Information gathering teams are a first step for most churches looking for ways to be involved in the area. These teams are normally small and composed primarily of church leaders and missions board representatives. These teams generally don’t participate in work projects on the field; instead they should expect to spend most of their time learning about different ministries such as the hospital, the reconstruction projects, and the community health program. Prior to arrival the team leader should work closely with the area director to set up meetings with individuals in charge of the different ministries of the Haiti mission.

Organizing an information gathering team is a great way to learn about everything that is going on in Haiti and obtain the information that you need to decide how your church would like to partner with the country. Depending on where the information gathering teams stay there are several different activities available to allow the team to see the countryside and experience the culture and people.

The Wesleyan Mission Hospital in Haiti serves as the only hospital for the entire island of La Gonave. The hospital exists right now in an aging, fifty-year-old building, but construction will soon begin on a complete rebuild of the facilities to bring them up to current medical standards.

The hospital is entirely staffed and operated by Haitians. Because of its small size, however, it lacks the ability to perform several types of surgeries without the assistance of foreign doctors. The best way for a team to offer assistance at the hospital is in the form of a surgical team. The normal stay for a surgical team is about a week. We highly encourage surgical teams to bring the support staff that they will need including nurses and a couple of non-medical personnel to assist with organizing and logistics. When teams bring their own staff, this protects our already stretched medical staff and keeps them from being overly stressed during the team’s stay.

Coming to serve as a surgical team offers the people of La Gonave the rare and valuable gift of life-changing surgeries that they could not receive otherwise. When the team is not busy at the hospital there are a variety of activities available for them to be able to experience the local community and culture. Please contact one of the missionaries on the La Gonave station before bringing any medical supplies as needs vary greatly from month to month and NOT all supplies are helpful or usable.

The community health program is something new to La Gonave. Its purpose is to create a culture of preventative health through education and partnership with communities. Right now there is a startling lack of preventative health on La Gonave which results in illnesses and deaths that could easily be prevented.

Teams coming to work in the community health program will be providing health care outside of the hospital. They will spend their days running clinics and preventative health classes around the town of Anses-a-Galets and in other communities throughout the island. We encourage groups interested in coming as CHI health teams to create and foster a partnership with one of the local communities. These trips are not for faint of heart. Most of the communities where clinics will be held are only accessible through several-hour-long truck rides in the hot sun over roads that have never been paved or grated. Some of the areas will even require overnight stays in very remote villages where accommodations, food, and water are not available.

The areas that are being targeted by the CHI program are some of the most overlooked in the entire country of Haiti. The education and health care offered by teams is invaluable to these areas and can benefit the inhabitants for generations. When the team is not busy with clinics there are a variety of activities available for them to experience the local community and culture. As with the hospital medical teams please contact one of the missionaries on the La Gonave station prior to bringing any medical supplies as needs vary greatly from month to month and NOT all supplies are helpful or usable.

La Gonave work teams are essential to the operation of the La Gonave Mission Station. There is no money set aside by the Wesleyan Church to support the mission station on La Gonave. Instead all operations costs and maintenance must be covered by the missionaries’ budgets and visiting teams. Work teams generally take on projects that are critical to the operations of the station. These can range from anything from painting, to building new ceilings in the duplex, to replacing the electrical system for the station.

Work teams play a vital role in the operation of the Wesleyan Mission Station and Wesleyan Hospital, and these facilities could not exist with out them. As the hospital rebuild begins most work teams will be channeled towards this project; however, there are still many significant projects that remain unfinished around the station.

Most work projects require a good deal of preparation. Before a work teams arrives they should have already coordinated a project with the station manager. This includes arranging any funds or materials that will be necessary to complete the project. When the team is not busy, there are a variety of activities available for the team to be able to experience the local community and culture.

Special project teams come with their own plan to work with a group in the community. This can be anything from running a VBS for one of the churches to working on projects for the local orphanage. A special project team would normally only come after a preliminary visit had been made to create relationships and build ties with the group that they will be working with in the community.

A special project team can be a very effective way to reach out to an impoverished community. Special project teams typically take more planning and effort than other types of teams, but as a result they have the flexibility to be very focused. Prior to their arrival a special project team should have presented a plan and obtained approval from the station manager. This is to ensure that the mission will be able to supply the team with whatever resources they will need to complete their project (ex: food, transportation, area for activities). When the team is not busy with their project there are a variety of activities available for the team to experience the local community and culture.

The earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 either destroyed or rendered a number of Wesleyan church buildings unsafe. In response the North American Wesleyan church has offered to partner with Haitian Wesleyan church to help replace these structures. Reconstruction Teams are teams coming with the purpose of rebuilding one of these churches. Reconstruction Teams are sent from North American churches to the churches that they have partnered with in Haiti. It will probably take several visits for the construction project to be completed and hopefully the partnership between the two churches will last well beyond the building of a structure.

If your church would like to partner with a Haitian Wesleyan church to help them rebuild a meeting place for worship please contact Peter Moore at Global Partners (moorep@wesleyan.org). The church rebuild project offers your church or organization a very concrete way to assist people in need and create long-lasting relationships.

These teams will spend their days performing whatever construction tasks are needed at the time. Depending on the site these teams may stay one of several locations with a range of accommodations. According to which part of the country the construction team stays there are several different activities available to allow the team to see the countryside and experience the culture and people.

Click here to find out more about bringing a reconstruction team.