(LEX 18) – Kentucky missionaries were forced to evacuate Haiti as violent protests sweep the country.
The Chervens are now back in the states, staying in Jessamine County right now.
But they say their hearts are still with the Haitians they left behind.
“I’ve cried for days it just breaks my heart,” said Leah Cherven.
Chaos and destruction, photos and videos from Haiti show roads blocked off and set on fire.
“It seems like every time they take one step forward it’s 10 steps back, they just need hope,” said Dana Cherven,
I spoke to 2 missionaries who escaped Haiti yesterday. There has been protests and violence since February 7th. They say the decision to leave was a challenging one, but knew they would only be depleting the already limited resources. Watch for their story tonight @LEX18News pic.twitter.com/pEl75nkWvZ
— Eleanor Buckley (@elbuckleyTV) February 17, 2019
But with no way out of the country for millions of Haitians, their hope is running thin. The Chervens have been working there for the past couple of years as missionaries and they say protests are normal, but this one is different. It started on February 7th and hasn’t stopped since
“They’ve had several protests since we’ve been there but normally they are scheduled and take off on Sunday, but this one has been going non-stop for over week so it’s devastating to the people that live there,” said Leah Cherven.
During the protests all main roads are blocked- meaning locals can’t get to food or water- the Chevren’s however were able to escape the barricades but not without help from their well-connected Haitian friends; help that normal Haitians can’t get.
“It’s very dangerous, you shouldn’t go through obviously try to get out and go through them, we did only because we were getting out of the country. We would never just go through to try to go to the grocery store or get water,” said Leah.
Trying to escape is to risk death, the Cherven’s say making the decision to come home was a challenging one, but knew they would just be taking from the already extremely limited resources if they stayed.
“It’s hard being away from them but we are just trying to assess to see what we can do from this side,” said Leah.
