Coming Together for Haiti.

Coming Together for Haiti. Update Jan. 23-24.

International Assistance

News reports for several days have told of refugees leaving Port-au-Prince for other parts of the country. Many, they say, have headed to Les Cayes, miles to the west of the capital on the southern coast. There is a Salesian school and a youth center there with three confreres. An influx of refugees is likely to have an impact on that presence.

ANS noted on January 23 that initiatives in Salesian centers around the world continue to multiply, as they respond to the Rector Major’s urgent appeal for Haiti. They are making pupils, young people, and their families aware of and getting them involved in the emergency situation created by the earthquake in Haiti.

As Fr. Chavez noted in his appeal letter, even provinces from the Third World are responding. From the East Asia-Oceania Region of the Congregation come these instances: Papua New Guinea/Solomon Islands, Vietnam, and Indonesia-Timor. In the Australia-Pacific Province (not in the Third World, at least not most of it), the provincial council decided on a monetary target, an amount it has pledged as a minimum, but asked the houses to send in what they can toward that target. If those amounts don’t reach the overall target, the province will top it up. If the amounts reach the target or exceed it, the province will add to it anyway! Fr. Frank Moloney, the provincial, has written to his confreres indicating that this item must feature in the communities’ Lenten penance.

Individual Salesian Losses

Some of our Haitian confreres have written letters to Salesian friends about their distressed situation, sometimes in struggling English but all the more heartfelt for that. Here’s one sample, written to the other side of the world:

In my family my little brother slept under his office where he is working, thanks God he is alive with some pein, and we hope that everything will be fine soon; in my school some of my pupils are dead..., it’s a terrific moment for us. Now we are just strugguling to live day after day. Please i beg you all to keep us in your prayer because we do need that more than ever. Now in our country most of the catholic Churches in the capital are destroyed and our archibishop and his general vicar are dead in the capital, a lot of religious are dead.... In the capital maybe we still at the most 3 or 4 churches. A lot of students passed away because it was a time for the Universities to work.... it’s terrific. Please help us by your prayer to the good Lord. Take care and God bless.

Haitian-American confreres Bro. Wilgintz Polynice and Bro. Dieunel Victor, both in the formation community of Orange, N.J., have lost relatives in Port-au-Prince. Bro. Wilgintz lost two, and Bro. Dieunel one; while they regret this, of course, both are grateful that there weren’t many more deaths in their large extended families. The families had extensive property damage as well.

The Salesian archbishop of Cap-Haitien, Abp. Louis Kebreau, lost his sister in the earthquake. She belonged to the Daughters of Mary. Fifteen other consecrated sisters died also.

One neighborhood in Port-au-Prince from which children come to Salesian school and youth center.

Fr. Mark Hyde in Port-au-Prince

Fr. Mark reports that communications continue to be a challenge: language barriers, mobility of coordinators required for field coordination, etc. Three more satellite phones are needed for Fr. Zucchi Olibrice, Fr. Ducange Sylvain, and the FMA treasurer in Haiti. Salesian Missions will act upon this need.

On Monday afternoon Hendrix Pinedo from the Salesian Missions Office will fly to Santo Domingo to provide communication support and the advice on financial management and reporting requirements. He and Fr. Mark will remain on Hispaniola—in either the D.R. or Haiti—until Friday afternoon.

Film maker and photographer Martin Diggs accompanied Fr. Mark to Port-au-Prince on Friday and has provided many graphic photos of the destruction and the refugee camps. Since he also went there with Fr. Mark last February, he also has some “before” pictures to share.

Mr. Diggs’s photos belong to the Salesians and are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/SalesianMissionsCampaign

The January 22 coordination meeting took place in Port-au-Prince. Present were Fr. Mark Hyde, SDB, Fr. Ducange Sylvain, SDB, Fr. Jacques Charles, SDB, Bro. Alberto Figueroa, SDB, Mr. Franklin Ortega, Sr. Marie-Claire Jean, FMA, and Sr. Carmen Figueroa, FMA. They made decisions on the following issues:

1. Jóvenes y Desarrollo (Spain) is entrusted to support the coordination of the emergency relief in general; VIS (Italy) will be requested to support relief efforts with specific types of assistance such as psycho-social support, engineers, etc.

2. The coordination office will not be exclusively an “Emergency Relief Office.” It will also support the Haiti Vice Province’s Project Development Office or serve later as such office (also known as the Rinaldi Foundation or Don Bosco Foundation).

3. Beginning January 26, a daily simultaneous coordination teleconference will be held among New Rochelle, Santo Domingo, and Port-au-Prince at 9:00 a.m. EST.

4. Plans are in motion to establish a separate coordination office in the provincial house in Santo Domingo, 24/7 Internet access, copy machines, fax machines, direct phone line, office supplies, etc.

5. Logistics: Antilles SDBs are in the process of leasing space in Jimani (6-month lease initially) and will erect a pre-fabricated structure for repacking relief items into family-sized packages. It will be in operation ASAP.

6. Logistics: Antilles SDBs have available space for 10 containers at the airport in Barahona.

7. Logistics: Two trucks for water transport and two trucks for food transport are being purchased. Antilles SDBs have received a special discount price from Daihatsu Company.

8. Logistics: Two written requests to MIVA have been received from SDBs and FMAs in Haiti for the purchase in Santo Domingo of two 4x4 Toyota Land Cruisers, especially made for Haiti’s rough conditions.

9. Offers accepted:
- Jugend Eine Welt (Austria) is to send 500,000 water purification tablets from Austria. What cannot be used by the Salesian emergency team will be donated to other relief agencies.
- 300,000 water tablets from Jugend Dritte Welt (Germany) and the International Water Aid Organization (IWAO) arrived on January 23 in Santo Domingo and will be sent to Port-au-Prince on the 24th.

Fr. Mark (2d from right) helps unload 300,000 water purification tablets for Port-au-Prince, which have arrived in Santo Domingo on Saturday for delivery to PAP on Sunday, donated by the International Water Aid Organization.

- Both water purification systems offered by JDW and VIS are needed. The places will be chosen soon by the Haiti SDBs. JDW is requested to contact BEGECA to ship and install the water system offered ASAP. VIS is requested to contact the Italian organization that offered another water system ASAP as well.

Computers and office equipment are needed for all places. A first set for the coordination office will be purchased in Santo Domingo. Donations of laptops, photo copiers, etc., and other new equipment are welcome.

Fr. Mark with some boys in front of the damaged St. Dominic Savio School at Petion-Ville.

Issues remaining to be addressed ASAP:

1. Where should the Emergency Relief Office be located: at the provincial house in Port-au-Prince or in Pétion-Ville?

2. An inventory of SDB-owned and Government of Haiti-owned properties needs to be drawn up and made available. It is known that land where ENAM is located belongs to the Haitian Government; FMAs’ place next to ENAM belongs to the FMAs; a small part of ENAM (the chapel) belongs to the SDBs. In Cap-Hatien the land belongs to the Government of Haiti; in Pétion-Ville the land belongs to the SDBs. The land of the post novitiate and the provincial house in Port-au-Prince belongs to the SDBs. (Before rebuilding can begin, land ownership must be clear, and if necessary contracts drawn up.)

3. A first prioritization of infrastructure projects needs to be drawn by the Haiti Vice Province and the FMAs and will be communicated soon. Many issues do still require further consultation, however.

4. The director of the Salesian Youth Center in Carrefour-Thorland already has available drawings of a new youth center (designed before the earthquake). Misereor of Germany has offered the technical assistance of an architect and an engineer available in Port-au-Prince by the end of February.
The auditorium of the youth center at Thorland in Feb. 2009, above.

The same building after the quake, right.

5. Interim information officers are Franklin Ortega in the Antilles Province and Fr. Jacques Charles and Fr. Zucchi Olibrice in Haiti.

6. There is a big interest in the system “School in a basket” offered by BEGECA. The local BEGECA representative shall be provided with the data of the SDB office in order to make a choice.