Driving home from church today I noticed a man and his horse. Well, I noticed the horse first. A blackish brown, beautiful mare with a mostly shiny coat. She was happily grazing on the side of the road by the fence in front of a church. All this I noticed. But what was even more significant was what I didn't see. I didn't see a sharp silhouette of bones covered by a too thin layer of skin. This horse could proudly stand next to any healthy horse back in Tennessee and you wouldn't know the difference. Quite a contrast to the majority of horses in Haiti, especially those in the community where I attend church.

I slowed down beside the man and rolled down the window. "Ou gen yon bèl chwal!" ("You have a beautiful horse!")

"Wi," he agreed.

"Lòt chwal yo nan kominote sa a yo se twò mèg. Yo pa manje byen. Men chwal ou bèl anpil. Se sèl ou menm k'ap fè bon travay pou chwal ou." (The other horses in the community are too skinny. They don't eat well. But your horse is very beautiful. It is only you whom I see taking good care of your horse.")

He smiled a shiny white grin and agreed again.

I drove off, thinking about this man and his horse the whole way home.

Why is it that this man has such a beautiful and healthy horse? I can't remember the last time I've seen a horse in Haiti as beautiful as his, or if I ever have at all. It is obvious that this man, perhaps not a day older than 20 years old, has it in his head that having a healthy horse is a good thing. His smile confirms that. And my guess is that he takes intentional steps to keep his horse healthy. His actions this morning prove that. He had intentionally paused on the side of the road, patiently waiting for his horse to graze in that lush area. Has someone taught this man how to care for his horse? Could he list the advantages of a having a healthy horse? Does he understand the dietary needs of a horse? I suppose with all these questions I should have stopped longer to speak with him! My point is, this man (based on the result I'm seeing—a beautiful, healthy horse) is exhibiting behaviors that I find different (and frankly, better) than the behaviors of many others in his community. And these positive behaviors in caring for his horse are offering him advantages that others do not have. I have no doubt his horse could work harder and longer than any other horse in that community. There's no question he could ride his horse wherever he wanted to go for whatever need he had. What a great benefit for this man. And what a better life for this horse compared to the other horses who stay tied to a short rope all day with barely any grass surrounding them and rarely any water to drink.


Last year I had the opportunity to learn about one approach to social change called positive deviance. According to the website www.positivedeviance.org, positive deviance can be defined as follows:

Positive Deviance is based on the observation that in every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers, while having access to the same resources and facing similar or worse challenges.

In other words, you have a community of people who all are facing similar situations and challenges. Their socioeconomic status, among other things, is very similar. In Haiti for example, you have an impoverished community with impoverished families. And yet, within that community you notice that there are some families who seem to be doing a little better than the others.

Let's imagine that you meet two Haitian families living side by side in a village. Both households are led by a single mother, each with three kids. You notice the children of one mother seem to look healthy enough. Yes, they could likely benefit from eating more food, but overall they seem to have a decent level of energy, their eyes look bright, their skin looks healthy, and they are an average weight for their age. The children of the other mother have an orange tinge to their hair, they seem lethargic, their skin is more flaky, their bellies are bulging, and their arms look quite skinny compared to other children their age.

You sit down with the two mothers individually. You ask the first mother what she feeds her children. She gives you a varied list of food including vegetables, rice with a meat sauce, natural fruit juice, and more. You ask about the water her family drinks. She replies that they only drink treated water. You ask what else she does to maintain the health of her children. She tells you that she keeps the house clean, her children bathe regularly, and they always wash their hands before eating. You tell the mother that her children seem to be very healthy and that she's obviously doing a great job taking care of her kids. The mother beams with pride and appreciates your compliments and the fact that you notice the care she gives her children. 

You sit down with the second mother and ask the same questions. She feeds mostly feeds her children white rice. Sometimes she will buy cheese puffs for them from the nearby vendor. She remarks that they really like the sugary juice drink you can buy from the same place. They drink the untreated well water they fetch from down the road. You peek inside the house and see that it is a bit of a mess, the children are especially dirty, the youngest is playing in the dirt without any pants on. The mother tells you that her kids cause too much trouble for her.

Obviously things are not always this black and white and there can be other factors at play to cause one family to struggle more than another, but the main point is that the first mother is an example of positive deviance. Living in similar conditions, her behaviors stand out against those around her and are producing better results. For whatever reasons, she has realized that providing her children with balanced meals, treated water, and a hygienic house will give them a better chance at maintaining a healthy life. The second mother is spending the same money on food as the first mother, but instead of buying vegetables to add to the rice and fresh fruit to make juice, she is wasting it on nutrient-void snack food and sugar-loaded drinks. Perhaps she doesn't realize the impact that a clean house and good hygiene practices can have on her family's health.

The purpose of the positive deviance approach is to then work with individuals like the first mother, using them as an example for their community, often to the degree that they become teachers to other families around them. The organization I worked with last year used this approach for their nutrition programs. They found mothers within each village whose positive behaviors led to them having healthier children than the rest and they further trained these women to be community nutrition workers serving and teaching their own village how to raise up healthier families. 

This is the kind of work we need to do in Haiti. 

Why did I stop to talk to that man about his horse? Because I noticed that he is doing something different than those around him and I wanted to praise and encourage him for that. Obviously I know very little about this man, but in general, finding individuals like him, walking alongside to encourage them to continue their positive efforts, and then training them to help bring about more positive efforts in their entire community is a worthwhile endeavor! Could this man share with other horse owners how to have healthier horses? Of course. He obviously knows many of the steps to take to maintain a healthy horse. Maybe he'd be interested in learning even more about horses. Maybe he'd be interested in teaching others these same principles. Maybe after some time, with this kind of work, we could start to see healthier horses in that community. And it can start with one man.

As you look around this nation, the needs can seem overwhelming. But change really can start with one family. Incredible resources and intelligent people already exist within these communities. We have to open our eyes to see those who stand out against the rest—those who are thriving despite their challenges and struggles. And then we have to be willing to take the time to sit with them. Listen to them. Learn from them. And then work with them to find sustainable solutions from within their own community for their own community. We have to stop coming in and doing for Haiti what she could actually do for herself given the chance. Haiti needs to be encouraged. Haiti needs to be empowered. But more than anything Haiti needs more Haitians who are encouraged and empowered to encourage and empower Haitians. So here's to my own commitment to do just that and stand with other organizations who are dedicated to this kind of transformational work in Haiti.