Salesian Situation Becomes Clearer; Help Starts to Arrive

Salesian Situation Becomes Clearer; Help Starts to Arrive

Information about the situation of the Salesians in Haiti has been arriving from Port-au-Prince chiefly through the Dominican Republic. In New Rochelle the relief operation is being coordinated with the Salesians in the D.R., in various mission offices and NGOs, with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, with UN agencies, with Catholic Relief Services, etc.

The Rector Major, Fr. Pascual Chavez, is being constantly updated on the situation and developments and continues to offer his encouragement to the Salesians in Haiti, who have been so severely tried. On January 18 Fr. Chavez issued a letter to the entire Salesian Congregation, appealing for urgent, even sacrificial assistance to our brothers in Haiti.

The two Salesian seminarians who died on January 12, Brothers Wilfrid Atsime and Valsaint Vibrun, were aged 28 and 26, respectively. [These are in addition to Brother Hubert Sanon, 85, who died at ENAM; his death was reported immediately, but the two seminarians were "missing" for some time.] The other Salesians in Port-au-Prince are safe and well, although some were injured; some of them have lost family and friends. As reported earlier, all the Salesian sisters are safe, and they are offering hospitality and other forms of aid to numerous displaced people.

The most tragic news is the death of the Salesian pupils at ENAM. The first estimate of over 200 youngsters buried under the ruins with some of their teachers, remains the one most frequently given in reports, although some have said it could be as high as 500. It doesn’t seem that anyone has a hard figure yet. Bodies are being recovered—60 of them as of January 18. Many other Salesian pupils died in their own homes.

Some bodies that had been pulled out of ENAM.

On the CNN site there is a collection of short clips about the activities of the Salesians before the earthquake.

Fr. Victor Pichardo, provincial of the Salesians in the Antilles, reached Port-au-Prince with a military helicopter and spent a night there. While there he was also to gather practical information for the next stage of the relief work. On his return Fr. Pichardo took Fr. Attilio Stra, director of the ENAM community, who had survived the collapse of the building, for hospital treatment in Santo Domingo. His injuries are not serious. He was visited on Saturday evening by the President Leonel Fernandez Reyna of the Dominican Republic.

On Friday, January 15, three days after the earthquake, a technical commission from the Dominican Republic reached Port-au-Prince by road and obtained first-hand knowledge of the situation on behalf of the Antilles Salesian Province, as well as the rest of the Salesian world. Bro. Alberto Rodriguez, provincial treasurer, Mr. Franklin Ortega from the Development Office of Antilles Province, and Frs. Angel Sanchez and Gabriel Almonte from the Barahona community, which is the closest to Haiti, saw for themselves the chaotic situation and the powerlessness of the people now living on the streets, the squares, and public parks.

The first stop was at the St. John Bosco community (ENAM), the most seriously affected of the Salesian works in Haiti. Here they met Fr. Wim Boksebeld and Fr. Zucchi Ange Olibrice. “Silence, suffering, and sadness reigned,” the four visitors said. Most of the pupils and their teachers are still buried under the ruins. As with many places in the city, there has been looting, with what remained of desks, chairs, and computers carted off.
Gianluca Antonelli, executive director of International Volunteers for Development (VIS), in conjunction with the New Rochelle Salesian Mission Office, has promised to get the Italian civil protection authorities, already working in the city, involved.

The other Salesian centers in Port-au-Prince are all in the same situation. The Salesians are camping out in the courtyards and spending the night in cars or in the open air.

The visitors met Fr. Jacques Charles, the current superior of the vice province of Haiti, and his appointed successor, Fr. Ducange Sylvain. The most urgent need is to provide the Salesians in Haiti with the minimum necessary infrastructure to take in and care for people. The first things they need are drinking water, canned food supplies, and food for young children because there is very little food in the city and what can be found is by now often contaminated; then they need medicine and tents.

On their return to the D.R., Bro. Rodriguez and Mr. Ortega by teleconference updated the New Rochelle Mission Office crisis committee, who have been planning for relief assistance and its distribution since the day after the earthquake.

By Monday evening 11 trucks with food and medicine had reached the Salesians from the D.R., and these were being distributed to the people. Where possible, assistance centers have been established at the houses of both the Salesians and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, who are doing all they can to welcome and help the people.


In the video information section of ANS a documentary is available (http://www.infoans.org/14.asp?sez=14&sotSez=13&lingua=2&doc=4688), made some years ago by Missioni Don Bosco of Turin, which gives an account of the work of the Salesians in Haiti before the earthquake.
Also, ANS interviewed Fr. Jacques Charles early last year about the Salesians in Haiti; the video is posted at http://www.youtube.com/user/ANSchannel#p/u/0/s5UHPledvv8

On the evening of January 18, the Salesian Sisters posted an excerpt from a message sent to Mother General Yvonne Reungoat by Sister Mathile Piard, who was injured when the house at Pétion-Ville, fell in on her. She thanked Mother Yvonne for her closeness to all of the sisters and then described what she went through: “I was in the house when the earth began to quake. I ran but I could not immediately get out. My leg was wounded, as was an ear, and I fractured a finger. I thank the Lord, who left me my life. I thought I was going to die as I saw the ceiling falling on me while I way trying to run outside. I was saved, thanks to two men who came to get me. I ask the Lord to bless them. The house of Pétion-Ville collapsed; a part of the house dedicated to Mary Help of Christians saw the fall of the chapel and the school. Now we are gathering the people in the parts that remained standing in all the houses. There are many wounded and dead. The country has nothing left...we lack everything.”

The FMAs from the Antilles Province of the continue to bring help to Port-au-Prince. The provincial, Sr. Carmen Figueroa, informed Mother Yvonne that the sisters of her province are arranging with some volunteers to bring more aid and that one of the FMAs is also contacting the religious communities of other congregations to find out what help they need.

The Colombian TV channel RCN transmitted an interview with Sr. Rocio Perez, FMA, a Colombian missionary at one of the Thorland houses. The broadcast showed some FMAs working in a large camp of more than 3,000 persons set up in the green zone of one of our communities. Sr. Rocio said that during December they had received a gift of a large number of blankets, and these have now been given out to the people. The reporters commented that where the FMAs are working they are one of the few well-organized groups, and the people who were interviewed were grateful for the help received.

On January 17 the provincial council of the SDB Haiti Vice Province met to make a first assessment of the situation and make some decisions for the immediate future, such as where to relocate the Salesians among the remaing houses.

The Salesian house of ENAM is completely destroyed. So are the Mini Schools of Father Bohnen (OPEPB)--the kitchen that prepared the meals for most of the outlying sites where meals were served, the administrative offices, and ENAM itself. The dormitory at Gressier-Leogane has collapsed. The church and the parish center of Cité Soleil have totally collapsed.

The house at Fleuriot-Tabarre has been seriously damaged, as has that at Pétion-Ville. But these have become reception centers and at present have about 3,500 people there, sleeping outside in the courtyard. At Thorland the Salesian residence has been damaged, the chapel split in two, and the retreat house totally out of commission.

The Salesians who were living in the communities of ENAM and Fleuriot are being housed in other communities in Haiti, while the postnovices will go for the time being to the Antilles Province.

To coordinate relief better, to facilitate communication, and to plan for the development of activities, a Salesian Crisis Committee has been established made up of Fr. Jacques Charles, Fr. Ducange Sylvain, and Fr. Zucchi Olibrice. Each community in Haiti will need to send in a detailed report of the situation of the Salesians, the young people, and the property.

The priority needs are: the temporarily re-locating the Salesians, finding help for the people now in the care of the Salesians, protecting the houses and the works, repairing the perimeter walls, creating a team to assess the condition of the buildings, and finally setting in motion a medium-term reconstruction program for the destroyed buildings.

Photos of some of the damage and of displaced persons staying at the Salesian school in Thorland are at the ANS “Image Bank”: http://www.infoans.org/index.asp?Lingua=2

Fr. Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions in New Rochelle, is planning to fly to Santo Domingo on Wednesday and be in Port-au-Prince by Friday to meet personally with the local Salesians and see the situation there for himself.