A VIEW FROM BEHIND THE SCENES, By Emily Hetzel, Cash for Work Blog Editor

Program Team Leaders Meeting, Deschapelles, Haiti, May 2010

In the interest of full disclosure, everyone should know that without a doubt, I have the cushiest job of anyone on the Cash for Work staff: I perform my duties as the program’s blog editor from the comfort of my home in Pittsburgh - not exactly the kind of thing to brag about, but important to point out for the following reasons: 

1.  Gozde has encouraged me to write my own C.F.W. dispatch, but unlike my colleagues in Haiti, tales of what I face on a day-to-day basis as Blog Editor would be intolerably boring to read; just in case you think I'm being modest, here's a sample: “Today, in a heroic effort to post Ian and Starry’s dispatches, I looked up the meaning of the words “Inpluvium” and “Animatrice”.  It’s not exactly gripping stuff, nor do I expect news of my newly-expanded vocabulary to be of interest to, or positively effect, the people of Haiti. 

Canal Project, May 2010

2.   In my 3+ months as part of the C.F.W./HAS program, I’ve come to realize not only the importance of programs such as this for Haiti....but also that this 3 month Cash for Work program has provided a glimpse of how willing the people of Haiti are to make their country better, if given the opportunity to do so.  So I’m editing this blog to contribute in as useful a way as I could imagine - which, although the best use of my skills, doesn’t hold a candle to what the C.F.W. staff in Haiti dealt with on a daily basis. 

3.   I've gained an extraordinary respect for the entire C.F.W. staff in Deschapelles, all of whom, for 3 months, remained undaunted, often in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, as they saw the program through to completion.  It was on my visits to Deschapelles that I saw Gozde, Eddie, Starrey, Renold, and the other “on the ground” staff as they solved and artfully negotiated conflicts which had the potential to become explosive if handled by less-qualified professionals.

And so, for these reasons, I’d like to use this opportunity to thank my co-workers in Deschapelles and also to thank Gozde Avci, Lucy and Ian Rawson and Hospital Albert Schweitzer for the opportunity to help HAS's UN/OCHA Cash For Work program.