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News from Fr. Johnson in Les
Palmes, Haiti
The
priest in the high mountain community of Les Palmes
southwest of the capital, e-mailed an update of his community. The
6.1-aftershock in the morning destroyed homes that had been damaged in the
earthquake.
At
least 44 people in the community have died and 82 houses collapsed, Fr. Vil
Johnson wrote. More than 90 percent of all the dwellings have been affected
in some way. He said no assistance of any kind has arrived.
Johnson listed some of the needs: water; primary care drugs; Clorox to treat
rainwater;
toiletries; clothes; rice and peas and oil. He noted that a small bag of
rice that sold for $150 Haitian dollars before the disaster now goes for
twice as much. The price of a bag of water has soared.
He
wrote: "Thank you for your prayers and solidarity." Les Palmes is twinned
with St. Mary of Coventry, CT.
Before the earthquake
![PICT0341[1].JPG](Hatinews_files/image008.jpg)
After the earthquake
Jan. 12, 2010
Jan. 14, 2010
News of the Palmes
and these areas The Palms:
1 - St. Agnes: I see the director of the
Chapel: Church collapse, several house collapse so far no death.
2 - St. Andrew: Almost no house, several
deaths and injuries due to a landslide boulders.
3 - St. Therese: Church Collapse several home collapse more than 10 people
dead.
4 - St. Joseph Dumas: The rest of the Church has collapse there is no
house, said that the Director of the Chapel
now, over 5 fatalities.
4 - St. Paul: A small part of church is fractured, several deaths, several
houses had effronfrée.
5 - Sacred Heart; collapse Several houses had several dead too.
6 - Perpetual Help Poirier: Several dead and houses collapse.
The Center Our Lady of the Presentation:
1 - As you know our church has
collapse, no church.
2 The School College some cracks.
3 - Primary School before church has collapse
4 - More than 8 dead, it is the funeral.
5 - Red Earth: nearby construction of the house several collapse Homes, All
the people on issues of either house collapse or part destroyed.
6 - It's been 2 days over 100 people sleeping in the presbytery of course
with my faults and fears of houses because the warning is tomorrow, Friday
until 11 pm, from time to time a small earthquake of 1 second is made. So
many houses effrondrée.
7 - The Presbytery several cracks in the part of Father Poupon, Part One.
8 - A student in 6th grade (primary died)
GodBlessyou
FatherJohnson
Jan. 28th
in e-mail from Fr. Johnson:
Because this morning we received
an earthquake of 6.1 c'etait 7 if it was really the end: we were afraid.
Pierre Louis and his wife and family is good but home damaged
Robert and Jean Philomène and
family is Oke
Pradel and his family is well: anyone who is
near us bein but also fear:
Fear: Are we going to receive help as they told us there is support in
Port-au-Prince.
Fear: When will this end of the earthquake in
Haiti?
Fear: of the disease because it's raining and you are forced to sleep
outside.
Fear: Thieves commenecent because they had
missed the food: all the people who were in Port-au-Prince
began to return
home.
Fear: Yet we pray and God’s will: let His will
be done. May the peace of God be with you.
Fr. Johnson Vil
News From Haiti 6th Months since the
Earthquake!
The Reach of Haitian Ministries' since the
Earthquake
Six months after the earthquake, Haitian Ministries
remains focused on
delivering relief aid directly to people in
Port-au-Prince and
surrounding
communities whose lives have been upended by the
devastation.
Since mid-January through July, Haitian Ministries has
given more than
$252,000 in
emergency funds to it partners: 1) nine twinned parish
communities; 2) two orphanages in or just outside
Port-au-Prince; 3) a
neighborhood meal program for 75 to 140 children in a
city slum; 4) a meal
program for children on the island of La Gonave; 5)
special medical missions
in and around Port-au-Prince; and 6) art therapy for
children and teenagers
to help them deal with the trauma of the earthquake and
its aftermath.
In a tent city.jpgAlso, five members of the ministry's
Haitian staff have
received financial assistance for themselves and their
families, and their
children have been enrolled in the ministry's scholarship
program. The
Tierney-Tobin Memorial Scholarship program pays for the
tuitions and books
needed for private school, whether it is primary or
secondary, a technical
school, or a university. (Since the government provides
very little public
education, more than 90 percent of Haiti's students
attend private
institutions.)
Lanitte Belladente, the Norwich Mission House cook who
underwent an
amputation to a leg injured in the collapse of the house,
has received
additional financial and medical support. She is now
being fitted for a
prosthesis by the Hanger Clinic, set up at
Hospital Albert Schweitzer
in
Deschapelles (in central Haiti) to treat amputees.
The $252,000 in emergency assistance does not mark the
completion of relief
funds and does not include the considerable financial aid
that most of the
nine parishes and the two orphanages have received
directly from their
twinned partners in the United States through Haitian
Ministries. The
twinning relationships have formed over the last 25 years
through Haitian
Ministries.
For instance, the
Diocese of Norwich
of Connecticut,
which itself is twinned
with the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince, has given $25,000
to help the
archdiocese recover from the catastrophe that took
lives-including that of
Archbishop Serge Miot-and destroyed many churches and rectories.
Haitian
Ministries has given the archdiocese thus far an
additional $26,000.
Haitian Ministries also shipped or took to the
archdiocese more than 200
items used in the
Catholic Church
during the celebration of Mass, including
vestments and chalices. These were donated by people and
churches after an
appeal throughout the Diocese of Norwich.
Although Haitian Ministries lost its Norwich Mission
House on January 12th,
it has been renting a house in the same area of the city.
Four staff members
and their families are living full- or part-time at the
house, which serves
as the ministry's base for in-country operations. A
parish in Milwaukee-Our
Lady of Lourdes-is twinned with the mission house and has
also provided
significant emergency aid.
Medical mission teams have been housed at the
temporary mission house, and
art therapists from the U.S.,
France and Canada
who are participating in the
therapy initiative stay there. The therapists belong to
CHART (Communities
Healing through ART), an association formed in 2005 to
recruit art
therapists to give psycho-social treatment to children in
South Asia
following the tsunami. The CHART initiative through
Haitian Ministries is
the group's largest commitment and is envisioned to last
at least a year,
with training for Haitians who could continue the work
for years to come.
Over the last six months, Haitian Ministries has been
working to keep track
of all the students in its Tierney-Tobin scholarship
program. Seven of the
136 students who began the 2009-2010 academic year in the
program were
killed in the earthquake. Many of the schools were
destroyed or damaged.
Today, most of the surviving 129 students are back in
class until the end of
the academic year in August. (The school calendar shifted
because of the
disaster.)
All the students, who range from first-graders to
medical school students,
are sponsored by donors in the United States and live (or
lived before the
earthquake) in the Norwich Mission House neighborhood.
They attend
high-performing private schools in the area, and their
enrollment in the
scholarship program is predicated on financial need and
academic merit.
Haitian Ministries will provide the family of each
student a special $50
allotment this summer.
Also, for the coming school year, the ministry must
replace thousands of
dollars worth of books lost in the earthquake. The
ministry hopes to find
more donors willing to sponsor students in the
Tierney-Tobin, because the
number of families in dire need has soared; many families
with one child in
the program have requested admittance of their other
children, because they
have lost the jobs they held before the earthquake.
Because most of the students now live in tents and
attend schools that are
in ruins, Haitian Ministries hopes to provide a
critically needed Student
Resource Center in the mission house neighborhood. The
rented space-about
the size of two large classrooms-would offer a safe and
clean location where
children and teenagers could study at desks, find basic
reference materials,
and use computers. As the center develops, special
classes would help in
computer
literacy for all ages, and workshops would be geared to the needs
of students in different grades. A tutoring program, in
which older students
would help younger ones, would be instituted.
In the early days after the earthquake, Haitian
Ministries put out appeals
for the donation of tents, tarps, blankets, and art
supplies. The responses
by individuals, student groups, civic groups, and other
associations have
been greatly appreciated.
Haitian Ministries knows that Haiti's recovery from
the earthquake will take
years of focus and dedication, solid planning and
partnership, and hard
work. Relief funds beyond the $252,000 will be given in
months ahead.
In the years to come, Haitian Ministries will stand
firm by its guiding
principle of "helping Haitians help Haitians."
(For more details on funds already given to the
parishes, orphanages, meal
programs, and other partners, please see the home page of
our website:
www.haitianministries.org.)
Jan. 30, 2010
Group from Miami chartered a plane and were
able to get to Les Palmes. The people of the Holy Name church outside of
Miami have been sponsoring the primary school teachers and helping in Les
Palmes. Their parish was responsible for building the secondary school. WE
will coordinate with them to help in Les Palmes.
Jan. 30 2010
Tomorrow, the visit of Jim and Mary-Ann's visit will end: after Mass, they
go down to Port-au-Prince may be in the
hope of finding food.
But they bring clorox shaped seed and have seen many houses collapse
today and bring some drugs first aid, but is
awaiting food always
Father Johnson
Thousands find
shelter at Cite Militaire
A tent city with about 2,000 families fills the small field in front of Cite
Militaire's Notre Dame de Lourdes Church in the heart of Port-au-Prince.The
remains of a concrete wall by the metal entrance gate to the property is
spray-painted with the words: Abri Provisional #31 (Temporary Shelter#31).
A Belgium medical team arrived at the church grounds a few days after the
earthquake and was providing maternal and child health care
on Sunday
for all those who lined up in front of a tin shelter off to the side
of the church. (In the first days after the earthquake, the team was
providing emergency treatment and performing amputations, according to a
member of the group. Those medical procedures are now being performed
elsewhere, he said.) In the late afternoon, a convoy of U. S. Army trucks
drove toward the encampment to deliver food and water. Although tents are
stake-to-stake with only small passages for people to walk along, the scene
was peaceful
on Sunday.
Babies had been put on torn strips of blankets or sheets that dotted the
driveway to the church. Women groomed their hair, and elderly men and women
sat or slept in pews taken from the church to provide a bit of comfort.
Cite Militaire is one of nine parishes in the
Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince that are twinned with churches and groups in
Connecticut and Wisconsin through Haitian Ministries for the
Diocese of Norwich. The
church and adjacent rectory did not appear to be damaged. Fr. Ghetto had
left the country earlier in the day, according to staff at the rectory, who
are
overseeing the property.
The people now living in
Coleman tents, under large
UNICEF tarps and inside
improvised shelters (some of them squares of cardboard stitched together
with string) are from the surrounding neighborhoods. Bishop Joseph
Lafontant said, "The first place that people go in a situation like this is
the church. People from the slums all around Cite Militaire
went there to find food and shelter. There were so many they finally had to
stop them."
Bishop Lafontant, who is the acting administrator for the Archdiocese of
Port-au-Prince, met with Emily Smack on Sunday. Emily, who is Haitian
Ministries' executive director, arrived in Haiti
on Friday for a
five-day assessment of the needs of staff who work at the Norwich Mission
House (Haitian Ministries' mission house in Haiti for the last 23 years) and
all of the people in projects and parishes supported through Haitian
Ministries. Emily is traveling with Kyn Tolson, the ministry's development
director, Dr. Tom Gorin of Storrs, CT, and a newspaper reporter and
photographer with The Day of New London, CT. Dr. Gorin, a pediatrician, is
member of the medical mission teams that come to Haiti twice annually. Tom
also is a long-time supporter of
medical school students
in the ministry's Tierney-Tobin scholarship program. Bishop Lafontant
met with the group on Sunday to relay what news he had of the twinned
parishes. The bishop is also a Haitian Ministries board member. While his
duties have increased significantly since the earthquake, the bishop and
others in Haiti's Catholic
Church are grieving the death of Archbishop Serge Miot, who was
killed on January 12th. In Morne Opital and the parish of St. Jude,
Fr. Jean Edner Brene said that more than 6,000 people in his community are
in great need of food, water and medicine. At least six people there have
died, but some are still unaccounted for, he said. Hundreds of the small
houses there are no longer inhabitable, and tents cobbled together with long
sticks and sheets of plastic or cotton are pitched outside the tiny
structures. St. Jude's church buckled in the quake and is unsafe for
use, so Fr. Brene held Mass on Sunday in the small courtyard of the rectory.
More than 100
people came for a service that lasted almost two hours. In his sermon, the
priest thanked the people from Norwich Mission House for traveling to his
parish. "Even though they lost their mission house," he said in Kreyol,
"they are here to help us." The St. Jude school was partially damaged in the
earthquake, and classes are suspended. The medical clinic is unharmed. Many
more people are coming to the clinic since the earthquake, and the two
nurses are trying to meet
dramatically increased needs.
In news about some of the other twinned parishes, Bishop
Lafontant said:
No word has arrived from Fr. Desca in Fonds Baptiste, which is north of
Port-au-Prince and
farther from the epicenter of the quake. "Had he had some problems, we would
have heard from him," the bishop said. In Saintaard, Fr. Anis reported
needing food because people are arriving to the area as residents of the
capital leave for safer places.
"It's not bad in the area," the bishop said, "but the hunger is great
because more mouths need food."
No word has arrived from Fr. Reginald Joachim in
Grand Bois, nor from
Fr. Emmanuel in Ganthier. Bishop Fontaine said that no news is likely an
indication that the communities were not badly hit. In a meeting with
many of the Archdiocese's priests last week, Bishop Fontaine did not hear of
any problems in Grand Boulange. "Fr. Tristant did not raise his hand," the
bishop said. Bishop Lafontant talked of the dire needs of the people of
Haiti and said that today is a time when priests should "sleep with the
people" to realize firsthand how difficult their life has become. He noted
that in the mountain community of Les Palmes-where almost 50 people were
killed, hundreds of homes destroyed and the church and a school leveled-the
earthquake was particularly cruel. The Haitian Ministries' group from
Connecticut has been
staying with Norwich Mission House staff in a house in
Petionville off Rue
Freres. The home belongs to a friend of Paula Thybulle, who runs an
orphanage for 70 girls and an adjacent medical clinic and hospital. A
medical team from Amsterdam had set up on Sunday the second of two large
tents on the street outside her clinic. They intend to start emergency
medical treatments, including orthopedic surgery, for victims brought there.
At Hospice St. Joseph on Sunday, Emily discussed with Pharra Hyppolite (the
hospitality director of Hospice) the new challenges that both of their
ministries now face. Norwich Mission House was destroyed in the earthquake,
and half of Hospice fell. The grounds of Hospice are no longer being
used to treat the wounded, though in the first days after the earthquake
many came through the gates for emergency help. Today, people in the
neighborhood-badly hit in the quake--
come for food, Pharra said. Before stopping at Hospice, Emily met with Sr.
Marie Yannick, who is Bishop Michael Cote's representative to Haiti.
Although she lives at a convent, she provides spiritual support to those
with Norwich Mission House and Hospice St. Joseph. Hospice is another
ministry of Norwich Diocese the operates in Haiti
.
On Saturday the Haitian Ministries group went to the site of Norwich
Mission House. The grounds now have a temporary metal all, and a security
guard protects the property from vandalism. The two-story house is
flattened. Despite the destruction, staff met daily at the grounds, and
mechanics are often there to make needed repairs on the Toyota Land Cruiser.
The Montero, which was under the carport during the earthquake, was
flattened, but friends of Dominique Georges (the mission house co-acting
director) raised the roof enough so that it can be driven. The bashed
vehicle has no
windshield nor windows, but the visiting group has used it for
transportation while the Toyota undergoes almost daily repairs.On the
streets, Haitians passing by often point at the Montero and smile or laugh.
Around the Norwich Mission House much of the neighborhood has been
demolished. On Saturday, a man who lost his wife and a woman who lost four
children watched as smoke rose from the rubble of their homes. Bodies that
cannot be retrieved from the deep piles of concrete are burned to avoid
contagion. On Saturday, the group also visited Lanitte Belledente (the
mission house cook for the last 20 years) who had her left leg amputated
below the knee. Her treatment at the medical tent encampment adjacent to the
tarmac of the International Airport is excellent, according to Dr. Gorin and
Emily Smack. Lanitte's sister is by her side, and Lanitte received daily
wound care
and physical therapy. Teams of doctors, most from the United States,
are specialists in their field.
On Monday, Emily and the others plan to revisit Paula's orphanage and
medical clinic. They will meet with
Catholic Relief Services
to try to coordinate medical missions with Haitian Ministries. They also
expect to visit Madame Samson's neighborhood, where she has operated a meal
program for children for almost 20 years.
On Tuesday, they hope to talk or meet with the Penettes, who run
L'Arc-en-Ciel, the orphanage for children affected by AIDS/HIV. They also
plan to visit Lanitte again.
EARTHQUAKE RELIEF - HNJ HEARTS OUT TO HAITI
February 5, 2010
The whole country of Haiti is a war zone.
Destruction is everywhere! The Hearts Out to Haiti team went thru the
streets of Port au Prince, saw Leogone, Petit Goave and then out towards St.
Mark - the country is one broken rock pile. Dust is everywhere. the
smell of death is in the air. Especially in the area near to St. Ard
where 70,000 people are buried in a mass grave and the bulldozer is still at
work burying people. Lamothe (one of the team members and a Haitian
man) said “the Haitians live like trash and are buried like trash.”
This should not be. The people are crying out to God to help them.
We pass them on the mountains tops standing with arms outstretched and I
wonder will we answer their prayer?
The Hearts Out to Haiti Mission consisting of two teams
went to Haiti on January 27th and returned on Feb 3rd.
Matthew Roy was team leader of the Medical group with a goal to go and serve
where most needed. The Assessment team leaders were Jim and Mary Ann
Loafman whose goal was to visit all three parishes sponsored by the
Haiti Mission access their needs, give them moral support and see if the
Mission could obtain food and clean water for the hungry in the villages.
Many of these goals were accomplished on this Mission.
Much more needs to be done.
About our twinned parish:
Les Palmes
– The trip to Les Palmes was better than anticipated thanks to a Baptist
minister who has an earthmoving machine – he was going up and down the
mountain with the caterpillar and clearing the rocks off the road. The
problem is that in some spots in the road is eroded underneath and could at
any time fall in, this means no large trucks can reach Les Palmes for fear
of the road caving in.
Father Johnson’s church is completely gone. The
rectory has cracks all over and is unstable – it will unfortunately need to
be demolished. Father is lucky in there is a small building (used for
the professors to stay when they came to teach in the high school).
This building looks stable – Jim and I slept inside this small building with
many other people of the village.
The outside toilet for the high school children is
demolished. The high school (built by HNJ Hearts Out to Haiti) is
still standing. It has some cracks and needs to be evaluated by
experts. We think it is and hope pray that it will soon be occupied by the
students. The computer lab is intact.
Father buried over 50 people in Les Palmes.
We drove and looked at homes until we came to rock
slide over the road and then we went by foot. Every home that we
saw was uninhabitable. Either completely flat or on its side – we
bandaged a few people as we walked and listen to their stories – the
children’s eyes are dead – there is no joy in their faces. We held babies
and talked to all the people at their homes and every house is gone. I
think we could have walked for days and days and all we would see were homes
that were gone. I remember the old lady sleeping in small rubble that
was her home. I remember the teachers that Haiti Mission help who
homes are destroyed. I remember the old man who buried so many dead
people that his wife was afraid to get near him for fear of catching a
disease from the dead. These people have no tents – no blankets and it
is cold in the mountains – no utensils to eat with – they eat with their
hands – if they have food – which so many do not. We stayed two nights
here –
Father Johnson was in the rectory on the second floor –
heard the church fall in and looked outside and saw it was gone –
contemplated jumping and instead ran outside. Odette, a young lady of
Les Palmes, was not so lucky – she jumped from a second story building in
Port au Prince and was badly injured – lived a few days in one of the tent
cities and came back to Les Palmes.
The 5 University Students that the Mission supports in
Port au Prince are all well. Luke, was under the rubble of their
rented apartment in Port au Prince for 3 hours. He was rescued by the
other students who dug him out. He had damage to one of his legs
– and is fine now. They have returned back to live in Les Palmes.
Their University (GOC) is completely destroyed.
Fundraisers for Haiti
YOGA for a CAUSE to benefit Haitian Ministries
Guilford, CT - Yoga in Bloom is proud to announce its YOGA for a
CAUSE event to benefit Haitian Ministries for the Norwich Diocese. The "free
will donation" yoga class, suitable for all levels, will be from 7 p.m. to 8
p.m. on Tuesday, February 16th at the Nathanael B. Greene Community Center
in Guilford, Child care will be available, thanks to parent volunteers.
Mohawk Paper will donate materials for school-aged children to create an art
project to be sent to the Norwich Mission House in Haiti. Yoga in Bloom
founder and teacher, Stefanie Patterson, will donate 100 percent of the
proceeds of the event to the relief work of Haitian Ministries.
Stefanie states, "I find great joy in my yoga practice when teaching within
a like-minded community, and I would like to foster a sense of love and
peace for the Haitian people by quieting the mind, stretching the body and
connecting the collective spirit." Stefanie has selected Haitian Ministries
because of its long-standing presence in Haiti and the work it does to
support those in need. The office of Haitian Ministries was inaugurated in
1985 with the help of Fr. Jim Carini, who was Stefanie's parish priest while
growing up in Preston, CT. Over the years, Haitian Ministries has supported
two orphanages, a meal program, a medical clinic, a scholarship program and
reforestation projects. The Nathanael B. Greene Community Center is at 32
Church Street in Guilford. Contact Stefanie Patterson at 877.224.3178
to reserve a spot for an evening of gentle yoga and relaxation. (Beginners
are welcome. Please note: Space is limited, pre-registering for childcare
and the children's craft project is required.)Stefanie Patterson M.Ed/RYT,
has been practicing yoga for 15 years. She is certified through Finding
Inner PeaceYoga School's 200 hour program and is a member of the Yoga
Alliance and has received specialty certifications in pre-natal yoga and
children's yoga.
www.yogainbloom.com
News Update from Haitian Ministries in
Norwich
Jillian Thorp To Leave Job With Haitian Ministries
After five months with
Haitian Ministries for the Diocese of Norwich, Jillian Thorp gave
notification on Wednesday that she is leaving her job with the ministry.
For most of her time in
Haiti, Jillian was the assistant director of the ministry's Norwich Mission
House, where she worked with American visitors during their immersion visits
to Port-au-Prince.
Norwich Mission House
collapsed in the earthquake.
Jillian did not give
details about her future plans but said she hopes to return to Haiti, where
her husband now has a freelance job with NBC.
Since the earthquake in
Haiti on January 12th, Haitian Ministries has initiated relief efforts
with emergency funds to support its ongoing projects and parishes that are
twinned with churches and other groups in Connecticut and elsewhere in the
United States through the ministry.
Dominique Georges, a
longtime Haitian employee of Haitian Ministries and the assistant director
of the Norwich Mission House in Port-au-Prince, has managed the relief
efforts. Along with four other Haitian staff, Dominique has
established a temporary mission house to serve as the center for Haitian
Ministries' emergency work.
Emily Smack, the
ministry's executive director, completed a five-day trip to Port-au-Prince
last week to help assess needs and to begin a long-range plan of action.
In the coming months,
Haitian Ministries will continue to assess and answer the immediate and
longer term needs of the children, families and single adults who are in the
orphanages, meal programs, schools, medical clinics and parishes supported
through the ministry for more than 23 years.
Although medical missions
to Haiti will likely start up in late February, the ministry has cancelled
all immersion visits and other travel stays at the mission house for at
least the next eight months.
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