By Sara A. Fajardo
They announced Fr. Gabriel’s arrival to the Petionville camp with a battery-operated bullhorn. Nixon Saint Fleur shouldered the compact speaker system and walked the trampled greens of the once sprawling golf course while calling, “the father has come to pray with you.”
Dressed in an impeccable black polo and dark blue jeans, Nixon, the one-time diplomacy student, strolled the pathways lined with houses made of sheets, beckoning to his estimated 50,000 new neighbors.
Fr. Gabriel Michel of St. Angela’s Church in Mattapan, Mass. presides over a prayer service at the Petionville camp for displaced people in Haiti. Photo by Sara A. Fajardo/CRS
“Join us on the hillside for prayer,” he cried to the legions of Petionville squatters who transformed the exclusive country club grounds into a vast public homestead after the Jan. 12 earthquake destroyed their homes.
As Nixon and others called to people for half an hour, a small crowd began to gather around the gentle priest. They stood on the same site where CRS had fed tens of thousands only days earlier.
One-by-one and then en masse each person approached Fr. Gabriel to unburden themselves of their worries, “We’ve worked and they haven’t paid us,” or “We are living day by day.” The Haitian-born Fr. Gabriel listened patiently, “how long will we be in this camp father?” the concerned voices grew. He scanned the crowd with his trademark smile, he’d come all the way from St. Angela’s Church in Mattapan, Mass. to soothe weary Catholic Relief Services’ workers and spread hope to his people.
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Posted
February 5th, 2010 in
Haiti by:
John Lindner |
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The orphans at Foye Ti Zanmi Jezi (Little Friends of Jesus) were crammed in the TV room watching a documentary on the lives of children in France when the earthquake struck.
On the first violent shake the older children grabbed the younger ones and carried them down the flight of stairs that led to the open courtyard below. Huddled together the children, ages 3-19, watched as the two-story structure bucked under the pressure of the 7.0 magnitude temblor.
Children at Foye Ti Zanmi Jezi Orphanage saw the orphanage and its adjacent school completely collapse during the earthquake. All 52 children, ages 3-19, ran out of the building when the quake started and no one was injured. Photo by Sara A. Fajardo/CRS
By the third vicious shake, the floor with the TV room and their bedrooms collapsed into their warehouse and Sister Elizabeth Eloi’s room below. Their adjacent light blue two-story “Bienvenue Mes Cheries” schoolhouse also caved into desks and benches, leaving rubble where walls once stood. The warehouse was stocked with food provided by CRS.
In less than a minute the orphans lost everything. Their bedrooms—gone. Their schoolhouse—gone. Their indoor kitchen—gone. Yet the group’s quick-thinking teenagers assured all 52 children survived.
These days they are sheltered by the shade of a large Lilac tree as they play on the concrete courtyard that remains. Small two-piece puzzles, cards, a Monopoly set, and a plastic xylophone, on which they repeatedly pluck out the same refrain of Frere Jacques, “are you sleeping, are you sleeping? Brother John.” are the toys with which they idle away the hours.
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Posted
February 4th, 2010 in
Haiti by:
John Lindner |
3 Comments »
By Lane Hartill
Inside a hovel made from rosebud bedsheets and curling pharmaceutical boxes, Exeline Belcombe, one of Haiti’s best singers, is having a problem: Christline, her 4-month-old, is squirming.
That means it’s time for Liberer.
Exeline Belcombe cares for her 4-month-old daughter, Christline. Exeline, an aspiring singer, now lives in a makeshift shelter with 12 members of her family at the Petionville Club golf course. Photo by Lane Hartill/CRS
Exeline smiles, clears her throat, pauses, and out comes a voice that will send a serious case of the tingles straight down your back.
You protected my salvation;
With your grand sacrifice;
Oh, Jesus, what wonderful love
The tent falls silent. When Exeline (pronounced ESS-leen) sings, people listen.
Liberer (free me) is her go-to song, the one that soothes everyone at night, the one that takes their minds off the unemployment, lack of diapers and flattened house.
Escio Belcombe, Exeline’s father, and Richard, her brother, listen to Exeline from outside the tent. They take turns guarding their shelter at night. Exeline says two of the biggest problems here in the displaced persons camp are bandits and people relieving themselves in the shadows of their tent. Not enough latrines have been built yet. So when they see someone in the shadows of the tent looking to answer nature’s call, they throw rocks at them.
- Voice of Exeline Belcombe
***
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Posted
February 2nd, 2010 in
Haiti by:
John Lindner |
1 Comment »
Community leader Edwin Roblero Barios prepares rations of oil for a food distribution in the Sanajaba community in the northern highlands of San Marcos, Guatemala. Expectant women and mothers with children under three years of age receive supplemental food rations and attend workshops that promote proper childhood development. Photo by Sara A. Fajardo/CRS
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Photo of the Week is a special feature for this blog, written by Kai Hill. |
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Most Reverend McManus – Bishop of Worcester Diocese and I (Thomas Awiapo) had a 30 minutes media interview on the work of CRS in Haiti and around the world which will be aired across the country in due course.
The bishop announced that the Catholic community of the Worcester Diocese has raised close to $500,000 in aid of victims of the earthquake in Haiti. He added that the money will be channeled through CRS because he knows and believes that the money will be spent judiciously and efficiently to save and improve lives of the afflicted.
Thanks to Bishop McManus and the Catholic community of the Worcester diocese for being so generous and demonstrating such a high sense of solidarity with the people of Haiti.
-Thomas Awiapo
Posted
February 6th, 2010 in
Haiti by:
John Lindner |
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Churches have become HIV clinics in South Africa thanks to exceptional partnership. Debbie DeVoe/CRS
This week, South Africa celebrated an important HIV milestone in Johannesburg. Due to excellent partnership and program execution, management of a very large U.S. grant supporting HIV care and treatment for more than 60,000 people is shifting from the international hands of the CRS-led AIDSRelief consortium into the local hands of the Southern Africa Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), St. Mary’s Hospital, and the Institute for Youth Development-South Africa.
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Posted
February 5th, 2010 in
Africa, HIV by:
John Lindner |
1 Comment »
From readingeagle.com:
…The students [at St. Margaret School in Reading, PA] didn’t know who the frog-kisser would be, even though they had helped decide by putting dollars and change in teachers’ jars in a fundraiser for Haiti.
Students voted by depositing money in the jar of the teacher they most wanted to see kiss the frog.
But only now, as Smith unsealed the envelope to deafening cheers, would they learn that St. Margaret’s only male teacher would put on a pink, fluffy tiara and kiss the amphibian.
The school raised $859 for Haiti. See full story and photo here.
Posted
February 4th, 2010 in
Haiti by:
John Lindner |
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BaltimoreACTS is sponsoring a “gala concert celebration uniting the spirits of Haiti and Baltimore, featuring Melky and Farel Jean, Mario, Mya and Morgan State University Choir.”
Proceeds go to CRS, Partners In Health, Carma Foundation and Architecture for Humanity
Date: February 11, 7:30pm
Location: Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
For tickets and more information go here.
Posted
February 3rd, 2010 in
Haiti by:
John Lindner |
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By Archbishop Timothy Dolan, from his blog:
This is a special prayer for the people of Haiti. I invite everyone to pray to the Lord for the victims of the devastating earthquake:
Lord, at times such as this, when we realize that the ground beneath our feet is not as solid as we had imagined, we plead for your mercy.
As the things we have built crumble about us, we know too well how small we truly are on this ever-changing, ever-moving, fragile planet we call home. Yet you have promised never to forget us. Do not forget us now.
Today, so many people are afraid. They wait in fear of the next tremor. They hear the cries of the injured amid the rubble. They roam the streets in shock at what they see. And they fill the dusty air with wails of grief and the names of missing dead.
Read the full post here.
Posted
February 1st, 2010 in
Haiti by:
John Lindner |
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By Bernice Yalley
In a lot of circumstances, I am confident. I walk with an easy glide, I am not shy in meeting new people, and when the moment is right, I can even dance a little jig in the middle of the supermarket. But in managing this savings and lending project, I sometimes get the feeling that I am play acting and figuring stuff out as I go along. Kind of like, the real project manager took a year off but before that her computer crashed with all of her meeting agendas, budgets, scheduling and planning notes lost into the great internet ether. And now I am filling in for her.
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Posted
February 1st, 2010 in
Africa, microfinance by:
John Lindner |
1 Comment »
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