These People are Family

About six years ago, I was sitting in a church parlor, meeting with people who had committed to supporting the community of Fondwa in Haiti.  In my previous life as a United Methodist minister, I worked with a congregation that is deeply committed to social justice.  Partnering with this Haitian community was part of that dedication.

We were discussing what we could do to raise funds for the University of Fondwa and a sister micro-credit program, Fonkoze, especially in the face of continuing economic and political distress there.  At one point, the meeting changed tone – from businessy brainstorming to heartfelt connection – when one of the committee members said, “We have to figure this out – it’s so important.  These people are family.”

And even those of us who had not visited Fondwa knew that it was true.  There are sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles that we had not met before, and had to do all we could to work with them.

Last night, dozens of students gathered at William and Mary to coordinate a response to the January 12 earthquake in Haiti.  Various students took the podium, explaining their ideas and motivations in coordinating a plan that would lead to a more sustainable effect than “drop in the bucket” contributions to relief efforts.  They talked about the need to work with grassroots organizations, allowing for Haitian self-determination, and the unique opportunity they had found to partner with a university.

That evening held two particularly resonant echoes for me of the hours I spent in the church parlor six years earlier.  William and Mary students who had done research at the University of Fondwa described the need to support that university, as a way of recognizing the connections between students and building long-term change.  And, when another student stood to articulate how we want to support people in Haiti, his words were familiar: “these people are family to us.”

It can be so easy to get stuck in our tiny, tunnel-visioned lives.  Assignments, exams, groceries, laundry, career planning, anxiety about relationships…all these things can crowd out what we know to be a greater truth.  While the many items on our checklist are important, they are not the sum-total of our lives.  And the people we spend holidays with, call home to or share space with in our residence halls are not our only family.  It’s a big world, and our family – our common humanity – is huge.  Our task is to figure out what it means to really be family to each other.  I think the work of William and Mary Supports Haiti is a beautiful example of how we can start.