It’s been almost two years since my family and I left Haiti under extremely unpleasant circumstances. Our intention was always to work our full careers in Haiti, continuing and building the biosand filter project. As Haiti continued to get worse and our family became more and more isolated, the thing that really kept us going was the loyalty we felt toward our workers. Why should we leave Haiti when our staff can’t? Also, even if things continue to get more dangerous, then our staff would, at the very least, be watching out for us. We had always been the people who stayed, especially when things got hard, and couldn’t imagine that changing.
In October 2022 we uncovered a fraudulent scheme that a group of our workers were using to steal funds from Clean Water for Haiti. It was very discouraging for me, even heartbreaking. Any worker who wasn’t participating in the scheme pretty much had to know about it, and chose to look the other way. The nicest thing I can say about this is that Haiti is a poor country, and poverty will often cause people to worry about themselves to the exclusion of everything else, and the difference between right and wrong can become very blurred.
When I realized we couldn’t count on our staff in the way we thought we could, I felt that Haiti had become too dangerous to continue to risk my family, and Leslie and I made the incredibly difficult decision to leave. Was there any way to save Clean Water for Haiti? If there was any way to save the organization with us leaving, I wanted us to figure out how. I had only one idea, and that was to ask my good friend, Johnson Alexandre, to take my place as director.
I met Johnson Alexandre (who prefers to be called just “Alexandre”) back in 2009. We suffered a terrible arson attack and received a written death threat, and the police and judicial system in Saint Marc refused to be of any help to us. A missionary friend of ours introduced me to Alexandre. Alexandre was both a Christian and an honest, high-ranking police officer. I brought him the dossier I had assembled on the group of men who were harassing us, and explained how we had been blown off by the police investigators in Saint Marc. He said, “This is not right!” and slapped his hand on the table. I thought that just maybe he could get the justice system moving and help us to be safe again. A few weeks later he arrested one of the suspects. He spent many hours helping us to navigate the baffling and corrupt Haitian justice system as we worked through our problems.
I learned many things from my new friend. Alexandre speaks four languages, and is very well educated. He is also very patient with foreigners who don’t understand a lot of what is actually happening. My Creole improved very much over the next months and years, just from talking to Alexandre and asking him question after question.
Alexandre and I happened to be together driving across Port au Prince when the Jan 12, 2010 earthquake hit. It turned out that his office collapsed and many police officers died inside, so it was fortunate I came to Port au Prince that day. After the earthquake, Leslie and I needed Alexandre’s help more than ever, as we were struggling to complete the adoption of our daughter, Olivia. We spent many hours fighting through the system. It was very important to us that we not pay any bribes as we completed the adoption, and Alexandre was the only one with the connections, knowledge, skill and sheer persistence to make it happen. His desire to fight corruption where he could was something we connected over.
Over the years, Alexandre became an indispensable aid to our work in Haiti, and if I’m honest, probably one of the main reasons Clean Water for Haiti has been able to be so successful. He joined our Board of Directors for our Haiti branch of the organization, and was the person who took care of all of our really, really tough problems, especially anything that required navigating the bureaucracy. When I realized we had to leave the country, I knew that Alexandre was the ONLY person I would trust to take our place and take over my job of leading the work in Haiti.
Alexandre retired from the police several years before, but he had always lived in Port au Prince and I had no reason to believe he would be willing to give up his life there to run Clean Water for Haiti. When I told him we were leaving, I asked him if he would consider taking over the project, even though it would mean leaving his home in Port au Prince. He stated that if we had asked six months earlier he would have refused, but now that bandits had taken over the city, he didn’t have much to stay for. To stay safe, he spent all his time at home except when he went to church on Sundays and Wednesdays. He had come to care about CWH just like I did. I was so relieved to think that the project I had spent 20 years of my life building up and fighting for would be in good hands.
Alexandre has done an amazing job. I have to admit I’m surprised at how well he’s done because he had no experience with the day-to-day operations, but I really shouldn’t be. He’s extremely intelligent, and served as a police investigator and commander for most of his career. That is to say, he knows people. He’s also a dedicated Christian, and genuinely cares about people – especially the poor. He was exactly the person CWH needed to take charge of the workers, root out the corrupt elements and hire new staff to keep the project on track. So far, he has exceeded all expectations.
We talk on the phone every week or two, and I’m always amazed at the vast array of problems he’s faced and dealt with. As proud as I am of the work I did in Haiti, seeing what he’s been able to do since he took over leadership, I’m sure that Clean Water for Haiti now needs Johnson Alexandre more than it needs Chris Rolling.
Of course, Leslie is now serving in the role of Executive Director for the USA and Canadian parts of the organization and it’s a role she’s ideally suited for, but really I miss my work with Clean Water for Haiti. Fundraising is tough right now, so I’m hoping I want to help out where I can. I always enjoy the opportunity to talk about the work we did and continue to do, so if you have a group that would like to hear about our work, please contact me, even if it’s just a few people to meet with over coffee.
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