening to Advance! on Castle Rock radio.com.
(Commercial break)
Alright, welcome back. You are listening to Advance! This is Charles Oster. On my right side, Michael Heldt, our executive producer. To my left, I'm joined here by Paul Myhill. He's the President of World Orphans. I gotta tell you what guys, this organization is amazing. I've had the opportunity to do some work with World Orphans. I've traveled with their team and I had the honor and privilege to travel to Nairobi, Kenya, this last summer and it was an amazing, amazing experience. I believe a big part of that was because of the partnership of the team that I was there with and to be able to have that facilitator. That's a big part of what they do. They are able to deploy teams to places where people are in need. Paul, you had mentioned really reaching out in helping kids in particular who are in highly vulnerable situations. Could you just explain a little bit more about what you mean by that?
Paul Myhill: Well, Charles, no matter what statistics you look at, whose numbers you believe, there is no doubt that there are tens and tens of millions of children out there who have lost one or both parents, who are on the streets, who are being sold into captivity, who are born into poverty to parents who have no other choice, who are being traded in order to see the security for the rest of the family established. Typically what we're dealing with around the world would be a widow who's trying to take care of five or six orphans. Her husband has died of AIDS. She may have AIDS herself and is struggling with the effects of that herself. You look at those five or six children, and you look at that mom who doesn't have the capacity to provide an income. The husband has died who was the protector and provider. I would say those are five or six highly vulnerable children, at risk of being abandoned, formally abandoned, but, more than likely, have already been abandoned to a degree in that they've been left to their own devices on the streets.
Charles Oster: What's the long term effect of that, then? Obviously you now have kids out fending for themselves, so that's the immediate impact. What's the long term consequence from a community perspective?
Paul Myhill: The impact on society is tremendously negative. As you can imagine, even with this one family unit of five or six children who are now on the streets having to fend for themselves, you can think of a whole host of issues that are associated with that - whether it's petty theft, whether it's drugs, whether it's child prostitution, whether it's just the perpetuation the poverty cycle by having impoverished kids living in abject poverty on the streets. When you look at a lot of issues that plague societies around the world, HIV/AIDS or poverty or prostitution or child soldiers or trafficking, you name it, the orphan is typically a link in that chain or, as I like to say, the hub of the wheel. So many of these issues are interrelated through the orphaned or abandoned child.
Charles Oster: Yeah. So, what you're saying is getting really to the root of that - if you were able to rescue that orphan, that child. You had mentioned it right before the break. Not that we're indicting institutions here, but your objective is to get them into a home where there is a mom or dad or both of some sort, whether that's, and I know you don't like to use the term, foster care, but it's a home, right? Can you explain that a little bit more?
Paul Myhill: Well our primary objective is to keep them in their home, to keep them with that widow who's struggling to keep her family together - to provide help, resources, whether it comes in the form of paying school fees, or helping with medications, or helping with skills development and training, or microfinance programs for her or for older kids in the family, or even food assistance. Our primary objective is to keep the children within their immediate family and we've found that, as the church engages these widows or grandmas or aunties that are struggling to care for these kids, it increases capacity as other extended family members, or other community families, see the willingness of the church to stand in the gap. Now, absent those safety nets of immediate family or extended family and community families, we do look at the foster care situations where we're putting families, through these churches, into homes on church property. But again, they're families. We're talking large families, granted, ten to twelve kids, but, typically, within a lot of these developing-world contexts that we work in, the large family model is the norm.
We're keeping kids out of huge boxes - institutions with hundreds, and in some cases, even thousands of kids that are getting very limited care. When you think also about the trauma, the grief, the loss that these children have typically gone through, to just package them with hundreds of other kids with poor care-giver ratios is not the solution. We believe capacity can be increased within communities, within these developing-world nations, and we think the only way that capacity can be increased is through the churches that are already present in these communities that can help serve them.
Charles Oster: Can you give us just a little scoop of where you guys are and how many countries, for instance, you guys are working in?
Paul Myhill: We've historically done work in 47 different countries, over 500 projects, over the past 17 years or so. Right now we're really choosing to focus on a key 15-20 countries and are looking to be actively engaged with what we would call a saturation strategy where we're trying to partner with multiple churches, multiple organizations, within key gateway cities (influential cities.)
Charles Oster: Ok. Can you just give us an idea of the key places right now that you are working on aside from Haiti because we'll be moving into that here in just a second?
Paul Myhill: Yes, certainly. Obviously, Charles, you're aware of the work in East Africa - Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and the great need there as far as just the number of orphaned and abandoned children, especially as a percentage of the population. In some of these countries in Eastern and Central Africa, and that would be true in Western and Southern Africa also, you see some cases where 10% of the population are orphans. I'm not saying 10% of the kids. I'm saying 10% of the population has lost one or both parents. We are also working actively in South East Asia - Thailand, Cambodia and places that are obviously notorious for sex trafficking and where we can partner with churches to prevent that, but also to rescue kids from those situations. We've got a milestone work that is going on in Iraq right now where the Iraqi authorities have not only granted us permission, but given us resources, land to be able to work with churches there to rescue kids of conflict and abandonment. The list goes on and on, Charles. With the name of the organization, World Orphans, we truly live up to that name. We are engaged around the world where the issues are prevalent.
Charles Oster: You should mention, if you're looking for information, you can go to www.worldorphans.org and really prepare to be challenged by some things that you'll see there. I think we have a tendency sometimes, a lot of times as Americans, to really . . . Hang on, I want to be careful here. This is the most generous nation in the world. It's hard for us to comprehend some of the things that are happening. It's hard for us to even consider that there are maybe cultures out there that feel like they might be doing their infant a favor by committing infanticide. It's hard for us to really grip that. But it's hard for us to understand how challenging the vulnerability that many people groups, nations around the world, might be going through.
It's tough and I challenge you to get to the website and learn more about this incredible organization. Before we go to break . . . Haiti. Ah, January 12th the earthquake hit. What was the instigator that said We've got to go. We've got deploy, We've got to get there? What led to that?
Paul Myhill: I knew immediately that I had to go. Two days later (after the earthquake) I was leaving for a trip to Iraq, which I couldn't cancel. I knew I couldn't. We were going to be at least a couple of weeks out from getting there (to Haiti.) Upon my return, one of the folks who works for World Orphans, who's also worked in a disaster relief capacity in a prior role, called me up. She also said we've got to go, we've got to do it as a collaboration of ministries, we've got to do it with a disaster relief mindset . . . and the ball was put in motion. We knew we had to go.
Charles Oster: Yeah. Wow. Well it looks like we're up against a hard break here. Stick with us. Stay with us we'll be right back. You're listening to Advance! on Castle Rock radio.
(Commercial break)
Welcome back. You are listing to Advance! This is Charles Oster joined by Paul Myhill of World Orphans. He's the president of World Orphans. They are headquartered right here in Castle Rock and it's an amazing privilege to be teamed up with an organization that is making a difference. So many people are grappling with, What can I really do and how can I make a difference? I think, just from an action standpoint, that something like this happens and it captivates. It captivates us for a certain amount of time but then life goes on and we get wrapped up in USA hockey. There's nothing wrong with that, but what we can't do . . . is forget. We can't forget the extent of what happened and what is continuing to happen.
Paul and his team are just getting back from spending a couple weeks down in Haiti on the front lines, really at ground zero. Paul could you just explain to us your expectations going in. You've been in some horrendous places, I mean challenging, terrible circumstances. What were your expectations as you went into Haiti and tell us how you got there. Did you fly into Dominican or where you able to fly in directly to Port-Au-Prince? So tell us how you got there, what your expectations were.
Paul Myhill: My expectations, Charles, I guess you can say were based on 12 years of vocational outreach work around the world, the developing world. I've been to somewhere around 80 countries or so now. I've certainly been in countries in the aftermath of disasters. There was the tsunami. I've been in countries at the closing of civil war, such as Liberia. I've been in countries where I've seen the destruction of terrorist bombings and things of that nature. So, in my mind, Charles, I thought if there's anybody prepared to see what I saw in Haiti, it would be me, based on the past 12 years of seeing some pretty horrendous situations.
I've seen some pretty horrendous situations, even devoid of disasters - just the living conditions and the desperation of the people, in particular the children. But I have to tell you, Charles, that I showed up there and I was ill prepared for what I saw. Because of my trip to Iraq we were there a few weeks removed from the tragedy and yet we're walking around, driving around, and every corner you turn, every street you walk there's just devastation. There's bodies literally still hanging out of buildings, bodies being burned in the streets. And the stench, well there is nothing that compares to the smell of tens of thousands of dead. This sounds morbid, but that's the reality. Tens of thousands still decomposing in rubble, under rubble piles of debris.
I really felt like I was in a war zone with the crisscrossing of the relief helicopters overhead, the destroyed buildings, destroyed lives everywhere. Then hearing the stories, individual stories of loss and grief, really wrenched my soul. I can tell you categorically, that in 12 years of traveling the world, I've seen the worst of the human condition. That did not adequately prepare me for what I experienced in Haiti.
How we got there? We did have a donated flight to go into Port-Au-Prince directly but we didn't get it all together to meet our February 14th departure date. And so, like many aid organizations we flew into the Dominican Republic. We had two UN flights offered to us (from the Dominican) but it would have meant splitting up our team and so we did the overland route in a rented bus. That ended up being a good thing for us because it allowed us to come in across the border and see the chaos of the border. Even getting out of the Dominican was not without a sense of danger and violence. There are poor areas of the Dominican where people were throwing rocks at aid vehicles, to keep the aid in the Dominican. Then to come across land and be able to creep up on the destruction in Port-Au-Prince really gave us an added perspective. So I'm glad that we ended up having to do that, the hard way in.
Charles Oster: Haiti is an incredibly impoverished place. It's the poorest in the Western hemisphere, if I'm not mistaken.
Paul Myhill: That's correct.
Charles Oster: I'm not an architect. I'm by no means claiming any expertise in building codes, but just being in third world nations and seeing the structures, or the lack of regulation, I can imagine an earthquake this magnitude striking a place like that. Can you just give us a little bit of background as to how Dominican is also? That's a tourist attraction, so I'm sure you see kind of both ends of the world when you fly in there to go into the other side of the island. Can you just give us a little bit of background as to Haiti and how impoverished it really is?
Paul Myhill: Well, the Dominican obviously isn't without its poor areas and we drove through those areas in order to get into Haiti. However, the contrast is very evident. It immediately hits you - the different level of poverty that is being struggled with in the nation of Haiti. Building codes? Yeah, had this happened in a modern city with good building codes, the devastation still could have been pretty huge because of the proximity to the economic, population, and political center of the nation. But given that it was already struggling with abject poverty with buildings that were less-than-desirable, as far as their worth in being able to withstand an earthquake of this magnitude, really added to the human loss. Buildings just pan-caked down, floors acting as huge trash compactors crushing everything below.
Charles Oster: I read in your blog, you described experiencing a pretty good sized aftershock, 4.7 aftershock, while sleeping in a compromised structure. Tell us where you stayed. Tell us about that, and what that feeling was like.
Paul Myhill: We stayed in a pastor's home, a pastor who chose, instead, to live in a tent on the grounds of his church with congregation members who were also within tents, so that he could most effectively minister to them by identifying with their condition. His house, much like most of the other structures in the Port-Au-Prince area - heavy concrete, reinforced concrete roofs, floors, with cracks everywhere. The building was certainly compromised. We had a rain storm where water came in like waterfalls at one point. I felt that first aftershock. That whole building just vibrated with the grumbling of the earth, which just sounded like something from the underworld. It was very unsettling and it gave us a perspective, a new perspective, as to why so many people are living under tarps in tent cities right now even when their home may still be standing but, like this home, which has been compromised with cracks. And when you walk around that city and see the devastation and bodies still hanging between layers of concrete, it gives you a new appreciation of what even a relatively mild aftershock of 4.7 does to the psyche of a nation.
Charles Oster: Can't imagine, can't imagine. Speaking of the weather, and that's been a question that's come up here several times. Is this the rainy season now or what? What was it like in the aftermath?
Paul Myhill: We're coming into the rainy season. We did see a couple of days of rain while we were there but the rainy season really now is just coming upon this nation and, as I had mentioned on my blog at abandoned-orphaned.com, the rains, one would think, would bring a refreshing cleansing or at worst some sort of damage or discomfort for folks who are living in tent cities. But one thing you have to remember, to understand, is these tent cities have popped up on clearings that are typically in low-lying areas that were devoid of buildings because they are basically flood plains. And so you've got these waters that are going to be rushing in and not causing just discomfort and damage, but bringing more death and disease because these waters are going to be percolating down and, I know this sounds morbid also, but these waters are going to be percolating down through decomposing bodies. You know, there are certain areas of town that are on cliffs, high areas, where there are still 60 or 80 thousand people buried beneath their homes. The water will be seeping down through those layers of destruction before ending up where these people put their tents.
Charles Oster: Hard to . . . hard to comprehend. We're going to go to break and when we come back we're going to start talking about what we can do. We're listening here going, Wow, what are the needs, what can we do here in our homes, in our country, to help the recovery efforts? Stick with us. You're listening to Advance! on Castle Rock Radio.
All right, welcome back and, man, this is an incredibly enlightening hour that we've spent. Paul Myhill joining us from World Orphans, sharing with us about his recent trip to Haiti. I encourage you to go to worldorphans.org. You can find his blog right there. His President's blog is down at the bottom. That's how I always access it. Read about his experiences and then the experiences of the entire team, the Haiti Orphan Relief Team.
Paul, for you to say that you weren't prepared for this says a lot, kind of says everything. You saw destruction that you just weren't prepared to see, that no one would be prepared to see. Where is there hope? Is there hope and were you able to witness that in the midst of the destruction?
Paul Myhill: Yes. If I didn't believe there was hope, I wouldn't have gone. I firmly believe that, as the leader of an organization that is based on the belief that the church is the hope of the world. But, Charles, it doesn't matter what the faith foundation is of your listeners here (Note: Castle Rock Radio is a secular station, but with Christians involved.) Even from a strategic standpoint, knowing that these churches, these communities of faith, already exist in the midst of these struggling populations, that know their communities, that know the families that are struggling, that know the children who have lost their parents, that know the children who are wondering homelessly on the streets – The solution is already strategically there - these communities of faith, who love their neighbors, who wish to demonstrate in tangible ways that love to their neighbors. So, the hope is that the solution is already present – people who love and care for their communities, who want to feed the starving child, who want to protect the widow from abandoning her child to the traffickers. The solution is already there. Our goal with the Haiti Orphan Relief Team, which is a collaboration of ministries that we've helped put together including the three main orphan advocacy groups here in the United States, is to really empower Western churches to come alongside in partnership with Haitian churches so the Haitian churches can do what they do best - that's to love on their communities, allowing them to be the front-line rescue and care mechanism for these children.
Charles Oster: And, it really enables that local, that indigenous church, to get the credit. Now that's what we want, right? Because it's not just the Westerner that's coming into an African nation and then leaving and it's not just the American coming into Haiti and then leaving. You want to be able to perpetuate the recovery by empowering that local church. It makes sense.
Paul Myhill: That's entirely right, Charles. Obviously being present in Haiti, I saw the bags of rice printed with "gift from the American people," and the relief trucks, etc., but the only thing that is lasting and enduring is people going to their local churches to receive aid, to receive assistance, to receive counseling . . . and not with printed American flags, not with the World Orphans' logo, not with the Haiti Orphan Relief Team logo. It's about them giving the credit, rightly, to their local church that's serving them, and knowing that it's not just something that serves the immediate need, but gives ongoing opportunity for healing and reconstruction.
Charles Oster: It's too bad we hear some negative things about even organizations with their heart in the right place. There was that group that was, quote unquote, 'rescuing' kids by taking them out of the country. Folks from Idaho, if I'm not mistaken. And we saw a lot on the news about that. I just want to make certain people understand, again, your prerogative is not to go in and, when we say 'rescue' kids, it's not to take them out there, but it's to empower the local community in those areas so they can take care of those kids locally. If that's the appropriate thing to do, that's the first choice, is that right?
Paul Myhill: I have a heart for international adoption. I have a child from China that we welcomed into our family and we know that that is part of the solution, but it's only a very small part of the solution. In regards to Haiti, empowering Haitian churches to help Haitian families keep Haitian kids in Haiti, is what we're all about. And the testimony of the lives lived by those kids in Haiti, to be able to transform and rebuild their own nation, is what we're all about.
Charles Oster: Can you share with us a story of someone there that locally . . . you had mentioned this pastor, for instance . . . is there anyone else that really touched you? Is there a story that you could share with us, that we could share with our audience?
Paul Myhill: I shared countless stories of pastors who have sold their cars to feed children, who have done much to sacrifice to be able to help widows and help orphans within their communities. But there's one little boy who really touched me. The story is exceedingly sad on the front end. It's a boy who, as his house was collapsing around him with eleven members of his family in that home, almost made it to the door but was pinned by a piece of concrete that killed his mother. He was trapped there for three days head to head, forehead to forehead, with his dead mother. And three days later he was cut out and lost an arm in the process. Lost eleven members of his family and also lost his arm. His name is Rood. This little boy, Rood, now tells us, after being rescued by the church, that he wants to be a doctor and a pastor when he grows up. He wants to heal his nation physically and spiritually. And it's the Roods of the world who will help change and rebuild Haiti. Rood says that he was saved for a reason and he wants to testify to that. There are lots of stories of hope and resolve, even in the midst of the desperation, the despair.
Charles Oster: Wow. What can people do? It's more than the five, ten bucks, which is exceedingly important. I don't want to discredit that at all. Give! But, what else? What else can they do to make that enduring, perpetual recovery a reality?
Paul Myhill: Well, we have a lot of options that are at the www.HaitiOrphanRelief.org website but principally what we're trying to do here is what I just mentioned. We're trying to find churches here that are willing to come alongside Haitian churches in a church-to-church partnership, to see them be able to be strengthened and resourced, and help that church through a critical period. Not to create dependency, though. These are going to be relationships that are going to build into the Haitian church to create self-sustainability and increased capacity for them. Really, just go to that HaitiOrphanRelief.org website to register your church's interest. Become an advocate within your community of faith here to come alongside a community of faith there, for the sake of children.
Charles Oster: Ok, so loud and clear, wherever you're here in Douglas County, or whether you're in a different part of the United States, or whether you're in a different country, the organization that you're involved in can help get partnered. In this organization, World Orphans, that's what they do. They bring organizations together. And so I want again to challenge you today. I want to challenge you and encourage you to look into this at www.WorldOrphans.org. Can they find the Haiti Orphan Relief site via the main website?
Paul Myhill: Yes.
Charles Oster: So, maybe we can funnel them to worldorphans.org, and give that Haiti Orphan Relief site one more time.
Paul Myhill: www.HaitiOrphanRelief.org.
Charles Oster: Ok, guys, we're wrapping up. I just can't believe that we're out of time but, Paul, I want to thank you for the work that you and your team are doing. Keep up the good fight, brother. This is amazing stuff. Some of the stuff is hard to hear. We need to hear it.
I hope your heart has been challenged today. I hope that there's something where you're thinking, I gotta do something. Act on that. Act on that. I challenge you to that and, together, we can make a difference. Whether you're traveling to Haiti or right here - partner. Get a group to partner with the local church there. Amazing stuff.
Guys, as always, I thank you for joining us, being a part of our program on a weekly basis. We'll be back next week. I thank you for joining us here today and just allowing us to really go there with our hearts, letting us go there today to help and talk and pray for, and with, our brothers and sisters in Haiti. So with that, we are going to wrap up today. You've been listening to Advance! We'll be back here next week 9 am next Tuesday morning.
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What is the Haiti Orphan Relief Team (HORT)?
The Haiti Orphan Relief Team (HORT) can be found on Facebook.
Abandoned-Orphaned is the personal blog of Paul Myhill, President of World Orphans. Subscribe to the blog in the upper right-hand corner of the home page. Paul can be found on Facebook and on Twitter @paulmyhill.
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