Haiti Update, Jan. 28-29

Haiti Update, Jan. 28-29
More LinksOn Friday, Jan. 29, CNS has a major article on the FMAs in Port-au-Prince: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1000404.htm

CNS’s Jim Lackey posted on Jan. 28 a slide show put together by Sam Lucero of The Compass, diocesan paper from Green Bay, with a voice-over from an interview given to CNS by Abp. Tim Dolan of NY, a day or two after the earthquake. There’s a link to a 2d slide show. Mr. Lackey concludes: “… they are stark reminders of the terrible devastation in Haiti and the major role Catholic Relief Services is playing there.”
http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/slideshow-of-haiti-devastation/

The USCCB, like the Salesians, realize that Haiti relief has to include the future and not only the immediate crisis. See “Bishops Call for a Longterm Strategy in Haiti That Focuses on Poverty Reduction”: http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2010/10-022.shtml

Shoestring, the public relations and media firm used by Salesian Missions, has gotten SM mentions or listings in many places. “How you can help earthquake victims” listings include (but aren’t limited to):
CNN’s Impact Your World www.cnn.com/impact
NBC/MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34881508/ns/world_news-americas

Catholic News Service has a team arriving in Santo Domingo on Friday, Jan. 29, heading for Port-au-Prince. They hope to see the Salesian places there, among so many stories they want to cover.

Relief EffortsFr. Mark is making another visit to Port-au-Prince on Friday, Jan. 29.
As of Jan. 26, the Salesians in Haiti are providing shelter to about 13,500 Haitians left homeless from the earthquake (approximately 6,500 in Carrefour-Thorland and 7,000 in Pétion-Ville). This doesn’t count what the FMAs are doing at their schools. Survivors are finding shelter in the limited number of facilities which remain standing, in makeshift tents, or in one of the more than 800 tents have been distributed by the Salesians. Currently, staff at the Salesian Missions headquarters in New Rochelle is working to secure an additional 2,000 six-man tents for distribution to the homeless.

In a true show and spirit of cooperation and solidarity, the Salesians in Germany and Austria are sending two 40-foot containers with 1,600 “schools in a box” kits, enough for 72,000 students. This is in preparation for makeshift schools (when deemed appropriate). Prior to the earthquake, Salesian Missions (N.R.) funded schools to these children. Every effort is being made to re-establish this as soon as possible, as well as attend to the more urgent, life-saving needs.

On Jan. 27 the Sandals Foundation has pledged $35,000 to Salesian Missions for its Haiti Relief Efforts (details to come).

After consultation with the SDBs of Haiti, the Emergency Response Team expects to carry out an assessment and identification of needs in the areas of water and sanitation infrastructure that can be turned into “shelf projects” for financing.

Fr. Joseph Simon, SDB, is receiving direct assistance in the form of a 40-kw generator for the street children program in Pétion-Ville.

Transition from emergency relief to reconstruction is expected to begin shortly after the flow of food assistance begins to normalize, which in turn is expected to happen a week or so after 40-foot containers of food assistance and other needed relief emergency items donated by Cross International begin to arrive in Santo Domingo for repacking and transport to Port-au-Prince. In the meantime, a continued food assistance bridge is in full swing with foodstuffs being purchased in the Dominican Republic.
Associazione Missioni Don Bosco from Turin has offered to defray the cost of buying and delivering some 2,000 urgently needed tents for Port-au-Prince. Salesian Missions (N.R.) is trying to find them; it’s a large number to find in stock.

Haiti Relief Efforts Update

Haiti Relief Efforts Update

In New Rochelle, Salesian Missions is trying to collect information related to six areas of concern:
1. strategies for intervention, on three themes, immediate and long-term: saving lives, rebuilding lives, rebuilding structures;
2. setting up infrastructure through a local emergency office and satellite phone contact;
3. finances: collecting and distributing funds; partnering with others
4. outgoing information: getting updates from Haiti, preparing all sorts of reports, financial accounting;
5. offers of cooperation from persons (volunteers) and organizations (grants, services, etc.);
6. public relations: collecting and sharing information, photos, video from all our Salesian partners, as well as more general information about Haiti.

Fr. Mark Hyde arrived in Santo Domingo on Wednesday evening and had a first talk with the provincial and his team right away. Before leaving New York, Fr. Mark was interviewed by NBC News on relief programs in Haiti. CNN has offered a national pro bono advertisement campaign for Salesian emergency relief programs worth $10,000.

The SDBs are sheltering 3,500 refugees at Carrefour-Thorland. Photos from this site were posted by ANS several days ago. But many of them still need tents. More dramatic is what the FMAs are doing: caring for 3,500 at Pétion-Ville and 7,000 at their school in Thorland. The sisters report that they have many children without parents.

Sr. Annecie Audate, animator (superior) in Thorland, writes: “We have divided the camp into sectors to facilitate order. We have distributed approximately 800 tents to the people and also distributed water and some help given to us by our sisters in the Dominican Republic. Every morning we have the celebration of the Holy Mass with all the people present and in the afternoon we pray the Rosary and evening prayer together or have [Eucharistic] adoration.”

The SDBs have a water truck moving about the city dispensing clean drinking water, and two more trucks will soon be on their way.
Pictures pertaining to the food distribution mission to Haiti have be transmitted via separate e-mails. The 11 trucks from the D.R. (1 + the 10-truck convoy) went to Pétion-Ville. On January 21, three more trucks with 1,500 bags of dry rations were leave Barahona with Thorland as their destination. Each of these bags will serve one family for three days, for a total of more than 20,000 meals.

Fr. Zucchi Olibrice confirmed the following numbers of students before the earthquake: mini schools: 20,000; three-month short technical courses at ENAM: 360; regular students at ENAM: 1,040. The UN Disaster Assessment & Coordination Team (UNDAC) has confirmed that an On-site Operations and Coordination Center (OSOCC) team was sent to ENAM on Monday, January 18. Apparently they made some sort of survey but didn’t act to recover any bodies; the report we received was vague.

Fr. Zucchi told Mr. Ortega that there were 200 casualties among the ENAM students. They were 5-17 years old, some of the best and brightest young women and men studying to be teachers.

In addition, 19 people were killed at the Mini Schools facility headquartered at the ENAM-LAKAY compound.

Those whose bodies have been recovered at these places, including 85-year-old Brother Hubert Sanon, have been buried in a common grave near the school.

The church and parish center of Cite Soleil have collapsed around children who were at catechism classes. Rescue teams are still working to find people alive in the rubble.

An OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) report dated January 19 states: “Minor damages were reported in Les Cayes (South department) where 12 houses collapsed and 500 people where wounded. Health structures in the area are overwhelmed and 200 people are displaced.” There is a Salesian school with youth center, and three confreres, at Les Cayes; we have not received any damage reports from them.

VIS (the Italian Salesian NGO) has offered to support the coordination of emergency relief and the installation of the coordination center. In addition to its own volunteers, VIS is ready to send experts in relief management for identified special tasks. The joint provincial meeting to take place on Friday will review this offer as well as the offer received from the Spanish Salesian NGO Jovenes y Desarrollo (JyD).

BEGECA, a German procurement agency, has offered its services. BEGECA is recognized by the disaster relief department of the EU – ECHO – for purchasing relief items in their emergency programs. BEGECA has been a partner of Salesian NGOs for many years. A coordination officer from BEGECA will soon be posted in Port-au-Prince. BEGECA also has offered a plant for cleaning 2,000 to 3,000 liters of water/hour in Port-au-Prince. The offer includes sending two technicians for its installation and training in Haiti, free of charge. 1,000,000 water cleansing pills from Jugend Dritte Welt in Bonn are already en route to Santo Domingo for Haiti. Another 500,000 have been offered by Jugend Eine Welt Austria.

Fr. Mark spoke with Cross International USA’s president, who confirmed an offer of 200 containers of relief supplies— dry food, rice, beans, cooking oil, personal hygiene kits, drinking water, blankets, and tarps—for different relief agencies in Haiti, including the Salesians in the first place. Cross International has confirmed that they are ready to ship the first containers within the next 2-3 days.

A support center will be established in Santo Domingo with an implementation office in Port-au-Prince. Support offers have been received from JyD and VIS. An offer for a professional with Creole proficiency to serve in the support center has been made by JyD.

The logistical support center for emergency relief will be placed in Barahona, where the SDBs have been offered open space at the international airport at Barahona for temporary storage of the containers. Fr. Pichardo, the provincial, has also authorized making the chapel in Barahona more secure in order to use it immediately for storage space.
The donated food stuffs and other relief items will be trucked from Barahona to Jimani, D.R. (on the southernmost border with Haiti), where the SDBs are currently looking for warehouse space for repacking of donated good into smaller family-size packages. Smaller packages will then trucked be to Port-au-Prince. The Salesians of Haiti still fear that security for a larger warehouse in Haiti is not yet possible. Target distribution areas in Port-au-Prince are Carrefour-Thorland , Cité Soleil, ENAM, and Jacmel (an FMA house).

CNN.com has added Salesian Missions to the approved charities on its “Impact Your World” section of its site, in addition to donating $10,000 in free advertising for our relief effort in Haiti. Those ads will begin running later today. Here is a link to what that looks like: http://clients.bobcram.com/shoestring/

The Sandals Foundation (the philanthropic arm of Sandals Resorts International) has designated Salesian Missions as one of the recipients of funds from its Haiti Relief Fund. Press Release: http://www.prweb.com/releases/Haiti_Earthquake/Disaster_Relief/prweb3456514.htm
On Friday, January 22, Fr. Mark Hyde, SDB, Martin Diggs (SM-NR photographer), Fr. Juan Linares, SDB, and Fr. Victor Pichardo will travel to Port-au-Prince by helicopter for a coordination meeting with the Haiti and Antilles provincial councils of the SDBs and FMAs. Bro. Albert Rodriguez, the Antilles treasurer, and Franklin Ortega, the Antilles director of development, will go by road. The meeting will take place at the SDBs’ Port-au-Prince provincial house at 10:00 a.m.--outside “under a tree” (the building not being safe). Before the meeting, the team will visit damaged Salesian sites in Port-au-Prince. The return to Santo Domingo is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.

Salesian Missions has had a conference call with Visionlink, Inc., in order to put in an emergency relief database. The company has developed emergency communication systems for the Red Cross, various humanitarian aid organizations, and more than 200 pharmaceutical companies.

The Haitian provincial council will start to discern tomorrow on priorities and general future organization of their activities in Haiti. There are offers to support the reconstruction of Salesian educational infrastructure from Gobierno de Castilla y Leon (through JyD), Misereor/city of Aachen (through Salesian Missions, Bonn), the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development–BMZ (through the Salesian NGO Jugend Dritte Welt), and the Rector Major.

Salesian institutions all across the U.S. are praying and raising funds for their “Salesian brothers and sisters” in Haiti. For example, see Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J.:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/011910_Don_Bosco_Prep_mourns_losses_at_Haitian_school_belonging_to_same_Catholic_order.html

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/new_jersey/100121-nj-school-mourns-sister-school-in-haiti

FMAs from different provinces have expressed their readiness to leave for Haiti to help, and there are a dozen lay volunteers from their houses in the D.R. who are ready to go. But because of security problems they have not been free to go the Haiti. The FMAs of the United States are gathering emergency items to have them on site as soon as possible. They are also receiving help and solidarity from the sisters of other religious institutes in various parts of the world and from many lay people who have been affected by the enormity of the damage caused by the earthquake. The FMAs in Haiti, in turn, are assisting the sisters of other congregations who can’t get it anywhere else. That has included arranging transport to the D.R. for those seriously injured.

Salesians Continue to Respond to Needs in Haiti

Salesians Continue to Respond to Needs in Haiti
Fr. Mark Hyde left on Wednesday morning, January 20, for Port-au-Prince via Santo Domingo in order to take part in a morale boosting exercise and a strategy-development working session with the provincial councils of the Antilles and Haiti provinces. The meeting will be held in Port-au-Prince on Friday. Fr. Mark is bringing satellite phones with him.

In Fr. Mark’s absence, Jaime Correa and Adam Rudin of the New Rochelle office and Hans-Jurgen Dorrich of the Bonn office, who came to New Rochelle on January 8 for business that obviously had no connection to the earthquake, are managing the command center in New Rochelle.

The Spanish NGO Jovenes y Desarrollo has offered to make available two of its staff personnel already posted in Santo Domingo to assist in the ongoing emergency relief effort. JyD has already supported the Antilles Province in setting up their project development office.

A proposal for the structure of an emergency relief and reconstruction data base has been developed and is being distributed for the comments and feedback of NGOs and mission procures.

Salesian Missions has been in contact with UNDP, who in turn has alerted a UN team to assist in recovery efforts of the 200-500 bodies trapped/missing/dead under the rubble at ENAM.

Many NGOs and Salesian houses are working non-stop to bring the necessary relief supplies as quickly as possible. The New Rochelle Missions Office continues with its role as the center for information, communications, and organization while the Salesians in the Dominican Republic are dealing with the practical side of things, ensuring the safe arrival of the help being sent.

The Salesian NGO Jugend Eine Welt in Austria has offered to make a request in cooperation with CARITAS Austria to the ECHO Emergency Relief Program of the EU for 500,000 euros. Jugend Eine Welt has received from MIVA Austria the approval of two project vehicles, one for the SDBs and the other for the FMAs in Haiti, to facilitate movement in the emergency situation.

The Spanish NGO Solidaridad Don Bosco from Seville has offered to support the reconstruction phase by submitting proposals to public donors in Spain.

Salesian Missions is working with Cross International to get 200 containers with relief supplies to Port-au-Prince. As of the morning of January 20, we were considering the international airport at Barahona, D.R. (there is a Salesian house there, the closest to the Haitian border), as the most likely reception and storage center for this material, from which to truck it to such destination or destinations as may be set up in Port-au-Prince. Part of Fr. Hyde’s work during his current trip is to learn what this/these are. But other shipping arrangements also were under consideration—whatever works to get the goods on site ASAP.

“Poor Haiti, poor Haiti.” Stretched out in a hospital bed in Santo Domingo, Fr. Attilio Stra gave a moving account of the moment the earth shook in Port-au-Prince on January 12 to Alessandra d’Asaro, a journalist from International Volunteers for Development (VIS).

The radio interview, in Italian, is available at the audio section of the ANS site: http://www.infoans.org/22.asp?sez=1&sotSez=13&doc=4699&lingua=2&tipoCorrelato=2

In spite of the constraints of his present situation, the veteran Salesian shows the great fortitude typical of missionaries used to being face to face with poverty, violence, and social injustice. His thoughts quickly turn to the 300 or so street children buried in the Salesian school in the Salina district of Port-au-Prince.

The number of pupils who were in the school at 4:53 p.m. on January 12 is unclear because on the streets you don’t count the numbers in the group. Here the youngsters had somewhere to go, and the possibility of hoping for a better future: getting away from the dangers of the streets, studying and learning a trade, as happens in Salesian schools all over the world.

In the BohnenMini Schools the silence is deafening. The youngsters and Bro. Sanon, who lost his life with them, have been buried in a common grave near the school. Among the ruins, pages from exercise books drift in the warm breeze, chairs, colored pencils, school reports have been scattered among the dust and the rubble by the earthquake.

Piles of debris heaped up, confusion among the upended floors. Through the gaps in the collapsed perimeter walls people come and go, taking everything – piles of paper cups, broken chairs, abandoned shoes, and those sheets of paper. In the tumult one comes across what seem to be pools of stagnant water. “It’s what was left by the corpses,” explains Fr. Lephène Pierre, a Salesian from the ENAM community. “We just need to rebuild the wall to avoid so much mess and to increase security, which in these circumstances is always too little.”

Fr. Lephene Pierre at ENAM

The Haitian government has been gravely wounded, with many ministers among those killed in the earthquake, and the presidential palace has completely collapsed. In the stead of the local government, the United Nations, the United States, various other countries, and many private charities—including the Salesians and the Salesian Sisters--have made it their priority to provide food, water, and first aid.

An 11-truck convoy with water, dry foods, and emergency relief items arrived safely at Port-au-Prince on Saturday from La Vega, Dominican Republic. It was escorted by a Dominican military detail. Pictures of this mission upon departure from La Vega and arrival in Port-au-Prince are awaited. The Salesians also have a water truck moving about the city offering its precious contents to the needy.

Food and water being distributed from one of the trucks that the Salesians brought in from the Dominican Republic.
“In this tragedy,” continues Fr. Lephène, “what is very moving is the solidarity being shown by the whole world.” At ENAM a team of civil defense workers coming from all over Latin America is working day and night, still hoping to find someone alive or dead among the ruins.
Lasting images: hands upraised to catch the water ration from the trucks on the crowded roads of the city; the loud noise overhead of planes and helicopters; makeshift tents at the side of the roads; and, in spite of everything, the Salesians continuing their work, never forgetting to smile even in the face of such tragedy.

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.

Update on Salesian after Haiti Earthquake

Update on the Salesians after the Haiti Earthquake
Bits of news have been arriving in New Rochelle from Port-au-Prince via Rome. This is current as of 7:30 p.m., Jan. 15.

1. The 2 young Salesians who were unaccounted for at school, Brothers Wilfrid Atsime, 28, and ValsaintVibrun, 26, in their third year of philosophy studies, died when the Saint Francis de Sales Institute of Philosophy in the Fleuriot-Tabarre district of Port-au-Prince collapsed. Their funerals have already been held. Thus, with the already known death of Brother Hubert Sanon, we have lost 3 confreres.

2. One report, coming to us from Fr. Adriano Bregolin, vicar of the Rector Major, through our British confreres, says that up to 500 pupils are buried under rubble at one of our schools, presumably ENAM (St. John Bosco), and that “all six Salesian houses in the area of Port-au-Prince have been destroyed.” All other reports mention “200+” students in the collapsed building, including 2 posted today by ANS. Efforts are being made to get Haitian National Police and/or OCHA to ENAM to try to extract the students.

3. Fr. Attilio Stra, director of ENAM and already reported as seriously injured, has sent an e-mail to Italy acknowledging, “It’s a miracle I’m alive.” Dominican soldiers are evacuating him to Santo Domingo for medical treatment.

4. Fr. Calixte Iguintz from Gonaives in the northern part of Haiti, has gone to Port-au-Prince to establish contact with the Salesians in the capital. The provincial treasurer of the Antilles Province, Bro. Alberto Rodriguez, and the director of the Development Office for Haiti, Bro. Franklin Ortega, went from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince to make an assessment and find news about the situation of the Salesians and their works. A report from the Dominican Republic is expected later this evening with news collected the 2 brothers.

5. All of the FMAs are safe. They suffered only one minor injury, Sister Piard Mathilde, who was treated and released from a hospital. None of their students were in their buildings when the quake struck. Many of their buildings are heavily damaged.

6. Two sisters from the D.R. reached Port-au-Prince yesterday and reported that many of the sisters and their boarding students have gathered at the damaged provincial house and are sleeping in the open. They are rendering whatever assistance they can to others. They suffer from not knowing how the sisters in other communities are faring, or about their own relatives. They are sustained by their trust in Mary Help of Christians. The FMAs in the Antilles Province are organizing relief, and the 2 visiting sisters marvel at the dignity and hope they see in the suffering people of Haiti.

7. Salesian Missions in New Rochelle has acquired six satellite phones and a solar charger for them and is trying to get them to Port-au-Prince so that reliable communications can be opened.

8. The New Rochelle Salesian Mission Office has already sent a container of rice, which is due to arrive by Monday, January 18, but won’t immediately have any possibility of being unloaded because of port conditions.

9. Fr. Julian Fox, “trawling through the stuff coming in” at his office in Rome, was hard hit by this remark: “The humanitarian aid organization [the Salesians are meant] has its work cut out for it as all children in Port-au-Prince are now street children.”

10. The Union of Superiors General in Rome is establishing a network among the various religious orders to share information. The De La Salle Brothers have lost three of their confreres. All the Claretians in the country are safe, but the buildings of the parish they were looking after have been destroyed.

11. At least one American died, Molly Hightower, niece of a Jesuit in Spokane, who was doing volunteer work at Friends of the Orphans in Port-au-Prince. Their 7-story building collapsed. [This comes to N.R. from Seattle, not Rome.]

12. Water, food, and medical supplies are the most urgent needs. Salesian Missions has had many offers for these, for volunteers, for transportation, etc., as well as a flow of cash donations, and is working at coordinating all. Much depends upon establishing the above-mentioned communications and, of course, on a place or places to set up operations in the city. The Rector Major has appointed 2 Spanish SDBs to go to Port-au-Prince and coordinate efforts there.

13. Salesian Missions is also planning already for development work after the immediate crisis: for clean-up and rebuilding. Fr. Steve Ryan may bring a Gospel Roads III team there in May.

14. Salesian Missions set up a special account to receive donations for Haiti:
Haiti Disaster Relief Fund
Salesian Missions
Box 30
New Rochelle, NY 10802-0030

Or you may call 914-633-8344.

Finally, the Salesians ask for prayers for our suffering and dead confreres, pupils, sisters, and all the people.

Salesians among Quake Victims

Salesians among Quake Victims

Since the earthquake that struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti yesterday at 4:53 p.m. local time, communications with that country have been very difficult. Bits of information have filtered from Port-au-Prince to Salesian HQ in Rome.

The Salesians have learned that Brother Hubert Sanon, age 85, is among the victims. He was the first brother to join the Salesians in Haiti, back in 1947.

Father Harold Bernard, age 38, was missing under the ruins for some time but was pulled out alive. Both he and Bro. Sanon were on the staff of the Ecole Nationale des Arts et Métiers, or ENAM (National School of Arts and Trades) at Port-au-Prince. It is better known by the generic name St. John Bosco.

St. John Bosco’s director, Fr. Attilio Stra, and other confreres were injured, some seriously. Over 200 pupils are still buried there in the rubble, the last we heard here in the U.S. The emergency rescue services and the Salesians themselves are concentrating on trying to pull survivors from the rubble.

St. John Bosco included a primary school, a technical school, a reception center for youngsters in difficulty, an oratory (youth center), and the main kitchen for feeding tens of thousands of children daily through the “mini schools” program of the late Fr. Lawrence Bohnen.

“We have been hit very hard,” says Fr. Ducange Sylvain, provincial-elect of the Haitian Vice Province and presently director of St. Dominic Savio School in Pétion-Ville, in a short communication.

The provincial house and that of Fleuriot-Tabarre, both in Port-au-Prince, have been severely damaged; two young Salesians in formation who were at the university are still missing.

At the house of Carrefour-Thorland a part of the building and the reception center collapsed, but the Salesians are safe. At Gressier-Leogane classrooms collapsed.

At Pétion-Ville the buildings suffered serious damage.

The Salesian Sisters have suffered damage to their works in Port-au-Prince and at Saint Mary Mazzarello in Pétion-Ville. At present there is also a Daughter of Mary Help of Christians in the hospital.

“It is a very difficult situation,” Fr. Sylvain concludes.

Salesian Missions in New Rochelle is working with Feed the Children, Catholic Relief Services, and Catholic Charities to organize relief for the survivors. Fr. Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions, says that what is most needed are medical supplies, bottled water, food, clothing, tents, and of course cash.

The Rector Major has also designated Salesian Missions in New Rochelle to coordinate the worldwide Salesian response to the disaster. Salesian Missions is in touch with the mission offices of Bonn, Madrid, and Turin and with various Salesian NGOs in Europe such as Jugend Eine Welt in Vienna and VIS in Rome.

Offerings may be sent to Salesian Disaster Relief, Salesian Missions, Box 30, New Rochelle, NY 10802-0030. Salesian Missions’ phone number is 914-633-8344.