Venice charity Agape Flights cleared to resume aid delivery to mission partners in Haiti

VENICE – Agape Flights received clearance Wednesday to resume aid deliveries to missionaries in Haiti.

Two flights carried a combined total of about 5,500 pounds of cargo to mission partners, though that barely made a dent in the backlog of about 25,000 pounds that have been stored at the faith-based nonprofit’s headquarters at Venice Municipal Airport.

Agape Flights last made deliveries to Haiti on Feb. 29.

About 1,000 pounds of the current cargo are mattresses for the hospital in Jacmel, as well as baby warmers and supplement food for people and an orphanage in Les Cayes.

“There are medicine needs,” said Agape Flights CEO Allen Speer, who added that one mission partner is running low on insulin. “The things that we think are very basic that we can run to the store and get, for them it's not basic.”

Why have deliveries resumed?

Speer said Haitian aviation authorities approved requests to make two urgent flights, which means deliveries can be made to five of the six regions where its mission partners operate.

Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince is still under gang control and not safe.

One major development in the level of gang violence is several groups are coordinating their activity as part of an effort to oust Haiti's U.S.-backed prime minister Ariel Henry − who agreed to resign earlier this month − while he was in Kenya attempting to obtain U.N.-backed security forces.

Speer said little has changed in Haiti since deliveries were suspended earlier this month but mission partners have not reported the same level of violence elsewhere in the country as in Port-au-Prince.

“What you have is a country in chaos and you have a capital city in Port-au-Prince in anarchy,” Speer said.

“No one is going to fly into Port-au-Prince indefinitely – which is until they can regain operational security.”

To enhance its own security, Agape Flights is not publicizing its flight schedule on either its website, https://www.agapeflights.com/ or its Facebook page.

Are missionaries leaving?

Nine individuals working with Agape Flights mission partners were able to leave Haiti as part of the evacuation orchestrated by Republican U.S. Rep. Cory Mills, who represents Florida’s 7th congressional district.

Speer credited U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, with putting him and the missionaries together with Mills.

“He called me and said, ‘Do you have anybody in Haiti who needs to get out?’ and I said ‘Absolutely.’”

Another 10 of Agape Flights’ mission partners are scheduled to return on the nonprofit’s Cessna, which is authorized to carry passengers.

“A couple of them have very significant medical needs,” Speer said. “We have one lady, this is her last week to be able to travel; she’s pregnant and due the middle of April.”

The woman, whose husband is Haitian, had planned to have the baby there but opted to travel to the U.S. with the Haitian healthcare system all but collapsed.

A plea for intervention

Speer noted that in addition to controlling the airport at Port-au-Prince, gangs have control of the The Port international de Port-au-Prince seaport, where most food imports arrive.

“Food sustainability and shortages are imminent if not already there,” said Speer, who also admitted that he’s frustrated by the fact that many people he talked with believe troubles in Haiti popped up recently, even though their predate the the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

He noted that neither the Trump nor Biden administrations demonstrated a sense of urgency regarding Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

“It’s amazing to me that we are so lacking in foreign policy and understanding that the Haitian People need hope,” Speer said. “They want security, they want safety , they want democracy, they want free and fair elections.

“Let’s be concerned about them rather than making this a political football,” he later added. “This is a crisis, these are our neighbors, we have to help them gain security and stability.

“We also need to share the unconditional love of Christ with them and help them.”

Typically Agape Flights would suspend deliveries through Holy Week, which starts on Palm Sunday but as long as the nonprofit receives clearance, the nonprofit plans additional flights before Easter.

While many mission partners have left Haiti for how, he said, “The ones that are there probably need us more than they ever have before.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Venice's Agape Flights can resume deliveries to Haiti mission partners