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Hope for the 2010-2011 School Year - September 2010
St. Francis DeSales counsels us to look confidently toward the future with hope, “Let us serve God well today; God will provide for tomorrow. Each day has its own burden to bear; do not worry about tomorrow, for the same God who reigns today will reign tomorrow. And if in God’s goodness God had thought that you needed more assistance then God would have given it to you.”
We must prayerfully embrace this loving advice. Everything that needs doing to ready our schools for the October 6th opening day seem overwhelming; and a resurgence of violence and fighting in Cite Soleil fills us with anxiety.
In a recent phone call with one of our workers told us, “Two young men were killed yesterday in shooting between two different gangs, they are very young, and there is no leader”, he said over the phone. “These young men carry guns and rob people all over. It is a serious problem and we will need to improve the security in our schools. Many of the young students and their parents are frightened.”
But we will not be discouraged. The steady prayers and support from our many friends and parishes keeps us going and helps us take each day as it comes. In the six short months since the earthquake, we’ve “righted our capsized boat”, bailed it out and are now fixing the leaks.
Agriculture and Rural Development Update - June 17, 2010
The tremendous devastation and loss of life from the January 12th earthquake validated our belief that agricultural promotion and development can help Haiti’s people make huge strides toward decent living. Port-au-Prince and other major cities are sorely overcrowded and cannot support the tremendous needs of such a huge concentrated population. Far too many youth from small villages are leaving their homes and families and migrating to Port-au-Prince looking for work.
In the past few years HT invested a great deal of funding and energy into educating and training young people to care for the environment and honor and respect agriculture and farming vocations. Here is the latest news on these projects and our work outside Port-au-Prince:
HTG Gonaives Office
Our office in Gonaives is the focal point for all our outreach to the poor outside of Port-au-Prince. The primary ministry of our HTG Gonaives office is a combination of education (schools and training programs), intervention (relief and charity efforts), Environmental protection (training and reforestation), Agricultural & development (credit coops, farming, irrigation and water resources) and nutrition in rural villages.
HTG Office in Gonaives - June 2010
News on current HTG projects:
The population in and around Gonaives, where we are located, increased by 20% after the earthquake and forced us to increase our feeding and charity outreach from this office. This creates a real strain on our outreach activities so we’ve increased the funding and are looking to involve more volunteers in water well drilling and agricultural management.
Rebuilding and Post Earthquake Update - June 16, 2010
After four months of steady rebuilding we now have a fully functional headquarters. We transformed our old vehicle storage area into a seven room headquarters, storage depot and pharmacy. The final phase will be the installation of a solar power system.
Volunteer Residence Construction
Workers clear rubble newly purchased property
Now that we have a functional office HQ, we may begin reconstruction of our volunteer center. The torrential rains, poor sewage situation and stifling summer heat make tent living extremely unpleasant. We began clearing the rubble from the recently purchased adjacent plot and will construct a large volunteer residence. This complex will include volunteer quarters, dormitories for Oblate associates, Fr. Tom’s residence, a chapel, meeting rooms, dining area and space for vehicle storage and repairs.
Opening Schools and Making Progress - April 19, 2010
Three months have passed since the January earthquake and in that short time we’ve made a great deal of progress toward restoring our schools and we continue helping thousands of people through water, food, and medical outreach programs.
Fr. Tom sent me an email in late March summarizing the progress, “Doug, I just finished visiting the four schools. At St. Francois, the third floor auditorium is already down. The new kitchen is almost finished and looks good. They have 15 new classrooms constructed of wood panel and tin roofing and they look good. The school is open. Visited St. Margaret and the kitchen is almost finished....building a new wall and almost finished. They too are building classrooms. Visited St. Ann and the kitchen there too is almost finished. I have an official list of 1675 elderly who have received food. We arranged for 300 elderly to receive food this Friday and the following Thursday. It was all good to see.”
Life for Fr. Tom at our temporary HQ has not changed much. We are still in tents, still using makeshift latrines and showers, and eagerly awaiting the completion of our office buildings and small living quarters. There’s a serious rat problem, probably caused by the neighboring, overcrowded tent cities and the large sewage canal behind our compound.
Update - March 10, 2010 News
“It is not normal here,” Father Tom said to me over the phone. “It is just so unnatural, living on the ground without much space, or security or even bathroom facilities… it can wear on you. There is this constant stress, constant tension.”
Of course there is nothing normal about the post-earthquake life in Port-au-Prince, and the strain and demands created by the deaths, the collapsed buildings, the tent cities, the fights over food and materials, and the desperate need for incomes and stability. Fr. Tom and our limited crew in Port-au-Prince are doing all they can to move forward and help the people of Cite Soleil and the Delmas area.
Food buckets ready for distribution
We’ve made a bit of progress and we can feel good about some of the outreach in the past weeks:
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