Click photo to enlarge
Robyn Couper with some of her Haitian friends, Jamely,
Xavier and Pauline Prophete. Photos by Robyn Couper.
The earthquake which has caused so much death, chaos
and heartbreak in Haiti may well draw Oamaru missionary Robyn
Couper back to the country she called home for 33 years. She
talks to Sally Rae about her life there.
Robyn Couper has shed enough tears.
Miss Couper (59), who spent 33 years as a missionary in
Haiti, said she would not be doing any more crying.
Instead, she had told herself to "get off your butt . . . and
do something".
Since news broke of the devastating earthquake last week, she
has been overwhelmed by the support she has received from the
North Otago community.
It was "absolutely fabulous" and made her feel very glad that
she had grown up in Oamaru.
Things have moved quickly, with the formation of Project HHH
- Hearts and Hands for Haiti - an emergency relief project.
Click photo to enlarge
A morning prayer meeting at a home group in Cap Haitien.
While aid organisations were crucial during disasters,
there were a lot of people that got "lost in the cracks", Miss
Couper said.
And, like any others that had lived and worked in Haiti for a
long time, she knew exactly where to go and where to provide
help that others could not provide.
"I'm not looking at the wider picture, because it's not
possible. That's for the people that are qualified to do the
wide picture.
"I'm looking for the little picture and those that I
personally know will fall through the cracks.
I'm looking at going into a hole and filling a gap that will
just be bypassed," she said.
When the Haitian city of Gonaives was flooded by tropical
storm Hana in September 2008, the only help some of the worst
affected people got was donations from Ms Couper's friends in
Oamaru and the Anglican Church in Wanaka, along with her
church in Cap Haitien.
But Miss Couper said she would not be able to do anything
without the support of many friends and supporters who were
all offering to help.
"I couldn't do it alone. It's not about me, it's about what
North Otago can do," she said.
She envisaged initially working with community leaders in Cap
Haitien, the city where she was mostly based.
If anyone had told Miss Couper when she first went to Haiti,
that she would be there for 33 years, she would have laughed
at them.
Click photo to enlarge
Robyn Couper does not know whether her friend Edline
Caimite, who was working in Customs in Port-au-Prince, is
dead or alive.
After three years at the Bible College of New Zealand,
she spent three months in Cambodia with World Vision.
That was a trial to see if she could cope with the stresses
of living in another country and culture.
It was one thing to visit for a while, but a much different
thing to be an effective worker in another country, she said.
When she heard a nurse was needed for Haiti, she was not
particularly interested, because she wanted to work in China.
But then she felt a prompt to go to the poverty-stricken
country.
Initially, Miss Couper was nursing in Haiti and then was
involved with community health.
She then became involved in prayer and counselling ministry,
Bible teaching and wrote, in French, a foundation manual in
Christian beliefs.
She also did some secretarial work in the church.
