BECause They Wanted to Help

BEC Linemen Jay Rasberry and John Hernandez Return to Caracol, Haiti.

Story by Rafael Aviles | BEC Staff Writer

“At the end of the day, it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished. It’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better. It’s about what you’ve given back.” —Denzel Washington

Haiti is, at best, a difficult place to live. the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere is still struggling to recover from the the earthquake it experienced in 2010 and, according to The New York Times, relies heavily on money its expatriates (those who escaped) send to relatives back home. Here are five facts about Haiti you may or may not know, according to the World Food Programme: 1. Two in 3 Haitians live on less than $2 a day. 2. Approximately 50 percent of Haitians are unemployed. 3. By the end of 2015, there were still 60,800 displaced individuals living in refugee camps because of the 2010 earthquake. 4. Three in 4 Haitian households do not have running water. 5. About 100,000 Haitian children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition.

It would be hard to blame those who leave Haiti for an opportunity to make a better life for themselves elsewhere. The world hears so much about all those in Haiti who have left or want to leave, but we rarely hear the stories about those who go there.

Bandera Electric Cooperative is proud that we have individuals who have made Haiti their destination. They have no blood ties with anyone that they could call family there. They simply go for the opportunity to follow their heart. They go to give back.

Three years ago, BEC linemen John Hernandez and Jay Rasberry volunteered to travel to Haiti to help build a power line to an orphanage that previously had no electricity. “It was life-changing,” said the two of their first trip, in 2015. This past October, the pair returned to Caracol, Haiti. This time, they went to help train the linemen who are tasked with delivering power from the country’s first electric transmission and distribution network.

This was not an easy undertaking. This is an area where most of the city only has electricity eight hours of the day. The safety equipment you see BEC linemen wear daily is almost nonexistent for these workers in Haiti.

“What you see are linemen showing up to work in their jeans and tennis shoes,” Hernandez said. “They have gloves and hard hats but that’s the extent of the lineman’s safety gear.”

Echoing the practices they’ve learned while on the job here at BEC, Rasberry made the objective of this trip clear: “No. 1 is safety. At this co-op, that’s what it’s all about—safety. That’s how you go home at the end of the day.”

Hernandez added, “These linemen have a basic knowledge of how to work safely. Some of their practices however are unsafe. We will try to ‘unteach’ them the wrong ways of doing things and hopefully by the time we leave, they will understand why it’s important to do things the correct way.”

The first time they went to Haiti, Rasberry and Hernandez had eye-opening experiences.

“It made me appreciate what we have here,” Hernandez said. “Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. It makes you really appreciate what you have.”

The trip was a success. The two men were able to deliver some gifts from BEC to the Haitian linemen they worked with. More importantly, they got to see what their efforts from the first trip yielded.

The orphanage that originally had no electricity now has a fish farm that feeds the facility, and the children who once were hungry are now able to eat every day.

BEC linemen Jay Rasberry and John Hernandez visit a fish farm at a Haiti orphanage.

“There were kids who came up to me from the orphanage we worked on three years ago who remembered me,” said Hernandez. “To have seen where they were before they had electricity, and to be able to see how far they’ve come and thrived since then. I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t tear up.”

John Hernandez instructs Haiti linemen on safety.

Hernandez and Rasberry were able to teach the importance of safety so that the Haitian linemen will all be able to make it home at the end of the day. They were able to laugh and shake hands with a community very grateful for these men who are helping them deliver electricity to a community who has lived without it until now. All of this was accomplished because of the efforts of linemen, like these BEC linemen, who just wanted to help.

“Any time they ask for a volunteer to go back, both of us will have our names on the top of that sign-up sheet,” Rasberry said. “Each one of us would go back in a heartbeat.”