Rubble in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

As of this month, Mercy Beyond Borders is now active in 2 countries where women and girls remain mired in extreme poverty: Haiti and S.Sudan.

This photo was taken in Port-au-Prince 18 months after the catastrophic January 2010 earthquake that leveled the capital city and sent thousands of families to the more rural regions of Haiti to seek shelter with distant relatives.  The city is still full of rubble from collapsed buildings. Here a furniture maker has set up shop literally in the "cave" formed by the concrete slabs of what was once a 3-story apartment.  The carpenter enjoys respite from the heat--but risks death daily if the concrete should shift or settle further.

Mercy Beyond Borders works in a mountainous region about 4 hours north of Port-au-Prince.  Though the quake did not destroy too much there, the area has been heavily impacted by tens of thousands of families fleeing from the capital.  We provide hope to the displaced families by awarding high school scholarships to the top academic female achiever in each of 16 primary schools there.