Our relationship with Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) in Deschapelles Haiti began through our membership on the World Mission Committee of St. John’s Church in Essex. Th e parents of fellow parishioner Jenifer Grant, Gwen Grant Mellon and Dr. Larry Mellon, founded HAS 54 years ago.
After the “trambleman” (earthquake) in January 2010, surgical patients were brought to HAS, while others fled there from Port-au-Prince to join friends and family in relative safety. David and I began “Have a Heart for Haiti” as a town-wide initiative to support the relief efforts for HAS. Parishioners from St. John’s participated in this initiative, which was also greatly supported by individuals and businesses in the area.
This initiative gave way to the development of Sister Cities Essex Haiti, (SCEH). Sister Cities is an international group which assists groups in forming long-term, mutual and sustainable relationships with international communities. In the summer of 2011 this relationship was formalized with the town of Deschapelles, where HAS is located. In collaborating with their local community organization, ODES, we learned that Deschapelles needed a library so we began the present library project.
In our visits to HAS, our days are long, but are fulfilled in building relationships with other groups and individuals. These include the clergy, hospital personnel, hospital social services, and community development programs -- wells, sanitation, water pumps, community gardening, micro-banking, micro-businesses, and re-forestation programs. As we have met and shared relationships, we have been graced with the resilient hope of the people.
The Haitian people tell you they are fortunate, they have earned this luck by the labor of their hands and their determination. They continue amid all the difficulties to tend their gardens and their children. They work to build relationships, they make time and they continue to make a life rooted in their deep faith and devotion: not to a God who sends them difficulties, but to a God who graces them with what little they have; a God who does not abandon; a God who is a companion, who lifts them up. They are our Haitian brothers and sisters.
Its Cathedral in Port-au-Prince was a cultural center for the nation, a place of pride and beauty for all Haitians.
In 35 seconds on Jan. 12, 2010, it fell.
People still flocked to its grounds and its ruins for food and shelter. Absent a working government, the church has always been a place to find schools, clinics, and other social services we take for granted. And thanks to Episcopal Relief and Development, as well as many other agencies and churches, the Bishop, school staff , and sisters of St. Margaret, were able to off er short-term employment, provisional homes, and sanitation systems in addition to other community-focus recovery programs.
Even in the midst of the deep human need and suffering in Haiti, the people seek to worship God together. And while there are agencies who will rebuild schools and clinics, only the church will rebuild a church. Please join in supporting the rebuilding of the Cathedral complex in Port-au-Prince by making a donation this Lent.
“On Sunday ...we attended Eucharist (out of doors) at the Episcopal Cathedral of Ste. Trinité, completely leveled by the earthquake, in Port-Au-Prince. We couldn’t help but think how many present had lost friends and loved ones. Yet, their sincere prayer and their everyday response to “How are you?” remains steadfast as “Mwen kenbe ale sou” ( I keep going on), “Mwen isit la” (I am here), par la grâce de Dieu (by the grace of God).” -- Dan Taylor-Stypa and David Evangelisti
Nou ave’ou! - We’re with you!
This appeal in the Diocese of Connecticut is part of an Episcopal Church-wide appeal this Lent coordinated by the Episcopal Church Foundation. In Connecticut organizers are asking that donations be made to the local parish, which will then forward them. For more information see the “Rebuild our Church in Haiti” page on the diocesan website, www.ctepiscopal.org. Th e Rev. Rachel Thomas is the coordinator of the appeal for the Diocese of Connecticut. Contact her at rwthomas55@att.net.
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