The helplessness that descends on visitors to Haiti when they encounter scenes of death and starvation seems alien to Mathilde Aurelien-Wilson. Born 41 years ago in the village of Au Centre, some two miles down the mountain from here, she and her American-born husband, Bruce Wilson, 59, live on St. Croix most of the year and run Haiti Community Support, a relief organization that provides free education, hot meals, a women’s advocacy group, a medical clinic, employment and other opportunities to residents of villages on the northern side of Haiti’s Macaya mountain range, where Aurelien-Wilson’s mother still lives. On this working visit, they have brought along three others — supporter Ulla Neuburger, 73; Bill Scott, 63, a retired pediatrician; and myself. The region where the Wilsons work is one of the poorest areas of the country that itself is the poorest in the western hemisphere. The Wilsons married in November 2002 and a year later went to Au Centre to visit Mathilde mother’s side of the family. What they found in the mountain village changed the direction of theirs and the villagers’ lives. Faced with disease, illiteracy, hunger, poverty and lack of potable water, the Wilsons decided to tackle all the problems at once. In a country of 8 million starving people, they direct their help at one person at a time. “This is a project at which you tilt at windmills,” Wilson said. “If you start with something small and make it bette ...
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The helplessness that descends on visitors to Haiti when they encounter scenes of death and starvation seems alien to Mathilde Aurelien-Wilson. Born 41 years ago in the village of Au Centre, some two miles down the mountain from here, she and her American-born husband, Bruce Wilson, 59, live on St. Croix most of the year and run Haiti Community Support, a relief organization that provides free education, hot meals, a women’s advocacy group, a medical clinic, employment and other opportunities to residents of villages on the northern side of Haiti’s Macaya mountain range, where Aurelien-Wilson’s mother still lives. On this working visit, they have brought along three others — supporter Ulla Neuburger, 73; Bill Scott, 63, a retired pediatrician; and myself. The region where the Wilsons work is one of the poorest areas of the country that itself is the poorest in the western hemisphere. The Wilsons married in November 2002 and a year later went to Au Centre to visit Mathilde mother’s side of the family. What they found in the mountain village changed the direction of theirs and the villagers’ lives. Faced with disease, illiteracy, hunger, poverty and lack of potable water, the Wilsons decided to tackle all the problems at once. In a country of 8 million starving people, they direct their help at one person at a time. “This is a project at which you tilt at windmills,” Wilson said. “If you start with something small and make it bette ...