Episcopal Relief & Development head finds cause for hope during recent trip to Haiti
Agency supports efforts for new houses and cash-for-work programs
By Mary Frances Schjonberg, August 03, 2010
[Episcopal News Service] An accompanying video report with Episcopal Relief & Development President Robert Radtke is available here.
Despite the enormous challenges still facing Haiti nearly seven months after the magnitude-7 earthquake of Jan. 12, the president of Episcopal Relief & Development says he returned from a recent visit there with "tempered hope" for the country's future.
"I went to Haiti prepared to be horrified and depressed and heartbroken, and I came away from Haiti feeling hopeful," Robert Radtke told ENS July 29. "That is not to minimize the plight of hundreds of thousands of people who are living in woefully inadequate shelter or struggling in other ways, but I came away feeling convinced the Haitians are determined to help themselves. We owe the Haitians -- and anyone else for that matter who wants to help themselves -- our support."
Radtke, Abagail Nelson, the agency's senior vice president of programs, and Tammi Mott, its Haiti recovery consultant, spent July 20-22 in Haiti visiting with workers and Haitians helped by programs being run by the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti and its development arm, Centre Diocesain de Development et de Secours (CEDDISEC).
"There are signs of hope, but it's not going to be fast," Radtke said of Haiti's long-term recovery. "It's a long, long, difficult period ahead for Haiti for many years but the Haitians have proven themselves to be resilient -- determined to overcome adversity -- and there was nothing on this trip that led me to think that they won't continue to be that way."
Episcopal Relief & Development is supporting two CEDDISEC initiatives: a cash-for-work program and a plan for building transitional housing.
In recent months, Radtke said, Episcopal Relief & Development has mostly moved out of the initial post-quake relief work. However, because some diocesan churches are still the sites of survivor settlements, the agency is lending some support to that effort. During the first phase of the agency's support of rescue and relief efforts, it assisted more than 60,000 people with health care, food (some 217 tons), water, shelter, sanitation and other non-food items such as clothing, blankets and kerosene.
The transitional housing program, which Radtke called "the most hopeful for the long-term," centers on a new model for houses, developed by a CEDDISEC engineer after field visits and consultation with other international shelter organizations and the United Nations-recommended standards.
The houses are made of treated plywood with corrugated tin roofs. They are designed to be hurricane- and earthquake-resistant, because they are anchored 30 centimeters into the ground and into 50 centimeter high cinderblock and concrete foundations and have reinforced angles and joints connecting the roofs to the walls.
The size of the homes, which can be built in four to seven days, "respects the structure of Haitian families and their needs," which tend to be large and multi-generational, Radtke said. The houses are 18.2 meters long, larger than many of the provisional shelter models of other organizations, according to Episcopal Relief & Development. They also include an adjacent shower and latrine, which "mitigate against gender violence which is sometimes a problem in shared latrines and shared public bathing facilities," he added.
The families contribute "sweat equity" to their new homes by helping to build them or supplying meals to the laborers who do. Most often the houses are built on the sites of the families' previous home that was destroyed in the earthquake, Radtke said.
The homes are "transitional" because they are designed to last three years and it is expected that families will be able to afford to improve and reinforce them with such materials as cinder blocks as they continue to live in them.
"The sense of excitement and joy that people expressed as they were going back into a home was really delightful and exciting," said Radtke, who met with five female-headed families who were moving into their new houses.
CEDDISEC's cash-for-work program employs people mainly to clear rubble and recycle it to supply gravel for improved dirt roadbeds and to reinforce erosion-prone hillsides. The diocesan development agency has thus far employed 770 people in the program, about 40 percent of whom are women. For 20 days of work, team leaders earned an average of $154 and workers earned an average of $102.
The cash-for-work program is meant to give Haitians a short-term source of income, but "it's not going to be a long-term solution" the way the transitional housing program aims to be, Radtke said. However, the program is tied to CEDDISEC's efforts to promote community recovery through having Episcopal Church parishes lead communities through a process to identify the work that needs to be done and collaborate in accomplishing it.
Radtke called CEDDISEC an "extraordinary organization."
"They were doing really good work before the earthquake. They've been at the cutting edge of responding to the disaster since the beginning," he said of the staff. "But, they themselves are the victims of this disaster. Many of them are still living in tents in order to get their work done, sleeping on the pavement in tents in the rain. And, yet, they get up every morning and come to work and are professional and are committed. So, I have nothing but admiration for CEDDISEC."
"And our role at Episcopal Relief & Development is to support them, which is one of the reasons we have had people like Tammi and some of my other colleagues in Haiti as much as we have." Radtke added. "That goes outside our normal way of responding to disasters, but we felt it was very important to be present, to do as much as we could directly with CEDDISEC and their staff."
Radtke said that "the biggest challenge for anyone working in Haiti right now is infrastructure," which creates "a supply-chain bottleneck."
"The solution is for the Haitian government and the global community like the United Nations and the United States, to get a strategy in place to make the infrastructure in Haiti more robust so that aid and services can get to people," he said.
For instance, the New York Times reported early in July that international experts say it would take three to five years to remove all the debris from Haiti if 1,000 or more trucks worked daily; fewer than 300 trucks are hauling rubble now. Often those trucks are hampered by steep alley streets and unpaved roads.
Radtke, noting that Haitians were "not in great shape on January 11," were traumatized the next day by "one of the worst disasters one could imagine" and are now facing national elections in November.
"Elections in Haiti have almost always been proceeded by and taken place under political instability so you have a very volatile situation," he said. "You get the feeling that people's nerves are frayed and quite reasonably so."
Radtke also said that "the story in Haiti is the things that haven't happened since the earthquake," including epidemics, mass starvation and political violence.
"That's because of a lot of good work is being done, first by the Haitians themselves and being backstopped by the global community, which really stepped-in in important ways for Haiti," he said.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Nets for Life campaign in Diocese of SW VA
Here are the latest figures. Let me know if you have additions & corrections.
My last report is dated 6-30-2010 from ERD.
OrganizationName Total
Abingdon - St. Thomas $- 0
Altavista - St. Peter's $648.00
Amherst - Ascencion $24.00
Amherst - St. Paul $- 0
Bedford - St. John's $- 0
Bedford - St. Thomas $-0
Big Stone Gap - Christ Church $- 0
Blacksburg- Christ Church $- 0
Blue Grass - Good Shepherd $-0
Bluefield - St. Mary $- 0
Bristol - Emmanuel $- 0
Buchanan - Trinity $- 0
Buena Vista - Christ $- 0
Callaway - St. Peters $- 0
Christiansburg - St. Thomas $60.00
Clifford - St. Mark $- 0
Clifton Forge - St. Andrews $240.00
Covington - Emmanuel $740.00
Fincastle - St. Marks $- 0
Folly Mills - Good Shepherd $- 0
Forest - St. Stephens $- 0
Galax - Good Shepherd $473.00
Glasgow - St. John $- 0
Hot Springs - St. Lukes $- 0
Lexington - Robert E. Lee $430.00
Lynchburg - Grace Memorial $1,236.00
Lynchburg - St. John's $36.00
Lynchburg - St. Paul's $96.00
Lynchburg - Trinity $620.00
Marion - Christ Church $- 0
Martinsville - St. Paul $- 0
Martinsville- Christ Church $500.00
Massies Mill - Grace $- 0
Moneta - Trinity Ecumenical $- 0
Nellysford - Peace in the Valley $-0
Norton- All Saints $900.00
Pearisburg - Christ Church $- 0
Pedlar Mills - St. Luke $- 0
Pocahontas - Christ $- 0
Pulaski - Christ Church $- 0
Radford - Grace Church $- 0
Richlands - Trinity $- 0
Roanoke - Christ Church $- 0
Roanoke - St. James $1,387.00
Roanoke - St. Johns $- 0
Roanoke-St. Elizabeth's $- 0
Rocky Mount - Trinity $- 0
Salem - St. Paul's $274.00
Saltville - St. Paul $36.00
St. Paul - St. Mark $- 0
Staunton- Trinity $- 0
Staunton-Emmanuel $- 0
Tazwell - Stras Memorial $- 0
Waynesboro - St. Johns $- 0
Wythville - St. John $- 0
7/26/2010 Dioces Total $7,700.00
My last report is dated 6-30-2010 from ERD.
OrganizationName Total
Abingdon - St. Thomas $- 0
Altavista - St. Peter's $648.00
Amherst - Ascencion $24.00
Amherst - St. Paul $- 0
Bedford - St. John's $- 0
Bedford - St. Thomas $-0
Big Stone Gap - Christ Church $- 0
Blacksburg- Christ Church $- 0
Blue Grass - Good Shepherd $-0
Bluefield - St. Mary $- 0
Bristol - Emmanuel $- 0
Buchanan - Trinity $- 0
Buena Vista - Christ $- 0
Callaway - St. Peters $- 0
Christiansburg - St. Thomas $60.00
Clifford - St. Mark $- 0
Clifton Forge - St. Andrews $240.00
Covington - Emmanuel $740.00
Fincastle - St. Marks $- 0
Folly Mills - Good Shepherd $- 0
Forest - St. Stephens $- 0
Galax - Good Shepherd $473.00
Glasgow - St. John $- 0
Hot Springs - St. Lukes $- 0
Lexington - Robert E. Lee $430.00
Lynchburg - Grace Memorial $1,236.00
Lynchburg - St. John's $36.00
Lynchburg - St. Paul's $96.00
Lynchburg - Trinity $620.00
Marion - Christ Church $- 0
Martinsville - St. Paul $- 0
Martinsville- Christ Church $500.00
Massies Mill - Grace $- 0
Moneta - Trinity Ecumenical $- 0
Nellysford - Peace in the Valley $-0
Norton- All Saints $900.00
Pearisburg - Christ Church $- 0
Pedlar Mills - St. Luke $- 0
Pocahontas - Christ $- 0
Pulaski - Christ Church $- 0
Radford - Grace Church $- 0
Richlands - Trinity $- 0
Roanoke - Christ Church $- 0
Roanoke - St. James $1,387.00
Roanoke - St. Johns $- 0
Roanoke-St. Elizabeth's $- 0
Rocky Mount - Trinity $- 0
Salem - St. Paul's $274.00
Saltville - St. Paul $36.00
St. Paul - St. Mark $- 0
Staunton- Trinity $- 0
Staunton-Emmanuel $- 0
Tazwell - Stras Memorial $- 0
Waynesboro - St. Johns $- 0
Wythville - St. John $- 0
7/26/2010 Dioces Total $7,700.00
Thursday, June 10, 2010
NetsforLife® Presented with Global Business Coalition Excellence in Business Action Award
NetsforLife® Presented with Global Business Coalition Excellence in Business Action Award
June 10, 2010
NetsforLife®, Episcopal Relief & Development’s program partnership to fight malaria, has received the Global Business Coalition Excellence in Business Action Award for outstanding Partnership and Collective Action. The award was presented on June 8 in Washington, DC, during the Global Business Coalition Awards Dinner.
The Global Business Coalition (GBC) was established in 2001, when Kofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, called for more business involvement in fighting AIDS. Today, the coalition’s 200-plus corporate members engage with a network of governmental and civil society partners to assist in the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
The Awards for Excellence in Business Action Dinner was part of GBC’s 2010 annual conference, Work Smarter: Global Health Action. Special appearances at the dinner included Annie Lennox; Ashley Judd, Board of Directors, Population Services International (PSI); and Michele Sidibé, Executive Director, UNAIDS. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius gave a keynote address and awards were presented by Dr. Helene Gayle, President and CEO of CARE USA, and Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
“This award is a visible reminder of the real benefit that this innovative partnership represents,” said the Rt. Rev. Robert J. O’Neill, Board Chair of Episcopal Relief & Development. “Whether we work in the corporate or religious sphere, we all have considerable gifts and resources to bring to the table and put to use saving lives and restoring the God-given dignity of every human being. I am grateful beyond words to all our partners both here and in Africa.”
Managed by Episcopal Relief & Development, NetsforLife® is a collaborative partnership of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, the ExxonMobil Foundation, Standard Chartered Bank, Starr International Foundation and the J. C. Flowers Foundation that implements integrated malaria prevention in 17 malaria-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
“The collaborative partnership NetsforLife® is a shining example of the possibilities that come from close collaboration between businesses and NGOs,” said Shaun Walsh, Executive Director of NetsforLife®. “The program’s core partnership is a critical one, forged out of recognition that diverse perspectives and strengths are necessary in the fight to eliminate malaria.”
The success of the NetsforLife® program is a result of relationships with a network of faith-based organizations working on the ground in Africa. As active members of local communities, these organizations have helped the program reach 5 million people through malaria messaging, the distribution of nearly 2 million nets and the training of over 14,000 malaria control agents.
NetsforLife® empowers communities by providing life-saving prevention training and long-lasting insecticide-treated nets at no cost to remote communities. The program’s methodology is to collaborate with national malaria programs to mobilize, train and educate volunteers in working together to eliminate the disease and to develop a community-wide understanding of the protective value of nets and the right way to use and maintain them.
The program partnership’s next challenge will be to meet its goal of mobilizing 30,000 volunteers and distributing 7 million nets in sub-Saharan Africa by 2013.
To support the NetsforLife® program, please visit www.er-d.org or call 1.800.334.7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to Episcopal Relief & Development, PO Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058. Please put “NetsforLife®/Malaria” in the memo line of all checks.
June 10, 2010
NetsforLife®, Episcopal Relief & Development’s program partnership to fight malaria, has received the Global Business Coalition Excellence in Business Action Award for outstanding Partnership and Collective Action. The award was presented on June 8 in Washington, DC, during the Global Business Coalition Awards Dinner.
The Global Business Coalition (GBC) was established in 2001, when Kofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, called for more business involvement in fighting AIDS. Today, the coalition’s 200-plus corporate members engage with a network of governmental and civil society partners to assist in the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
The Awards for Excellence in Business Action Dinner was part of GBC’s 2010 annual conference, Work Smarter: Global Health Action. Special appearances at the dinner included Annie Lennox; Ashley Judd, Board of Directors, Population Services International (PSI); and Michele Sidibé, Executive Director, UNAIDS. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius gave a keynote address and awards were presented by Dr. Helene Gayle, President and CEO of CARE USA, and Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
“This award is a visible reminder of the real benefit that this innovative partnership represents,” said the Rt. Rev. Robert J. O’Neill, Board Chair of Episcopal Relief & Development. “Whether we work in the corporate or religious sphere, we all have considerable gifts and resources to bring to the table and put to use saving lives and restoring the God-given dignity of every human being. I am grateful beyond words to all our partners both here and in Africa.”
Managed by Episcopal Relief & Development, NetsforLife® is a collaborative partnership of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, the ExxonMobil Foundation, Standard Chartered Bank, Starr International Foundation and the J. C. Flowers Foundation that implements integrated malaria prevention in 17 malaria-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
“The collaborative partnership NetsforLife® is a shining example of the possibilities that come from close collaboration between businesses and NGOs,” said Shaun Walsh, Executive Director of NetsforLife®. “The program’s core partnership is a critical one, forged out of recognition that diverse perspectives and strengths are necessary in the fight to eliminate malaria.”
The success of the NetsforLife® program is a result of relationships with a network of faith-based organizations working on the ground in Africa. As active members of local communities, these organizations have helped the program reach 5 million people through malaria messaging, the distribution of nearly 2 million nets and the training of over 14,000 malaria control agents.
NetsforLife® empowers communities by providing life-saving prevention training and long-lasting insecticide-treated nets at no cost to remote communities. The program’s methodology is to collaborate with national malaria programs to mobilize, train and educate volunteers in working together to eliminate the disease and to develop a community-wide understanding of the protective value of nets and the right way to use and maintain them.
The program partnership’s next challenge will be to meet its goal of mobilizing 30,000 volunteers and distributing 7 million nets in sub-Saharan Africa by 2013.
To support the NetsforLife® program, please visit www.er-d.org or call 1.800.334.7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to Episcopal Relief & Development, PO Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058. Please put “NetsforLife®/Malaria” in the memo line of all checks.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Haiti32
Life still is not easy in Haiti nearly four months after a magnitude-7 earthquake devastated the country, but the Episcopal Diocese of Haitiis working on reconstruction plans and has begun again its long-standing education ministry.
That was the report April 29 from the Rev. Kesner Ajax, Diocese of Haiti partnership coordinator, during a day-long meeting at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City. Ajax, who holds a number of positions in the diocese, is also the executive director of the Bishop Tharp Institute of Business and Technology (BTI) in Les Cayes in southwest Haiti.
"It is not easy right now," Ajax said at a briefing for church center employees.
The diocese is dealing with the same problems of poverty that it tried to alleviate before the earthquake, he said. The earthquake damaged or destroyed most of the diocese's churches and other institutions, and shifted the country's population, with many Port-au-Prince residents now living in the countryside. Thus, the diocese, along with the nation, must make decisions about where and how to rebuild, he said, adding "life is supposed to continue."
To that end, a crisis committee convened shortly after the earthquake by Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin will release its master plan for rebuilding "very soon," Ajax said. The plan is expected to guide the diocese's efforts and give other Episcopalians opportunities to partner with Haitians in those efforts.
Meanwhile, he said, some of the 250 schools run by the diocese before the earthquake have re-opened in recent days and weeks. Many are in the countryside, but in Port-au-Prince they also include an elementary school and the College St. Pierre high school, the site of an earthquake survivors' settlement run by the diocese. The diocese's seminary has relocated outside of the capital.
Ajax told the briefing meeting that the Haitian government helped the diocese clean and prepare the elementary and secondary schools for the students' return, but "they did not care about universities and tech schools." While Episcopal University in Port-au-Prince remains closed, its nursing school campus in Léogâne and BTI in Les Cayes are operating again, Ajax said.
The schools reopened despite the fact that some of them have no desks, chairs, toilets or administrative offices. In addition, he said, school officials have been trying to locate the students and their parents. Some moved out to the countryside, while others have left for the U.S., Canada and the Dominican Republic.
In response to questions about the impact of the approaching rainy season on recovery efforts, Ajax said "we cannot talk about a season for disaster in Haiti" because another natural calamity seems to occur before the country has regrouped from the one just past.
Ajax said the work in Haiti is long-term. "We can work together, not to change our situation in one day, but step by step," he said. "Partners are welcome. We have to figure how to go forward with the partnerships. We want to do things right."
"We need your prayer, we need your presence. We would love your money," he said. "All of them are welcome … we feel that we are not alone."
Ajax told ENS later in an interview that "the kingdom of God is always in the process of being built. We have to continue to take care of his church -- take care of his people -- until Jesus comes back."
Alex Baumgarten, director of the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C. and its international policy analyst, told the briefing via an email that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori earlier this week conducted a series of "advocacy visits" with the Obama Administration and congressional offices. She focused on U.S. funding for the rebuilding effort, expansion of trade preferences for Haitian exports to the United States, broadening and extending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the United States while waiving application fees, ending a backlog of 55,000 visas that have been approved, but not actually granted, to Haitians wishing to come to the United States and ending "the unfair interdiction policies of the U.S. Coast Guard, which place unique burdens on Haitians coming to the United States that are disproportionate to those placed on migrants from other countries."
Jefferts Schori also convened a dinner with Haiti experts from non-governmental organizations, academia, and the ecumenical and legal communities as "an opportunity to share experiences and trade wisdom among those supporting the relief and rebuilding effort," Baumgarten's email said.
One of the advocacy visits came April 26 with U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Haiti Task Team Coordinator Paul Weisenfeld and Deputy Director of the Department of Health and Human Services'Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Ari Alexander
"The meeting touched on internally displaced persons and the short- and long-term strategies for developing permanent housing settlements, boosting economic investments and partnerships, and leveraging involvement of the Haitian Diaspora," an USAID news release said.
Weisenfeld and Jefferts Schori agreed that USAID and the Episcopal Church will "increase information sharing and outreach," according to the release.
At the end of the church center briefing, Canon Margaret Larom, Episcopal Church global partnerships team leader, told Ajax that "words really fail us to describe the sympathy we have to you and others trying to cope with this day by day. We hope that this day as you are meeting individually with people that you will feel affirmed in your ministry and that we will find more ways to be supportive."
That was the report April 29 from the Rev. Kesner Ajax, Diocese of Haiti partnership coordinator, during a day-long meeting at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City. Ajax, who holds a number of positions in the diocese, is also the executive director of the Bishop Tharp Institute of Business and Technology (BTI) in Les Cayes in southwest Haiti.
"It is not easy right now," Ajax said at a briefing for church center employees.
The diocese is dealing with the same problems of poverty that it tried to alleviate before the earthquake, he said. The earthquake damaged or destroyed most of the diocese's churches and other institutions, and shifted the country's population, with many Port-au-Prince residents now living in the countryside. Thus, the diocese, along with the nation, must make decisions about where and how to rebuild, he said, adding "life is supposed to continue."
To that end, a crisis committee convened shortly after the earthquake by Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin will release its master plan for rebuilding "very soon," Ajax said. The plan is expected to guide the diocese's efforts and give other Episcopalians opportunities to partner with Haitians in those efforts.
Meanwhile, he said, some of the 250 schools run by the diocese before the earthquake have re-opened in recent days and weeks. Many are in the countryside, but in Port-au-Prince they also include an elementary school and the College St. Pierre high school, the site of an earthquake survivors' settlement run by the diocese. The diocese's seminary has relocated outside of the capital.
Ajax told the briefing meeting that the Haitian government helped the diocese clean and prepare the elementary and secondary schools for the students' return, but "they did not care about universities and tech schools." While Episcopal University in Port-au-Prince remains closed, its nursing school campus in Léogâne and BTI in Les Cayes are operating again, Ajax said.
The schools reopened despite the fact that some of them have no desks, chairs, toilets or administrative offices. In addition, he said, school officials have been trying to locate the students and their parents. Some moved out to the countryside, while others have left for the U.S., Canada and the Dominican Republic.
In response to questions about the impact of the approaching rainy season on recovery efforts, Ajax said "we cannot talk about a season for disaster in Haiti" because another natural calamity seems to occur before the country has regrouped from the one just past.
Ajax said the work in Haiti is long-term. "We can work together, not to change our situation in one day, but step by step," he said. "Partners are welcome. We have to figure how to go forward with the partnerships. We want to do things right."
"We need your prayer, we need your presence. We would love your money," he said. "All of them are welcome … we feel that we are not alone."
Ajax told ENS later in an interview that "the kingdom of God is always in the process of being built. We have to continue to take care of his church -- take care of his people -- until Jesus comes back."
Alex Baumgarten, director of the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C. and its international policy analyst, told the briefing via an email that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori earlier this week conducted a series of "advocacy visits" with the Obama Administration and congressional offices. She focused on U.S. funding for the rebuilding effort, expansion of trade preferences for Haitian exports to the United States, broadening and extending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the United States while waiving application fees, ending a backlog of 55,000 visas that have been approved, but not actually granted, to Haitians wishing to come to the United States and ending "the unfair interdiction policies of the U.S. Coast Guard, which place unique burdens on Haitians coming to the United States that are disproportionate to those placed on migrants from other countries."
Jefferts Schori also convened a dinner with Haiti experts from non-governmental organizations, academia, and the ecumenical and legal communities as "an opportunity to share experiences and trade wisdom among those supporting the relief and rebuilding effort," Baumgarten's email said.
One of the advocacy visits came April 26 with U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Haiti Task Team Coordinator Paul Weisenfeld and Deputy Director of the Department of Health and Human Services'Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Ari Alexander
"The meeting touched on internally displaced persons and the short- and long-term strategies for developing permanent housing settlements, boosting economic investments and partnerships, and leveraging involvement of the Haitian Diaspora," an USAID news release said.
Weisenfeld and Jefferts Schori agreed that USAID and the Episcopal Church will "increase information sharing and outreach," according to the release.
At the end of the church center briefing, Canon Margaret Larom, Episcopal Church global partnerships team leader, told Ajax that "words really fail us to describe the sympathy we have to you and others trying to cope with this day by day. We hope that this day as you are meeting individually with people that you will feel affirmed in your ministry and that we will find more ways to be supportive."
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Haiti 31
My colleague Tammi Mott has been stationed in Haiti to work with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti on recovery efforts following the January 12 earthquake. She shares below her experience of the beginning of the rainy season and what it will mean for Haitians already struggling in the quake’s aftermath.
One evening a few weeks ago, as we were winding down the day in Port-au-Prince, heavy rain started falling. Those drops announced the arrival of the rain and hurricane season that will continue through October.
The rainy season is bringing yet another layer of trials for people hit hard by the January 12 earthquake. Philogène Magalie and her family are currently living with about 3,000 others in a tent camp at College St. Pierre, a school run by the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti (our program partner). “The water was coming down on our heads and up around our ankles,” she told me. “All we could do was hold on… and now we are trying to dry out before the rain falls again.”
The biggest and most obvious hardship is for people like Philogène, who is among an estimated 1.3 million that lost their homes to the quake. But really, the rain’s arrival is a huge blow for all. As Père Frantz Cole said, “The rain falls on everyone. It falls on those in camps and those in temporary shelters or homes in disrepair. It falls on people in the flood plains and on the sliding mountainsides, and it falls on the rich and the poor alike.”
Père Cole is Director of CEDDISEC, the development arm of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti. The agency has supplied over 710 tarps, 900 tents and materials for building temporary shelters to more than 2,000 homeless families in Port-au-Prince and around Léogone (the quake’s epicenter). With the rain’s onset, CEDDISEC is helping people raise their tents off the ground with platforms and making sure that drainage systems are in place so shelter areas won’t flood.
It’s bad enough that the rain is adding new challenges to everyday life for people who have already gone through so much. But it’s also dashing the hopes of many who wanted to try to recover their belongings from the rubble. And even those who were lucky enough to salvage items are now struggling to keep them dry, like Philogène’s neighbor in the camp—a local university director who chose to get soaked himself so he could keep his precious books safely covered.
Please pray for the people of Haiti in the face of these ongoing hardships, and for our partners—Bishop Duracin and the diocesan and CEDDISEC staff—who have suffered as much loss as the people they serve, yet continue ministering to the overwhelming needs while trying to plan for the long road to recovery.
_____________
Episcopal Relief & Development is supporting the Diocese of Haiti in addressing the urgent need for transitional housing that will withstand the rainy season. To learn more about our work in Haiti, please visit our Haiti Crisis web page.
One evening a few weeks ago, as we were winding down the day in Port-au-Prince, heavy rain started falling. Those drops announced the arrival of the rain and hurricane season that will continue through October.
The rainy season is bringing yet another layer of trials for people hit hard by the January 12 earthquake. Philogène Magalie and her family are currently living with about 3,000 others in a tent camp at College St. Pierre, a school run by the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti (our program partner). “The water was coming down on our heads and up around our ankles,” she told me. “All we could do was hold on… and now we are trying to dry out before the rain falls again.”
The biggest and most obvious hardship is for people like Philogène, who is among an estimated 1.3 million that lost their homes to the quake. But really, the rain’s arrival is a huge blow for all. As Père Frantz Cole said, “The rain falls on everyone. It falls on those in camps and those in temporary shelters or homes in disrepair. It falls on people in the flood plains and on the sliding mountainsides, and it falls on the rich and the poor alike.”
Père Cole is Director of CEDDISEC, the development arm of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti. The agency has supplied over 710 tarps, 900 tents and materials for building temporary shelters to more than 2,000 homeless families in Port-au-Prince and around Léogone (the quake’s epicenter). With the rain’s onset, CEDDISEC is helping people raise their tents off the ground with platforms and making sure that drainage systems are in place so shelter areas won’t flood.
It’s bad enough that the rain is adding new challenges to everyday life for people who have already gone through so much. But it’s also dashing the hopes of many who wanted to try to recover their belongings from the rubble. And even those who were lucky enough to salvage items are now struggling to keep them dry, like Philogène’s neighbor in the camp—a local university director who chose to get soaked himself so he could keep his precious books safely covered.
Please pray for the people of Haiti in the face of these ongoing hardships, and for our partners—Bishop Duracin and the diocesan and CEDDISEC staff—who have suffered as much loss as the people they serve, yet continue ministering to the overwhelming needs while trying to plan for the long road to recovery.
_____________
Episcopal Relief & Development is supporting the Diocese of Haiti in addressing the urgent need for transitional housing that will withstand the rainy season. To learn more about our work in Haiti, please visit our Haiti Crisis web page.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Haiti 30
Easter joy comes in the midst of death
Haitian Episcopalians welcome risen Lord, pray for the future
By Pat McCaughan and Mary Frances Schjonberg, April 06, 2010
[Episcopal News Service]
A spirit of resurrection was evident in Haiti's Episcopal churches from the capital city Port-au-Prince to the rural countryside during Holy Week and Easter.
"The devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010, does not stop us from singing in joy and gladness, 'Alleluia, He is risen' in this Easter season," Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin said in his Easter homily, which was read in every Haitian Episcopal Church congregation on Easter morning,
"Even though we are in trouble, we are not alone," Duracin said, calling on Haitians to move into what he has called a "new creation."
"We have to put our faith in action so that the Lord can come deliver us, because he is not far from us, he is in us and he is among us. He is suffering with us, so he can lift us up to rejoice. So we have to be just, we have to love one another, in solidarity, in fraternity, with respect for each other and with respect for our environment, for we cannot destroy God's marvelous creation."
Proclamations of resurrection in the midst of Haiti's devastation and challenging future echoed across the diocese. At St. Andre's Episcopal Church in Hinche, a central Haiti town of some 50,000 located about 80 miles northeast of the capital, organist and school headmaster Etienne Balde said "There is much joy here today. Jesus Christ is risen and we are celebrating."
Duracin preached his homily to several hundred people gathered in what he has been calling the diocese's open-air cathedral, a mostly roofed, wall-less structure of two-by-fours erected on the site of the wreckage of Holy Trinity Cathedral. The ruins of the cathedral are visible behind and to the right of the structure. To the left is an open space where the diocese's Holy Trinity school complex once stood, its ruins recently demolished and carted away.
The last body was removed from the school ruins in late March, according to the Rev. Lauren Stanley, Episcopal Church-appointed missionary in Haiti and Duracin's liaison in the U.S.
"In the midst of nothingness and devastation, the Haitians welcomed the risen Lord," Stanley told ENS in a telephone interview on Holy Monday April 5 as she drove to Cange for the diocese's annual synod, set for April 6-7.
Stanley returned to Haiti for Holy Week and Easter Week, celebrating her first Easter Eucharist in Haiti on April 4 at the St. James the Just Episcopal Church in Petionville.
"It was beautiful and holy and very hard all at the same time," she said. "The Haitians have known death intimately, and yet proclaimed the resurrection with both great joy and tears."
In his Easter homily, Duracin spoke of "the awful odors from the many bodies [that] have invaded us and invaded us again" and loss of Haiti's traditional mourning rituals in the aftermath of the quake.
"As we reflect on biblical themes such as repentance, conversion, forgiveness, we remember as well a relative, a friend, one who was close to us, all of whom, in most cases, were denied funeral ceremonies where we could say goodbye with human dignity," he said. "Thus, crossing the desert has been and still is long and extremely difficult."
The feeling of celebrating resurrection while walking through the desert was not limited to Haiti's Episcopalians, of course. On Good Friday, a procession of several hundred Roman Catholics paused to pray at the site of the diocese's Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, which as was the case with their own Notre Dame cathedral, was reduced to a pile of rubble during the Jan. 12 magnitude-7 earthquake.
Setting up a portable altar, the officiant prayed while the faithful chanted and sang responses, holding rosaries aloft before they continued through the streets of Port-au-Prince.
Also at Holy Trinity on Good Friday, Duracin and other clergy preached on the Seven Last Words of Christ and venerated the cross.
The Rev. Pierre Auguste, rector of Paroisse Epiphanie in L'Acul in the Léogâne area, which was 85 percent destroyed by the earthquake, compared the earthquake to the Scriptural story of Jesus stilling the storm on the Sea of Galilee.
"I was with my family in the car, on the way to Léogâne," he recalled. "The car went up and down three times, and during that moment I experienced a moment like I imagine happened with the apostles when they were crossing the sea with Jesus. Peter saw Jesus coming and was very afraid because of the movement of the sea. But Jesus said 'take
heart, I am with you.'"
Auguste said the feeling remained after he arrived in Léogâne and learned several of his parishioners had died.
"We are in this world to share the glory of the Lord," he added. "I discovered the love of God in that event. Churches fall down, houses fall down, people die, but the love of God is still there, a known force. While on earth we share that, people continue to magnify God of love, love is I Jesus and it must continue among us."
Paroisse Epiphanie's building was destroyed, but the congregation meets on the site every Sunday, he said. The school, which had 124 primary students, is structurally unsound and unsafe, but Auguste hopes to restart classes within the next few weeks using tents.
Meanwhile, at St. Simeon Episcopal Church in Croix-de-Bouquets, about ten miles northeast of Port-au-Prince, the Rev. Frederic Menelas prepared family members and godparents for Easter vigil baptism, and organized a Holy Week youth festival and acolyte retreat for 60 young people. Menelas said he felt a spirit of resurrection throughout the church in Haiti.
"We are without a cathedral, our diocesan institutions have been destroyed, but even though the buildings are not here anymore, the church is still alive," he said.
About 65 miles further north in Hinche, the courtyard of St. Andre's buzzed with activity on Holy Saturday April 3, beginning with the sounds of choir rehearsals as early as 7 a.m.
Later in the day, the voices of participants in two retreats -- one for women's ministries and the other an acolyte festival -- could be heard raised in song.
During the vigil that evening, the Rev. Waldin DeCamps told a packed church that the good news of the resurrection was that they, too, could enjoy new beginnings and new life.
"As Christ is risen so we, too, can rise to a new way of thinking, a new way of reflecting, a new way of enlightenment … a rebirth to renew our daily life in the way we think and act and behave," said DeCamps, St. Andre's rector, who also oversees 14 mission congregations, and is training five seminarians, some of whom are assigned to the mission congregations near Hinche.
On Easter Sunday, St. Andre's three-hour service included worship in French and Creole with several guest choirs and bands. A bus from St. Matthias Church in Thomond arrived with about 50 people including the Union Brothers, guest singers and dancers who performed during the service.
At St. James the Just, Easter vigil was followed by an early Easter morning English Eucharist which was attended by many relief and aid workers from various denominations, Stanley said. That service was followed by a Eucharist in French.
As they celebrated, Haitians looked to the future. Each congregation took up a collection on Easter for the rebuilding of Holy Trinity Cathedral.
"Haitians are putting up the forward the first dollars for reconstruction of the cathedral," Stanley said, adding that the collections will be presented and tallied during the diocese's annual synod.
Echoing Duracin's call for solidarity and fraternity, Stanley said churches, aid organizations and all those who want to help Haiti rebuild have to cooperate.
"The problem is it's been more competition than it has been cooperation. It's the people at the bottom who have suffered from that," she said. "In this new creation, we're going to have to learn to cooperate on everything and if we do that, then the people's voice will be heard and then the people will be helped."
That help is desperately needed, Duracin said, describing in his homily that "with millions of people without proper shelter, without work, living in desperate conditions, the situation is truly lamentable."
Haitian Episcopalians welcome risen Lord, pray for the future
By Pat McCaughan and Mary Frances Schjonberg, April 06, 2010
[Episcopal News Service]
A spirit of resurrection was evident in Haiti's Episcopal churches from the capital city Port-au-Prince to the rural countryside during Holy Week and Easter.
"The devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010, does not stop us from singing in joy and gladness, 'Alleluia, He is risen' in this Easter season," Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin said in his Easter homily, which was read in every Haitian Episcopal Church congregation on Easter morning,
"Even though we are in trouble, we are not alone," Duracin said, calling on Haitians to move into what he has called a "new creation."
"We have to put our faith in action so that the Lord can come deliver us, because he is not far from us, he is in us and he is among us. He is suffering with us, so he can lift us up to rejoice. So we have to be just, we have to love one another, in solidarity, in fraternity, with respect for each other and with respect for our environment, for we cannot destroy God's marvelous creation."
Proclamations of resurrection in the midst of Haiti's devastation and challenging future echoed across the diocese. At St. Andre's Episcopal Church in Hinche, a central Haiti town of some 50,000 located about 80 miles northeast of the capital, organist and school headmaster Etienne Balde said "There is much joy here today. Jesus Christ is risen and we are celebrating."
Duracin preached his homily to several hundred people gathered in what he has been calling the diocese's open-air cathedral, a mostly roofed, wall-less structure of two-by-fours erected on the site of the wreckage of Holy Trinity Cathedral. The ruins of the cathedral are visible behind and to the right of the structure. To the left is an open space where the diocese's Holy Trinity school complex once stood, its ruins recently demolished and carted away.
The last body was removed from the school ruins in late March, according to the Rev. Lauren Stanley, Episcopal Church-appointed missionary in Haiti and Duracin's liaison in the U.S.
"In the midst of nothingness and devastation, the Haitians welcomed the risen Lord," Stanley told ENS in a telephone interview on Holy Monday April 5 as she drove to Cange for the diocese's annual synod, set for April 6-7.
Stanley returned to Haiti for Holy Week and Easter Week, celebrating her first Easter Eucharist in Haiti on April 4 at the St. James the Just Episcopal Church in Petionville.
"It was beautiful and holy and very hard all at the same time," she said. "The Haitians have known death intimately, and yet proclaimed the resurrection with both great joy and tears."
In his Easter homily, Duracin spoke of "the awful odors from the many bodies [that] have invaded us and invaded us again" and loss of Haiti's traditional mourning rituals in the aftermath of the quake.
"As we reflect on biblical themes such as repentance, conversion, forgiveness, we remember as well a relative, a friend, one who was close to us, all of whom, in most cases, were denied funeral ceremonies where we could say goodbye with human dignity," he said. "Thus, crossing the desert has been and still is long and extremely difficult."
The feeling of celebrating resurrection while walking through the desert was not limited to Haiti's Episcopalians, of course. On Good Friday, a procession of several hundred Roman Catholics paused to pray at the site of the diocese's Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, which as was the case with their own Notre Dame cathedral, was reduced to a pile of rubble during the Jan. 12 magnitude-7 earthquake.
Setting up a portable altar, the officiant prayed while the faithful chanted and sang responses, holding rosaries aloft before they continued through the streets of Port-au-Prince.
Also at Holy Trinity on Good Friday, Duracin and other clergy preached on the Seven Last Words of Christ and venerated the cross.
The Rev. Pierre Auguste, rector of Paroisse Epiphanie in L'Acul in the Léogâne area, which was 85 percent destroyed by the earthquake, compared the earthquake to the Scriptural story of Jesus stilling the storm on the Sea of Galilee.
"I was with my family in the car, on the way to Léogâne," he recalled. "The car went up and down three times, and during that moment I experienced a moment like I imagine happened with the apostles when they were crossing the sea with Jesus. Peter saw Jesus coming and was very afraid because of the movement of the sea. But Jesus said 'take
heart, I am with you.'"
Auguste said the feeling remained after he arrived in Léogâne and learned several of his parishioners had died.
"We are in this world to share the glory of the Lord," he added. "I discovered the love of God in that event. Churches fall down, houses fall down, people die, but the love of God is still there, a known force. While on earth we share that, people continue to magnify God of love, love is I Jesus and it must continue among us."
Paroisse Epiphanie's building was destroyed, but the congregation meets on the site every Sunday, he said. The school, which had 124 primary students, is structurally unsound and unsafe, but Auguste hopes to restart classes within the next few weeks using tents.
Meanwhile, at St. Simeon Episcopal Church in Croix-de-Bouquets, about ten miles northeast of Port-au-Prince, the Rev. Frederic Menelas prepared family members and godparents for Easter vigil baptism, and organized a Holy Week youth festival and acolyte retreat for 60 young people. Menelas said he felt a spirit of resurrection throughout the church in Haiti.
"We are without a cathedral, our diocesan institutions have been destroyed, but even though the buildings are not here anymore, the church is still alive," he said.
About 65 miles further north in Hinche, the courtyard of St. Andre's buzzed with activity on Holy Saturday April 3, beginning with the sounds of choir rehearsals as early as 7 a.m.
Later in the day, the voices of participants in two retreats -- one for women's ministries and the other an acolyte festival -- could be heard raised in song.
During the vigil that evening, the Rev. Waldin DeCamps told a packed church that the good news of the resurrection was that they, too, could enjoy new beginnings and new life.
"As Christ is risen so we, too, can rise to a new way of thinking, a new way of reflecting, a new way of enlightenment … a rebirth to renew our daily life in the way we think and act and behave," said DeCamps, St. Andre's rector, who also oversees 14 mission congregations, and is training five seminarians, some of whom are assigned to the mission congregations near Hinche.
On Easter Sunday, St. Andre's three-hour service included worship in French and Creole with several guest choirs and bands. A bus from St. Matthias Church in Thomond arrived with about 50 people including the Union Brothers, guest singers and dancers who performed during the service.
At St. James the Just, Easter vigil was followed by an early Easter morning English Eucharist which was attended by many relief and aid workers from various denominations, Stanley said. That service was followed by a Eucharist in French.
As they celebrated, Haitians looked to the future. Each congregation took up a collection on Easter for the rebuilding of Holy Trinity Cathedral.
"Haitians are putting up the forward the first dollars for reconstruction of the cathedral," Stanley said, adding that the collections will be presented and tallied during the diocese's annual synod.
Echoing Duracin's call for solidarity and fraternity, Stanley said churches, aid organizations and all those who want to help Haiti rebuild have to cooperate.
"The problem is it's been more competition than it has been cooperation. It's the people at the bottom who have suffered from that," she said. "In this new creation, we're going to have to learn to cooperate on everything and if we do that, then the people's voice will be heard and then the people will be helped."
That help is desperately needed, Duracin said, describing in his homily that "with millions of people without proper shelter, without work, living in desperate conditions, the situation is truly lamentable."
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Haiti 29
Plans to rebuild Holy Trinity in Port-au-Prince
A coordinated plan to rebuild the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti's world-famous Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral) in Port-au-Prince is getting underway.
Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin has asked Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe Bishop Pierre Whalon to guide what is expected to be a multi-step, multi-year and multi-million-dollar effort.
It is hoped that the cathedral project can be a model of the sort of cooperation that Haiti has said it wants to promote among its partners as the numerically largest diocese of the Episcopal Church develops and implements its plan to rebuild following the devastating magnitude-7 earthquake of Jan. 12.
The first step for those who want to help Haitian Episcopalians, Whalon said in a telephone interview from Paris, is to "adopt a much more Christian-family point of view. It's their house that got torn down. They have to say how they want to rebuild it."
The next step for what is being called the Partners with Haiti project is connecting with people who want to help, Whalon said. He has already appointed a small steering committee to expand upon a desire among members of the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris and elsewhere to aid in the rebuilding, Whalon said. The bishop, president of the Francophone Network of the Anglican Communion, said that many other French-speaking Episcopalians and Anglicans have already pledged their support.
Once the diocese has envisioned a new cathedral, the next step will be helping the diocese solicit an architect that can turn that vision into an actual building, Whalon said. He suggested that there would be some "non-negotiables" involved in the choice of architects, including experience building churches and earthquake-resistant structures, and being willing to commit to having a long-term physical presence in Haiti, to employing Haitian workers and to teaching local architects about earthquake-resistant design and construction techniques.
But first comes the listening, Whalon said.
"We have to be the friend of the Haitians rather than telling them how it's going to be," he said. "There are a lot of people there now saying 'this is what we're going to do for you' and aren't really asking 'is this what you want us to do for you?'"
"We simply cannot continue to think of Haiti as people who are dependent on outsiders. That's how they were considered to be when they were slaves," he said. "They couldn't think for themselves and if they had any inkling that they could, that was taken care of pretty quickly."
Calling Whalon "the right person to guide this effort," the Rev. Lauren Stanley, an appointed Episcopal Church missionary to Haiti and Duracin's liaison in the U.S., told ENS that "Bishop Duracin has entrusted Bishop Whalon to guide the effort to rebuild the cathedral, in great part because he has promised to listen and that the cathedral will be rebuilt according to what the Haitians want."
Part of that listening, Whalon said, has to do with waiting for Haitian Episcopalians to develop a complete master plan for rebuilding all of their diocese. Duracin has spoken repeatedly about the ongoing work involved in formulating the plan, most recently in a March 5 letter to the church. Whalon predicted that the diocese's eventual plan will dovetail with the Haitian government's rebuilding efforts.
While some people may wonder about the progress being made more than three months after the quake struck, Whalon suggested that "people need to be very patient because you're talking about rebuilding an entire nation from the ground up. Therefore, the things closest to the ground are the things that need to be dealt with now" such as sanitation, hurricane-resistant temporary housing, restoration of the educational system and electrical power generation.
"There's a hierarchy of needs here and the most basic [of them] need to be met first," he said, adding that many people are calling for a rethinking of how those basic services were provided before the earthquake and how changes can be included in the rebuilding.
Whalon said that the project's pledge to listen to and respond to Haitian Episcopalians' desires for rebuilding "is crucial in terms of this project being a model for the reconstruction of the country as well as the diocese."
Holy Trinity was established in Port-au-Prince during Pentecost, May 25, 1863. Its church has since been destroyed six times, often by fire. The cathedral destroyed in the earthquake dated to the 1920s.
World-famous frescoes adorned the walls of that cathedral building. The paintings, completed in 1950-51, portrayed biblical stories in Haitian motifs and were crafted by some of the best-known Haitian painters of the 20th century. Portions of only a few of the frescoes are still standing among the ruins, including the baptism of Christ and, possibly, the Last Supper. Photos of the destruction of the cathedral can be seen here.
The cathedral is still operating on the site, albeit without walls. Whalon preached at Holy Trinity earlier this month, standing in what Duracin is calling the diocese's "open-air cathedral." It consists of some plastic sheeting stretched over a frame of two-by-fours that shelters some pews rescued from the cathedral ruins. A week later Whalon preached the same sermon at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
The bishop told ENS that a fund for Haiti reconstruction, called for at the February meeting of the church's Executive Council, could prove to be an excellent way to coordinate efforts to aid the Diocese of Haiti's rebuilding in general and Holy Trinity in particular.
"My eye is set on that fund as the locus for fundraising so that it all goes to one place and we all know what we have," he said.
As the effort continues to jell, Whalon plans to brief the March 19-24 House of Bishops meeting about the project, and the Very Rev. Zachary Fleetwood, dean of the American Cathedral in Paris, will do the same at the April 15-19 North American Cathedral Deans Association Conference.
Stanley echoed Whalon's larger hopes for the project. "Our hope is that, as we begin to rebuild after we develop our master plan, our partnerships will improve and will become more of a true partnership that will last for decades," she said. "What we want to do is to have each player at the table be a full partner listening to each other, caring for each other and working together hand-in-hand."
"We have a good partnership program; we want to improve it," she added. "We know that many of our partners are frustrated sometimes because of the linguistic challenges and the communications challenges and we are hoping that in strengthening the partnership program we will lessen frustrations on both sides and increase our ability to work together as brothers and sisters in Christ."
A coordinated plan to rebuild the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti's world-famous Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral) in Port-au-Prince is getting underway.
Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin has asked Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe Bishop Pierre Whalon to guide what is expected to be a multi-step, multi-year and multi-million-dollar effort.
It is hoped that the cathedral project can be a model of the sort of cooperation that Haiti has said it wants to promote among its partners as the numerically largest diocese of the Episcopal Church develops and implements its plan to rebuild following the devastating magnitude-7 earthquake of Jan. 12.
The first step for those who want to help Haitian Episcopalians, Whalon said in a telephone interview from Paris, is to "adopt a much more Christian-family point of view. It's their house that got torn down. They have to say how they want to rebuild it."
The next step for what is being called the Partners with Haiti project is connecting with people who want to help, Whalon said. He has already appointed a small steering committee to expand upon a desire among members of the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris and elsewhere to aid in the rebuilding, Whalon said. The bishop, president of the Francophone Network of the Anglican Communion, said that many other French-speaking Episcopalians and Anglicans have already pledged their support.
Once the diocese has envisioned a new cathedral, the next step will be helping the diocese solicit an architect that can turn that vision into an actual building, Whalon said. He suggested that there would be some "non-negotiables" involved in the choice of architects, including experience building churches and earthquake-resistant structures, and being willing to commit to having a long-term physical presence in Haiti, to employing Haitian workers and to teaching local architects about earthquake-resistant design and construction techniques.
But first comes the listening, Whalon said.
"We have to be the friend of the Haitians rather than telling them how it's going to be," he said. "There are a lot of people there now saying 'this is what we're going to do for you' and aren't really asking 'is this what you want us to do for you?'"
"We simply cannot continue to think of Haiti as people who are dependent on outsiders. That's how they were considered to be when they were slaves," he said. "They couldn't think for themselves and if they had any inkling that they could, that was taken care of pretty quickly."
Calling Whalon "the right person to guide this effort," the Rev. Lauren Stanley, an appointed Episcopal Church missionary to Haiti and Duracin's liaison in the U.S., told ENS that "Bishop Duracin has entrusted Bishop Whalon to guide the effort to rebuild the cathedral, in great part because he has promised to listen and that the cathedral will be rebuilt according to what the Haitians want."
Part of that listening, Whalon said, has to do with waiting for Haitian Episcopalians to develop a complete master plan for rebuilding all of their diocese. Duracin has spoken repeatedly about the ongoing work involved in formulating the plan, most recently in a March 5 letter to the church. Whalon predicted that the diocese's eventual plan will dovetail with the Haitian government's rebuilding efforts.
While some people may wonder about the progress being made more than three months after the quake struck, Whalon suggested that "people need to be very patient because you're talking about rebuilding an entire nation from the ground up. Therefore, the things closest to the ground are the things that need to be dealt with now" such as sanitation, hurricane-resistant temporary housing, restoration of the educational system and electrical power generation.
"There's a hierarchy of needs here and the most basic [of them] need to be met first," he said, adding that many people are calling for a rethinking of how those basic services were provided before the earthquake and how changes can be included in the rebuilding.
Whalon said that the project's pledge to listen to and respond to Haitian Episcopalians' desires for rebuilding "is crucial in terms of this project being a model for the reconstruction of the country as well as the diocese."
Holy Trinity was established in Port-au-Prince during Pentecost, May 25, 1863. Its church has since been destroyed six times, often by fire. The cathedral destroyed in the earthquake dated to the 1920s.
World-famous frescoes adorned the walls of that cathedral building. The paintings, completed in 1950-51, portrayed biblical stories in Haitian motifs and were crafted by some of the best-known Haitian painters of the 20th century. Portions of only a few of the frescoes are still standing among the ruins, including the baptism of Christ and, possibly, the Last Supper. Photos of the destruction of the cathedral can be seen here.
The cathedral is still operating on the site, albeit without walls. Whalon preached at Holy Trinity earlier this month, standing in what Duracin is calling the diocese's "open-air cathedral." It consists of some plastic sheeting stretched over a frame of two-by-fours that shelters some pews rescued from the cathedral ruins. A week later Whalon preached the same sermon at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
The bishop told ENS that a fund for Haiti reconstruction, called for at the February meeting of the church's Executive Council, could prove to be an excellent way to coordinate efforts to aid the Diocese of Haiti's rebuilding in general and Holy Trinity in particular.
"My eye is set on that fund as the locus for fundraising so that it all goes to one place and we all know what we have," he said.
As the effort continues to jell, Whalon plans to brief the March 19-24 House of Bishops meeting about the project, and the Very Rev. Zachary Fleetwood, dean of the American Cathedral in Paris, will do the same at the April 15-19 North American Cathedral Deans Association Conference.
Stanley echoed Whalon's larger hopes for the project. "Our hope is that, as we begin to rebuild after we develop our master plan, our partnerships will improve and will become more of a true partnership that will last for decades," she said. "What we want to do is to have each player at the table be a full partner listening to each other, caring for each other and working together hand-in-hand."
"We have a good partnership program; we want to improve it," she added. "We know that many of our partners are frustrated sometimes because of the linguistic challenges and the communications challenges and we are hoping that in strengthening the partnership program we will lessen frustrations on both sides and increase our ability to work together as brothers and sisters in Christ."
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