A Salute to Service

Today, November 11th, is Veterans Day. It is a day set aside to honor and thank the millions of men and women who have worn the uniform. It is a "salute to service"— as we reflect on the men and women who, in a profound act of commitment, dedicated themselves to protecting the safety, freedom, and future of the many. This service is built on an ideal: that a stable and just society is worth defending, and that its people deserve to live, love, and build their lives in peace.

As we reflect on this ideal, our hearts and minds are also with our friends in Haiti, a nation where INHO is deeply rooted, and a place that is currently grappling with the profound and tragic absence of that very safety. Give a moment to reflect on these words—"freedom”, “service", "sacrifice", and "safety"—with a heavy heart.

We are writing this from a nation that is, for all intents and purposes, soldierless. It is also a nation where "safety" is a luxury few can afford, and "freedom" means surviving another day. As many of you know, Haiti is in the grip of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. More than 1.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes due to spiraling armed violence. More than half the population—5.5 million people—faces acute food insecurity.

The daily reality for the communities we serve is not one of state-provided security, but of a constant, terrifying threat from armed gangs that control vast parts of the country.

This reality makes the idea of "service" complicated, but also more urgent.

It is natural to ask: why? Why is Haiti "soldierless" in the face of such chaos? The answer is rooted in a painful history. For decades, Haiti's own national military was not a protector of the people. It was a source of repression, political instability, and human rights abuses. In a difficult decision three decades ago, the nation chose to dissolve that force in the hope of ending political violence and building a new, peaceful, civilian-led future.

That hope, however, has been met by a new and more devastating tragedy. The void left behind was not filled by a trusted, protective, and well-resourced police force. Instead, today, this vacuum has been filled by armed gangs. Civil disorder and mass violence have become a devastating part of daily life. A small, brave, and dangerously outgunned national police force is all that stands between ordinary families and overwhelming violence.

On this Veterans Day, we see a different, agonizing kind of "service" in Haiti.

We see the service of doctors and nurses who show up to clinics, navigating checkpoints and gunfire, because the community depends on them.

We see the service of teachers who try to keep schools open, creating a small pocket of normalcy for children who have seen too much.

We see the daily, harrowing "sacrifice" of parents, who risk their lives not in a foreign war, but in their own neighborhoods, just to find food and clean water for their children.

And "service" is what our own staff—your partners on the ground—do every single day. They show up. They navigate the unnavigable. They bring food, clean water, medical care, and hope into places that have been abandoned by the world.

Today, our salute to service extends from the veterans in the U.S. to the civilians in Haiti. We honor all those who serve the cause of peace. But we also hold in our hearts the people of Haiti, who are sacrificing everything, every day, just to find it. Their resilience is a service to the human spirit.

Our prayer on this Veterans Day is that one day, they, too, will have the simple, profound, and sacred right to "live free, in safety, and with love."

Thank you for standing with them. Thank you for making our service possible.