Gangs Move Into Gressier: ATN Evacuated

by Matt Bush

Some of you guys have heard and some of you have not, but gangs took over the Gressier police station at the end of last week, and people all across the city began to evacuate. Gressier is the city where our kids live. The police station was set on fire and gangs were firing weapons constantly for a couple of days.

There are multiple videos circulating of thousands of people fleeing their homes and getting to safety in the nearby mountains or wherever else they could flee.

Our kids initially stayed in their home. Lener felt like it was safe enough during the first attack even though many in the area were evacuating. Yesterday, however, the kids left and went to a city called Ti Goave a little west of Gressier. Gina and Raymond own some land and buildings there and our kids will be safe.

One of the biggest issues we are going to run into in the short-term is figuring out how to get money to Lener and then how to get food and supplies for our kids and employees. Any additional donations that you could give during this time will help us, because as gangs take over more cities, the flow of supplies to the rest of the country gets more expensive and more difficult.

One of the reasons that gangs take over roads and police stations is so they can position themselves in major roadways and collect a "tax" from every person and car that goes by. This additional tax can happen over and over again for a person traveling from Port to Gressier.

For now, our kids have evacuated to Ti Goave, but Lener and many of our employees have stayed behind in their own homes. Lener said that he is trying to stay in his home so that the "bandits" do not move in and take it from him. He and Marjorie have worked extremely hard on their house to make it what it is today so please pray for their family as well.

There is a lot more to share, both in the way of facts and in the way that many of us and our kids are feeling. I do want to close by copying and pasting something a person on one of our "Haiti" Facebook pages wrote, but make sure to keep your eyes open for updates in the near future:

"Crazier than real
For over a year a pending promise of international police force would eventually arrive in Haiti and rid it of the criminal gangrene that paralyses all human Activities.
While the suffering population waits with a hanging tongue, many left Haiti, others alas lost their lives in cross-fires, and the gangrene gains terrain.
The gangs have a lucrative business of kidnapping, stealing, high jacking, raping and of course, murder. They managed to strangulate the capital and conquered all the access roads out of Port au Prince.
True, the underpowered local police fought tooth and nail against the growing monster and it seems everytime a bandit falls, ten new ones get better equipped in arms and munitions.
The gangs took over the many police stations along the roads leading to the southern towns, forcing courageous drivers to pay heavy toll money or get kidnapped.
Now the different gangs are establishing dormant cells in every town and village of Haiti, waiting for the right moment to become active,
Food, medical supplies, construction or repairs material end up, if available at exorbitant prices. Equally, imports have stopped since the bandits took procession of all ports of entry.
The commercial airports have been closed for a month, and now stretching into another month.
The Haiti population lives in constant fear while material assets deplete very quickly."

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