We encourage you to seek out more information about Haiti and thoughtfully consider the many diverse perspectives on the country.  Aid for Haiti does not necessarily endorse all the opinions or findings contained in these sources.  We also encourage parents and church leaders to alway review books and articles before distributing them to children or families.

Clicking on any of the pictures below and purchasing a book will help support the mission of Aid for Haiti

 

Haitian Culture, Society and Experience

Seven Days in Haiti – Learning from the meek to be a bond slave of Christ
By Michael Barrick
A well-written journal chronicling the emotions one might experience on a short term mission trip to Haiti or other 3rd world country. It is a powerful glimpse into the lives of heroic Haitian Christians perservering in this desperate corner of the world.It would be helpful reading for one embarking on a similar mission trip. It will likely help make sense of the myriad of emotions, spiritual revelations and experiences one will surely encounter.

Taking the High Places: The Gospel’s Triumph Over Fear in Haiti (International Adventures)
By Terry Snow
acing death, enduring false accusations, and becoming a prisoner himself, missionary Terry Snow moved out in faith and boldness to share the gospel with the town of St. Marc in Haiti. Amidst the tumult of civil war, gang-fighting, and terrorism, Terry’s powerful ministry to the people of St. Marc took him form having a gunpointed to his head to being invited to pray in the presidential palace. His inspiring story shows how one man’s obedience to God brought miraculous healing to gang leaders, prisoners, government officials, and the transformed town of St. Marc.

Fears, Hopes, and Dreams: (A Story of Life in Haiti)By Katherine J. Horning
Fourteen-year-old Jaron helps his mother get to the NW Haiti Christian Mission where she gives birth to her eighth child. While awaiting the birth of the baby, Jaron meets American short-term missionaries and begins to question his faith in the Voodoo religion of his country. He becomes acquainted with the missionary staff, meets teenagers from America whose strong Christian beliefs influence him, and observes the activities of the mission as it serves his fellow Haitians of all ages. He struggles with his family’s poverty, the violent weather of the Caribbean, his father’s escape to Miami, the placement of two brothers in the mission orphanage, his little brother’s autistic behavior, and his own desire to better himself through education. Through the influence of the people he meets, he learns more about Christianity and eventually turns to God in prayer.

God Is No Stranger
By Sandra L. Burdick
This is a prayer book, but it is unlike many others you may have seen. This book is unique, not only because each prayer is accompanied by a striking photograph, but because each prayer is an example of sincere, heartfelt communication with God. These prayers of Haitian Christians converted from Voodooism reflect the paradoxically childlike yet deep faith of a mountain people who have come to know God as a Friend acquainted with their culture and daily lives. The photographs which accompany each prayer tells a story by itself.

Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle: Living Fully, Loving Dangerously
By Kent Annan
Stunned by small details of Haiti: taking four different modes of transport to get from home to work; watching wealthy folks on a cruise ship at port in Haiti, from behind a chain-link fence; a poor Haitian, a new acquaintance, paying 14 cents on behalf of a couple of Americans for their taxi ride; an explosion of generosity from poor Haitians on a bus for an even poorer countryman, left destitute by a flood — the weaving of ‘the good’ and ‘the bad’ seen daily, often minute by minute in this frustrating, marvelous, angry, beautiful, sad and vibrant country.

The Neglected and Abused: A Physican’s Year in Haiti
By Joseph F. Bentivegna
A stirring account of a year spent as a physician in a third-World country, Haiti. An excellent account of the medical situation in Haiti. His experience took place in the late 1980’s before the embargo and the subsequent further deterioration of the health situation in Haiti.

 

Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American
By Jean-Robert Cadet
African slaves in Haiti emancipated themselves from French rule in 1804 but they reinstituted slavery for the most vulnerable members of Haitian society–the children of the poor–by using them as unpaid servants to the wealthy. These children were–and still are–restavecs, a French term whose literal meaning of “staying with” disguises the unremitting labor, abuse, and denial of education that characterizes the children’s lives. In this memoir, Jean-Robert Cadet recounts the harrowing story of his youth as a restavec, as well as his inspiring climb to middle-class American life. He vividly describes what it was like to be an unwanted illegitimate child “staying with” a well-to-do family whose physical and emotional abuse was sanctioned by Haitian society.

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World (Random House Reader’s Circle)
By Tracy Kidder
The story of Dr Paul Farmer and the organization, Partners in Health and all that they do in Haiti.

 

 

Haitian History

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
By C.L.R. James
Written in 1938, this amazing volume is as compelling today as it was then. Extremely well-written, passionate, and erudite, C.L.R. James’s classic is a starting point for anyone interested in the Haitian revolution.

 

Paradise Lost: Haiti’s Tumultuous Journey from Pearl of the Caribbean to Third World Hotspot By Philippe Girard
Why has Haiti been plagued by so many woes? Why have multiple U.S. efforts to create a stable democracy in Haiti failed so spectacularly? Philippe Girard answers these and other questions, examining how colonialism and slavery have left a legacy of racial tension, both within Haiti and internationally. He also examines how Haiti’s current political instability is merely a continuation of political strife that began during the War of Independence

 

Haiti: The Tumultuous History – From Pearl of the Caribbean to Broken Nation
By Philippe Girard
By far the best condensed, readable history of Haiti out there. The book takes you from the days of the Tainos and Columbus all the way to the recent earthquake in Port-au-Prince. This is one of the most fair histories of Haiti, not skewed like many others.

 

Notes from the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti By Michael Deibert
A riveting narrative account of the events leading up to and including the overthrow of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The rupturing of the social-democratic coalition that originally brought Aristide to power and that had been the fruit of years of opposition to the dictatorships and military juntas. From chaotic scenes of frenzied mayhem on the streets of Port-au-Prince with their armed gangs and burning intersections to heated debates in the halls of power, these dramatic events throw into stark relief the obstacles facing the world’s nascent democracies.

 

Leave a Reply