Dear Friends,

January gets its name from the Roman god Janus who is often depicted as two-faced, not in a deceptive way, but in a way appropriate for the beginning of the new year. He looked both backward and forward. That is what we are doing at Catholic Relief Services during a January that is very important to us and so many of the people we serve.

This month, in a referendum scheduled to begin on January 9, the people of southern Sudan will go to the polls, voting on whether to remain part of Sudan or to secede and form their own country. I have written to you about this before because it is such an important event for Sudan and indeed for all of Africa.

At CRS, we have committed millions of dollars to peacebuilding in the run up to this referendum, working mainly through partners in the Sudanese Catholic Church. We made this commitment a year ago because, looking back, we could see horrific violence stretching for decades. In the last round of fighting over the status of the south, over two million died. Millions more were displaced.
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Maneuvering through traffic in Haiti can be challenging at times due to the number of people, the cars, and the motorcycles all trying to get someplace. Photo by Mikaele Sansone/CRS

Fr. James Henke, Archdiocese of San Antonio, joined a delegation of four priests, one deacon, and two CRS staff members in a trip to Haiti as part of the Global Fellows program. They went to witness the work of CRS with the intent to share the Haiti story with Catholic communities in the U.S. Fr. Henke filed this report.

Today was another day of being moved by a number of experiences. We began the day by celebrating the Eucharist with the Sisters of Charity at 6:30. There are eight nuns in residence there. One of them, a Haitian, is a doctor. The sisters have a hospital that serves the people of the area. After breakfast we visited a number of the wards of the hospital. They have beds for 250 patients. The patients are on simple cots with thin mattresses. There are about 25 patients in each ward.
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Parishioners of Sacred Heart Parish celebrate Sunday Liturgy amongst the rubble of their church. Photo by Mikaele Sansone/CRS

Msgr. Padraic Loftus, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, joined a delegation of four priests, one deacon, and two CRS staff members in a trip to Haiti as part of the Global Fellows program. They went to witness the work of CRS with the intent to share the Haiti story with Catholic communities in the U.S. Msgr. Loftus filed this report.

The day starts early in Haiti and on Sunday it starts earlier. Our Mass at Sacred Heart Parish scheduled for 6:30 AM actually began at 6:40. The pastor, Fr. Hans, took some time to rehearse the music with his people.
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An example of how the earthquake that struck Haiti January 12th, 2010 crumbled some structures and left others still standing. Photo by Mikaele Sansone/CRS

Mikaele Sansone, of CRS’s Global Fellows program, joined four priests, one deacon, and anther CRS staff member in a trip to Haiti as part of the Global Fellows program. They went to witness the work of CRS with the intent to share the Haiti story with Catholic communities in the U.S. Mikaele filed this report.

Today we arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Approaching the airport we flew over the city and a sense of apprehension began to build up inside of me. My mind began to race with the possibilities of what we were going to see upon deplaning, not to mention the next eight days. Walking through customs everything appeared “normal”: baggage claim was pure chaos, but the good news is that no one lost their luggage.
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A Haitian family dispersed by the January quake sends a Thanksgiving message for CRS donors: when you helped Haiti, you helped us.

As the cholera outbreak in Haiti worsens, Catholic Relief Services is responding with aggressive measures to help prevent the spread of the disease and treat the sick. The cholera outbreak has infected more than 15,000 Haitians and killed more than 900.

CRS is providing Haitians with soap, water purification tablets and related guidance to prevent the outbreak from continuing to spread. In Port-au-Prince, more than 10,000 families have received soap from CRS. CRS is also increasing water and sanitation activities in several camps, including latrine and water station repairs and extra disinfection, extra water treatment, and additional solid waste removal.

CRS’ health team, with colleagues from the University of Maryland, has also been working to help 7 CRS supported hospitals around the country and four health centers managed by our partner Caritas, to respond to an influx of cholera patients. CRS is also focusing on people living with HIV, who are at increased risk of cholera. Hygiene kits are being assembled for 7,000 people living with HIV supported through CRS’ AIDSRelief program to help them prevent infection.

The disease has reached Port-au-Prince, where more than one million displaced people still live. Poor sanitation and hygiene in the settlements make people particularly vulnerable to the disease, which causes diarrhea and vomiting so severe that it can kill a person within hours if rehydration measures are not taken.
Each of Haiti’s 10 regions, and neighboring Dominican Republic, have reported suspected cases of cholera.

A look inside a completed temporary shelter in Haiti built by CRS and local partner Hospice St. Joseph. Photo by Benjamin Depp for CRS.

Catholic Relief Services, working with Haitians in a cash-for-work program, has completed construction of hundreds of temporary shelters for families left homeless after the January earthquake.
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In the aftermath of Hurricane Tomas striking Haiti on Friday, Catholic Relief Services is working with affected populations to help those in need. Hurricane Tomas killed 6 people and destroyed more than 100 homes.

CRS distributed food and water to about 4,000 people in temporary shelters in southern Haiti, the area most affected by the storm.

Agriculture loss and infrastructure damage are concerns for the recovery from the storm. CRS estimates that some regions lost between 50 and 70 percent of their crops.

“Fortunately, the worst case scenario for Hurricane Tomas that we were preparing for in Haiti did not come to pass,” said William Schmitt, CRS regional technical advisor for emergencies in Latin American and the Caribbean. “However, our teams have reported pretty severe and widespread crop losses in the departments of Cayes, Grande Anse and Nippes. CRS is preparing a new initiative to provide assistance and income-earning opportunities to families that have suffered serious crop losses in the South.”