Kai T. Hill is an associate web producer for CRS. She traveled to Miami to report on local parish efforts to assist storm survivors in Cuba and Haiti.

Upon entering the grounds of the Daughters of Charity in northwest Miami on Monday I quickly scanned the yard of busy nuns and other workers in search of Sister Hilda Alonso. I’d been told by a CRS veteran that she was about 90 years old, extremely petite and “a tough one.”

Sister Hilda Alonso has made a career of helping needy families in the islands of Cuba, Haiti and elsewhere. Her relationship with CRS dates back to the early 1970s. Photo by Kai Hill/CRS.

But identifying her out of the bunch of sisters proved difficult as all of them were petite and hard at work, perhaps “tough.” Once I was introduced to Alonso the handshake she extended to me was tender. Her eyes were soft.

For decades Alonso, 86, has dedicated herself to helping needy families in the islands of Cuba, Haiti and elsewhere. Her relationship with CRS dates back to the early 1970s when she was assigned to missions in Haiti and contacted the agency for its support. The agency’s relationship with Alonzo continued well after she came to Miami to serve with the Daughters of Charity.

So loved is she, that a group of her former students at a high school in Havana have been by her side during preparations for supply shipments.

“Everybody wanted to help out,” says Mirtha Davis, a former student and volunteer who graciously translated Alonzo’s Spanish. “Relatives are still calling who have family in Cuba who don’t have a roof over their head. Somehow they know [the goods] will get to them.”

My purpose for traveling to Miami, Florida is to capture the humanitarian effort for hurricane victims across Cuba and Haiti. When disaster strikes in any given country, Catholic Relief Services with support of its donors is often one of the first aid groups to reach victims and provide them with food and essentials they need to recover. But collection drives such as the ones taking place in South Florida and elsewhere throughout the United States are part of the same Church mission: giving the gift of charity and living in solidarity with the poor.

As Cuba faces the task of rebuilding and recovering from the most devastating storms to strike the island in 50 years, CRS is helping the Daughters of Charity ship containers of goods that keep pouring in from the community. Support to CRS’ Latin America and Caribbean Severe Weather Fund helps us do so.

In late September, photojournalist David Snyder traveled to Haiti for CRS. His mission was to document what he found in the flood-ravaged country. The following is the second of his Haiti diary entries.

Food and water distribution is among the first responses following the large scale storm disaster to hit Haiti. Photo by David Snyder for CRS.

Saturday, September 27, 2008 Gonaives, Haiti: Went out this morning to the Missionaries of Charity compound in the north end of the city. CRS has been distributing food kits through the site, because it is a secure location with walls and a single gate in and out. Today, the sisters there distributed CRS rations to 500 families – about 2,500 people – each designed to last one week. While the distribution was going on, several more trucks of CRS food and water were being off-loaded for a later distribution, so the compound was alive with activity. Though I have seen many such distributions in the past, I’m always amazed at how much coordination goes into each one. The sisters started this distribution at five in the morning, and finished around noon. All of the beneficiaries who came today were pre-registered days earlier, chosen from the most affected communities nearby. Distributions have been going on at the site nearly every day since Hurricane Ike, with food provided by CRS and other agencies.