Readers write: November 26, 2018 issue

CM photo collection at Mennonite Archives of Ontario website
Re: “A united witness,” Oct. 8, page 4.

The Canadian Mennonite photograph collection lives on through the Mennonite Archives of Ontario’s ongoing efforts to digitize more than 8,000 photographs. The collection is a treasure trove of Mennonite life in Canada and around the world in the 1950s and ’60s. It can be viewed online at bit.ly/cm-photo-collection.

Laureen Harder-Gissing
(online comment)

Lessons for Haiti in the pages of Canadian Mennonite
Re: “From ‘never a teacher’ to ‘why not?’ ” and “Following the signs,” Sept. 24, pages 4 and 26, respectively.

I often take time during my regular four-and-a-half-hour flight from Montreal to Port au Prince, Haiti, to read the past month’s issues of Canadian Mennonite. Having spent the better part of the last 50 years observing a country that my father often referred to as “the graveyard of good intentions,” the life and work of Henry Neufeld and Rachel Braul, as portrayed in these articles, reveal a methodology that, as common-sensible as it appears, can be considered revolutionary, innovative and instructional for anyone working with marginalized populations.

Imagine responding to a community upon “invitation,” adjusting classroom time to allow children and families to “get used to the rhythm of school life,” and “respecting the language of the community,” as Neufeld did. Imagine “considering the experience of others,” “employing critical thinking and being able to self-analyze,” and “checking your power, bias, ethics, privilege and power,” like Braul

Imagine the peaceable kingdom here on earth. For Haiti, poverty would no longer be its commodity, and we would find the redemption we are seeking.

Betsy Wall, Kitchener, Ont.
Betsy Wall is executive director of the Foundation for International Development Assistance productive cooperatives Haiti and a member of Rockway Mennonite Church in Kitchener.