Chase-ing Aid To Haiti

Isabel Chase doesn’t let what she can’t do for Haiti interfere with what she can do. 

The Ridgefield resident can’t control temblors or snowstorms that ground flights. But she can fill more than 1,000 boxes with vital supplies for the island and fly down to see they are properly delivered.

“It’s important to touch each other’s lives and see how we affect each other’s lives,” said Chase co-founder of Share Joy International. “They are touched by the fact that they mean something to us.”

Chase and her husband Jonathon founded SJI. It assists Christ Love Center in Jacmel, Haiti. Recently it joined forces with Ridgefield Responds. Together the organizations raised a total of $3000 to provide food, shelter and monetary and medical assistance to the seaside city. 

Chase also works closely with Bonite Affriany, a native of Jacmel. Affriany runs a feeding program for children.

Because of Ridgefield and SJI’s recent donation, Affriany expanded her feeding program for 225 children from five days to six days. And now instead of only serving rice and beans, Bonite can serve tomatoes and other produce.

“Fresh vegetables,” she wrote Chase in an email, “we haven’t had fresh vegetables in a very long time!”

That Ridgefield citizens have already seen the fruits of their labor excites Chase.

On March 28 Chase will travel to Haiti and supervise the container’s unloading. About 40 doctors from New York’s Rockland County Haitian Relief will accompany her. 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Chase first traveled to Haiti four years ago. The country intoxicated her. 

“When I’m in Haiti I feel like I’m in a totally different world,” Chase said. “I feel the most real that I am in Haiti. It feeds my soul.”

However, the desolate landscape struck her soul. Although mountains cover 80 percent of the island nation, nearly 97 percent of the island is deforested. The environmental devastation comes from more than 20 years of the brutally corrupt  Duvalier regime. 

The barren landscape was all the more profound when viewed against the verdant hillsides of the Dominican Republic, which shares the island, said Chase. The contrast made her think.

“I’m from the city and never farmed, never gardened,” Chase said. “I got this in my heart that they needed to learn sustainable farming.”

But Chase knew nothing about farming. So she took a yearlong course in Spring Valley, Rockland Queens where there is a large Haitian community.

Last year Chase spent a month in Mirebalais, Haiti as part of a leadership seminar. She rose at 5 a.m. daily, worked in 110-degree days. She said she learned as much as she taught.

“I learned how when we Americans are given a project, we want to do the project right away,” Chase said. “What I learned is to stop being so American. I learned that as Americans we’re extraordinarily impatient.” 

Chase learned to slow down and ensure the Haitians on her team understood the work, and how to implement the work when she left. 

“Any help Haiti can get is good,” said Annie Farrell, a farmer at Wilton’s Millstone Farm. “The lower tech the better because the infrastructure there is so scarce.”

For example, raising tilapia fish in ponds can be done at little cost, Farrell said.

After learning farming techniques, Chase planned to launch a sustainable farming program in Jacmel. But then the 8.8 earthquake struck.

This month’s trip is her first visit since the quake. She said she is anxious about what she’ll find.

“Haiti even on a good day is devastating. There is no infrastructure, and with the rains coming, the mud…” Chase said, her voice trailing off.

To help alleviate the situation, Danbury Hospital donated several essential pieces of medical equipment. 

Among the supplies headed to Haiti are an x-Ray machine, IV pole and pump, EKG machine, blood pressure cuffs, microscope, and vision monitors, said Dr. Heather Sung, a hospitalist on staff and medical liaison for relief efforts with Ridgefield Responds.

The equipment will outfit the portable medical unit that Myrlande Affriany, Bonite’s daughter, is building. Myrlande founded Angel Wings International, which sends medical assistance to Haiti. 

A registered nurse, Myrlande works with a core group of doctors and nurses who travel to Jacmel four times a year. The medical unit with operating room is located in Port au Prince about five minutes from the airport. Five tent cities surround the unit.

Share Joy also works with local Haitian communities in Ridgefield Bridgeport, Danbury, Waterbury, Spanish and East Harlem. In May, Chase will again travel to Haiti with her daughter.