Prayers for Haiti
The Rev. Nicole Janelle, a member of Episcopal Peace Fellowship, is vicar and chaplain at St. Michael's University Chapel in Isla Vista, California.
The devastating earthquake in Haiti destroyed the tools of many empowering Episcopal ministries in the Diocese of Haiti. Episcopal churches, primary and secondary schools, universities and vocational schools, hospitals and clinics no longer are able to serve the countless Haitians who depend on these institutions for their spiritual, educational and medical needs. One of the many ministries in the diocese that will need to be rebuilt in the future is the Episcopal Peace Fellowship nonviolence library at the Bishop Tutu Center.
In 2008, EPF initiated a partnership with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti focused on providing nonviolence training to young adults and professionals in the diocese. That summer, before the hurricanes struck, EPF held its first nonviolence training in Port-au-Prince. Approximately 70 young adults from around the country attended, spending several days studying nonviolence theory and practice at College St. Pierre, one of the diocese's many primary schools that was destroyed in the earthquake.
EPF board member Will Wauters and I made the journey to Haiti to attend that training, eager to make connections with the participants and to support the workshop facilitator.
Three months later, back in Haiti to attend the annual Haiti Connection conference and accompany the Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on her first pastoral visit to the diocese, I met with some of the same young adults who participated in the nonviolence training to talk about ideas for subsequent trainings. The young adults were keen on receiving more instruction and didactic tools that would allow them to train their peers in their schools and churches. They especially spoke of the need to receive training to deal with domestic, gang and political violence.
During that visit, I gifted on behalf of EPF several books on nonviolence written in French. These books found a home at the Bishop Tutu Center based in the diocesan cathedral complex. As books are scarce in Haiti, the nonviolence library at the Tutu Center enabled groups and individuals within the diocese to read and discuss important texts. In fact, shortly thereafter, a group began to meet weekly at the Tutu Library to engage in this sort of conversation.
Though the Diocese of Haiti is still in an emergency-response mode, plans to rebuild the diocese will soon emerge. EPF stands ready to engage in that process of rebuilding as directed by the bishop and people of the Diocese of Haiti. Ongoing sales of the EPF nonviolence organic tee shirts are being donated to Episcopal Relief & Development for immediate relief work. Donations to EPF earmarked to rebuild the nonviolence lending library will allow EPF to replace the books and nonviolence manuals lost in the rubble of the quake.
During her recent pastoral visit to Haiti, our presiding bishop remarked to Bishop Duracin: "You should skip Lent this year; you have already had your Good Friday." This Lenten season I hold in my prayers the faces and names of the young adults I was privileged to meet in Haiti. As I flip through the many pictures on my computer of our training, I realize that I do not know who in that group is still alive.
Along with Bishop Duracin, I pray that we will soon be able to sing our Alleluias with Episcopalians in Haiti. Until then, I wait in solidarity with my Haitian brothers and sisters in the Lenten desert, praying that they will find the strength to emerge from the unimaginable destruction of this tragedy.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Haiti 25
Executive Council vows long-time support for Haiti, gives church $10 million challenge
The council said (via Resolution WM011) that "Haiti's recovery and reconstruction must be directed by the Haitian people" and affirmed "the authority of Bishop [Jean Zaché] Duracin and the leaders he appoints to request and direct the resources required to rebuild the damaged institutions and impacted congregations of the diocese."
Meanwhile, Executive Council also issued a message to the church, saying that during its meeting it "was exhorted to humility and patience, inspired to action in the cause of justice, and reminded of the importance of the seemingly mundane."
"Meeting in the beginning of Lent we were constantly reminded of the power of God in Jesus Christ to redeem and save, in the moment and for all time," council said before going on to outline the results of its work in Omaha.
The $10-million Haiti challenge grew out of council member Mark Harris's call to the council to set aside a tithe from the remainder of the church's 2010-2012 budget for the reconstruction of the church in Haiti. He said that "the hurt to the family" in Haiti "requires a pledge on our part that doesn't come from the largess or the abundance of our lives, but comes from the core and, I would suggest, essentially our flesh." Without such support, Harris said, the future of the church in Haiti will "suffer in ways which we would be very sad to see happen."
Council members said they stand ready to receive Duracin's assessment of the diocese's needs and will review the church's support for the rebuilding effort at subsequent meetings. They also said the council "strongly supports" Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's "efforts to marshal the resources of the wider church" in support of Haiti, and to work directly with Duracin "in ensuring these resources are provided in the most effective manner."
Martha Gardener successfully asked her colleagues to commemorate the death of Lisa Mbele-Mbong during the earthquake by having the council's Haiti resolution state that relief and development efforts ought to recognize the human rights and dignity of all Haitians, especially vulnerable groups, and to ensure that Haitians are fully involved in the planning and execution of all relief and development projects.
Mbele-Mbong, the daughter of Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe General Convention deputy Helena Mbele-Mbong and her husband, Samuel, was a human rights officer for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. She died in the collapse of the UN building during the quake.
The resolution also commends the work of Episcopal Relief & Development and Haiti's neighbors in the Diocese of the Dominican Republic for their assistance.
In addition, the council urged Episcopalians to continue praying for "our brothers and sisters in Haiti" during the Prayers of the People and other occasions, and to support the long-term recovery effort through continued donations to Episcopal Relief & Development's Haiti fund, "recalling that, as our Lord taught us, to care for the least fortunate among us is to care for him."
Earlier in the day, Abagail Nelson, Episcopal Relief & Development senior vice president for programs, described the agency's efforts in the month since the Jan. 12 magnitude-7 quake. Although dealing with an almost unimaginable level of chaos during the two weeks after the quake, Nelson said, the agency has thus far provided more than 60 tons of food to survivors, is supplying at least 100 tents each day after coping with a worldwide shortage, and continues to work on various medical, sanitation, communication and other logistical needs.
She reported that the agency and diocese now believe that between 25,000 and 30,000 survivors are living in more than 60 settlements connected to the diocese.
Nelson showed council an ongoing mapping project designed to help the diocese and the wider church assess the extent of damage to diocesan institutions and track relief efforts. The "extraordinary information-gathering effort" is being led by the Rev. Lauren Stanley, an Episcopal Church-appointed missionary to Haiti and Duracin's liaison in the U.S., who is working with "an amazing crackerjack team" of four young people using a map provided by the U.S. Army's Southern Command, Nelson said.
A partnership between the Episcopal Church in Haiti and the U.S. Army "has rapidly formed since the earthquake," Nelson said. "We're really the first religious organization to be working with the government this way and the hope is that, longer term with a lot of this information, we'll be better able to serve the people."
As rebuilding plans become clearer, Nelson said, her agency wants to ensure that the work is done "in a way that doesn't just build back to what was there before" but to add improvements "to invest in a better future for everyone."
Meanwhile, Nelson said, Episcopal Relief & Development also continues to work with its 46 partner countries and urged council members to tell people not to forget "the wide need" around the world.
"We believe in a God of abundance and we know that as we move forward we can help rebuild the church in Haiti and help engage with all these other ministries," she said.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Haiti 24
As we enter the Lenten season, my colleague Luke Fodor has shared some thoughts on Ash Wednesday and what it means to be “marked” as followers of Jesus:
Today many of us will go to church and experience that familiar annual ritual of receiving an ashen cross marked on our foreheads. Since the 9th century, the Church has commenced the holy season of Lent with the imposition of ashes, as a reminder that we “are dust and to dust we shall return.” This ritual is the highlight of the service. On the streets of Manhattan, like in other cities across the country, many do not even have to darken the door of a church to receive ashes, as priests stand ready to mark passersby.
Last year, the terror of this simple penitential service shook me as I took my eight-month-old son forward to receive ashes on his forehead. Seeing the ash on his head brought me out of any isolated, individual or maudlin thoughts about my own mortality or my own sin. Seeing the ash on his soft skin caused something to crumble inside of me. Even the newly born—so pure and so innocent—are marked for death.
This year, as I prepare to again enter into the terror of Ash Wednesday, my thoughts are with our Haitian brothers and sisters. It seems their whole existence is marked with dust. Today, as our Haitian brothers and sisters receive that mark on their heads, how can they not remember the dust in their mouths left by the quake that has turned their lives upside down? How can they not remember their loved ones and their homes that are now nothing but dust and rubble? And yet, we have all seen news footage—the inexplicable singing of hymns and banding together as a community—that shows the resilient spirit of the Haitian people.
Yes, on this Ash Wednesday as we collectively receive ashes, let us all remember that we are marked for death. That simple ashen cross reminds us of our mortality—but it also speaks of hope. It is a reminder of another cross, one marked in oil, that once adorned our head at our baptisms. And though that oil has long ago soaked into our skin or been wiped away, it has indelibly marked us. In dying with Christ, we live again. We live again, and not for ourselves, but for others. We have taken a covenant at our baptism “to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves.”
As we see ashen foreheads, turbaned foreheads or blank foreheads all around us, how can we as followers of the Anointed One love them? We are marked for death and we are marked for a life of selfless service. On this Ash Wednesday, I echo that sacred invitation to a Holy Lent. I invite you to meditate on this simple question: How can you, like our Lord Jesus, be a person marked for others?
Today many of us will go to church and experience that familiar annual ritual of receiving an ashen cross marked on our foreheads. Since the 9th century, the Church has commenced the holy season of Lent with the imposition of ashes, as a reminder that we “are dust and to dust we shall return.” This ritual is the highlight of the service. On the streets of Manhattan, like in other cities across the country, many do not even have to darken the door of a church to receive ashes, as priests stand ready to mark passersby.
Last year, the terror of this simple penitential service shook me as I took my eight-month-old son forward to receive ashes on his forehead. Seeing the ash on his head brought me out of any isolated, individual or maudlin thoughts about my own mortality or my own sin. Seeing the ash on his soft skin caused something to crumble inside of me. Even the newly born—so pure and so innocent—are marked for death.
This year, as I prepare to again enter into the terror of Ash Wednesday, my thoughts are with our Haitian brothers and sisters. It seems their whole existence is marked with dust. Today, as our Haitian brothers and sisters receive that mark on their heads, how can they not remember the dust in their mouths left by the quake that has turned their lives upside down? How can they not remember their loved ones and their homes that are now nothing but dust and rubble? And yet, we have all seen news footage—the inexplicable singing of hymns and banding together as a community—that shows the resilient spirit of the Haitian people.
Yes, on this Ash Wednesday as we collectively receive ashes, let us all remember that we are marked for death. That simple ashen cross reminds us of our mortality—but it also speaks of hope. It is a reminder of another cross, one marked in oil, that once adorned our head at our baptisms. And though that oil has long ago soaked into our skin or been wiped away, it has indelibly marked us. In dying with Christ, we live again. We live again, and not for ourselves, but for others. We have taken a covenant at our baptism “to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves.”
As we see ashen foreheads, turbaned foreheads or blank foreheads all around us, how can we as followers of the Anointed One love them? We are marked for death and we are marked for a life of selfless service. On this Ash Wednesday, I echo that sacred invitation to a Holy Lent. I invite you to meditate on this simple question: How can you, like our Lord Jesus, be a person marked for others?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Hait 23
We'll do some links for this Monday morning:
New York Times article:
Episcopal Relief & Development Haiti Page with Bulletin Inserts
Why did so many die in Haiti?
Hurricane Season may Batter Haiti
New York Times article:
Episcopal Relief & Development Haiti Page with Bulletin Inserts
Why did so many die in Haiti?
Hurricane Season may Batter Haiti
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Haiti 22
Presiding Bishop says Episcopalians must commit to Haiti's future
By Mary Frances Schjonberg, February 10, 2010
The wider Episcopal Church can most effectively help the earthquake-ravaged Diocese of Haiti by praying, contributing to emergency relief efforts and planning how it will help the diocese achieve the rebuilding priorities that it will eventually set.
That is the assessment Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori came away with after visiting Port-au-Prince Feb. 8 to survey the damage wrought by Jan. 12 magnitude 7.0 earthquake.
Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin and other surviving members of the diocese need help now and they need time to discern a plan for the future, the presiding bishop told ENS during a Feb. 10 interview.
"The challenge is that they're still very much in emergency-response mode and I think will be for some time to come," she said. "They're still not able to get food and water and shelter to everybody who needs it, so that's got to be the immediate focus."
Jefferts Schori also said she felt moved by the people who were hard at work at every site she visited. For example, she said, at the ruins of the Episcopal University of Haiti "it was just incredibly touching to see those folks at the university using mauls to break up the building pieces so that they can look for bodies -- and they are clearly there, you can smell them."
The presiding bishop said she went to Haiti after being a co-consecrator at the Rev. Griselda Delgado Del Carpio's consecration and ordination as bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Church of Cuba because it was essential to assure Duracin of the wider church's support. Plus, she said she wanted "to get a sense of how we might be most helpful for the long haul."
The diocese, known locally as L'Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti, is caring for about 25,000 Haitians in roughly 20 makeshift camps around the country. The earthquake left an estimated 230,000 people dead and many towns in ruins; countless people have left the capital for the countryside.
Jefferts Schori said that the wider church must remember that Haitian Episcopalians, including Duracin, are struggling to get their basic needs met, and that long-term planning will come later.
"The bishop is going to need his own support system in order to return to highly functional leadership," she said. "Don't expect the bishop to have a strategy; it is far too early for that. He's dealing with his own immense losses."
For instance, Duracin has only seen his severely injured wife Marie-Edithe three times since she was evacuated from Port-au-Prince a few days after the earthquake. Her injured leg was initially treated at Zanmi Lasante in Cange and later on the USNS Comfort hospital ship. From there, she and son James were transported Feb. 9 by the by U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force to Tampa General Hospital in Tampa. Diocese of Southwest Florida Bishop Dabney Smith is coordinating pastoral care for the Duracins.
Jefferts Schori said that once the emergency-response phase is behind them, Haitian Episcopalians will be able to begin stabilizing their diocese and strategizing about the future. While Episcopal Relief & Development is well-positioned to help the diocese with emergency needs and help it begin to set priorities for the future as well as develop strategies for meeting those priorities, she said, "ERD cannot do all of that. They do not, for example, rebuild church buildings."
The presiding bishop suggested that "there's going to be immense need for partnership for the longer term."
"Dioceses [in the U.S. part of the Episcopal Church] can probably be most helpful by thinking about how they can mobilize people to assist in that work," she said.
She suggested that those dioceses could "begin their own rebuilding funds with the trust that direction for how to use those funds is somewhere down the road."
Meanwhile, Jefferts Schori said she wanted to discourage dioceses from deciding on their own that they will rebuild a specific Haitian church or diocesan ministry building.
"The priorities are going to need to come from the Diocese of Haiti -- the priorities and the strategy -- and it's going to be some months before they begin to emerge," she said.
Individual Episcopalians are called to prayer for their brothers and sisters in Haiti, she said, and to giving to Episcopal Relief & Development.
"You [also] can begin to challenge your parish and your diocese to begin to think about the longer-term rebuilding efforts," she added. "Collecting funds for that is probably the most appropriate thing to do."
Jefferts Schori urged Episcopalians to commit themselves to helping in what will be a multi-year process of recovery and redevelopment.
"The Diocese of Haiti has had a major impact for 150 years on the nation of Haiti," she said. "They will be again, but it's going to be a number of years before they are able to function at the same level they were before the earthquake."
The presiding bishop acknowledged that such a long-term focus can be a challenge in itself.
"Maintaining an awareness of the ongoing nature of this tragedy is going to be the toughest for at least those of us who live in a society that moves on to the next issue," she said.
Jefferts Schori visited Port-au-Prince with the Rev. Lauren Stanley, one of four Episcopal Church missionaries assigned to Haiti and the only one who was not in-country at the time of the Jan. 12 quake. Duracin has asked Stanley to help the diocese coordinate offers of relief and recovery made by others in the Episcopal Church, and to tell the diocese's story.
"She's a powerhouse. She's working overtime. She's working at 150 percent," Jefferts Schori told ENS, noting that in Stanley's first five months in Haiti she had established good working relationships with the Haitian clergy and learned to speak Creole.
"She understands very clearly the challenges and the systemic complications, so she is an immensely effective witness both here [in the U.S.] and in Haiti for the ongoing challenges and needs," Jefferts Schori said.
By Mary Frances Schjonberg, February 10, 2010
The wider Episcopal Church can most effectively help the earthquake-ravaged Diocese of Haiti by praying, contributing to emergency relief efforts and planning how it will help the diocese achieve the rebuilding priorities that it will eventually set.
That is the assessment Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori came away with after visiting Port-au-Prince Feb. 8 to survey the damage wrought by Jan. 12 magnitude 7.0 earthquake.
Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin and other surviving members of the diocese need help now and they need time to discern a plan for the future, the presiding bishop told ENS during a Feb. 10 interview.
"The challenge is that they're still very much in emergency-response mode and I think will be for some time to come," she said. "They're still not able to get food and water and shelter to everybody who needs it, so that's got to be the immediate focus."
Jefferts Schori also said she felt moved by the people who were hard at work at every site she visited. For example, she said, at the ruins of the Episcopal University of Haiti "it was just incredibly touching to see those folks at the university using mauls to break up the building pieces so that they can look for bodies -- and they are clearly there, you can smell them."
The presiding bishop said she went to Haiti after being a co-consecrator at the Rev. Griselda Delgado Del Carpio's consecration and ordination as bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Church of Cuba because it was essential to assure Duracin of the wider church's support. Plus, she said she wanted "to get a sense of how we might be most helpful for the long haul."
The diocese, known locally as L'Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti, is caring for about 25,000 Haitians in roughly 20 makeshift camps around the country. The earthquake left an estimated 230,000 people dead and many towns in ruins; countless people have left the capital for the countryside.
Jefferts Schori said that the wider church must remember that Haitian Episcopalians, including Duracin, are struggling to get their basic needs met, and that long-term planning will come later.
"The bishop is going to need his own support system in order to return to highly functional leadership," she said. "Don't expect the bishop to have a strategy; it is far too early for that. He's dealing with his own immense losses."
For instance, Duracin has only seen his severely injured wife Marie-Edithe three times since she was evacuated from Port-au-Prince a few days after the earthquake. Her injured leg was initially treated at Zanmi Lasante in Cange and later on the USNS Comfort hospital ship. From there, she and son James were transported Feb. 9 by the by U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force to Tampa General Hospital in Tampa. Diocese of Southwest Florida Bishop Dabney Smith is coordinating pastoral care for the Duracins.
Jefferts Schori said that once the emergency-response phase is behind them, Haitian Episcopalians will be able to begin stabilizing their diocese and strategizing about the future. While Episcopal Relief & Development is well-positioned to help the diocese with emergency needs and help it begin to set priorities for the future as well as develop strategies for meeting those priorities, she said, "ERD cannot do all of that. They do not, for example, rebuild church buildings."
The presiding bishop suggested that "there's going to be immense need for partnership for the longer term."
"Dioceses [in the U.S. part of the Episcopal Church] can probably be most helpful by thinking about how they can mobilize people to assist in that work," she said.
She suggested that those dioceses could "begin their own rebuilding funds with the trust that direction for how to use those funds is somewhere down the road."
Meanwhile, Jefferts Schori said she wanted to discourage dioceses from deciding on their own that they will rebuild a specific Haitian church or diocesan ministry building.
"The priorities are going to need to come from the Diocese of Haiti -- the priorities and the strategy -- and it's going to be some months before they begin to emerge," she said.
Individual Episcopalians are called to prayer for their brothers and sisters in Haiti, she said, and to giving to Episcopal Relief & Development.
"You [also] can begin to challenge your parish and your diocese to begin to think about the longer-term rebuilding efforts," she added. "Collecting funds for that is probably the most appropriate thing to do."
Jefferts Schori urged Episcopalians to commit themselves to helping in what will be a multi-year process of recovery and redevelopment.
"The Diocese of Haiti has had a major impact for 150 years on the nation of Haiti," she said. "They will be again, but it's going to be a number of years before they are able to function at the same level they were before the earthquake."
The presiding bishop acknowledged that such a long-term focus can be a challenge in itself.
"Maintaining an awareness of the ongoing nature of this tragedy is going to be the toughest for at least those of us who live in a society that moves on to the next issue," she said.
Jefferts Schori visited Port-au-Prince with the Rev. Lauren Stanley, one of four Episcopal Church missionaries assigned to Haiti and the only one who was not in-country at the time of the Jan. 12 quake. Duracin has asked Stanley to help the diocese coordinate offers of relief and recovery made by others in the Episcopal Church, and to tell the diocese's story.
"She's a powerhouse. She's working overtime. She's working at 150 percent," Jefferts Schori told ENS, noting that in Stanley's first five months in Haiti she had established good working relationships with the Haitian clergy and learned to speak Creole.
"She understands very clearly the challenges and the systemic complications, so she is an immensely effective witness both here [in the U.S.] and in Haiti for the ongoing challenges and needs," Jefferts Schori said.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Haiti 21
Presiding Bishop pays pastoral visit to Haitian bishop
'You have already had your Good Friday,' Jefferts Schori tells Duracin
By Mary Frances Schjonberg, February 08, 2010
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori paid a poignant visit to Port-au-Prince Feb. 8 to survey with Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin the devastation wrought by the Jan. 12 magnitude 7.0 earthquake.
After climbing over the ruins of the diocese's Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral), the presiding bishop turned to Duracin and said "You should skip Lent this year; you have already had your Good Friday."
"Yes, we can all sing Alleluias together," Duracin replied, according to the Rev. Lauren Stanley, who accompanied Jefferts Schori on her five-hour visit. Pointing to some of the cathedral's 13 bells that were visible among the ruins and that appeared to be salvageable, Jefferts Schori said "they will ring again" and that the cathedral "will rise again," according to Stanley.
While at the cathedral, Jefferts Schori and Duracin said prayers at what the Haitian bishop is calling the diocese's "open-air cathedral," which consists of some plastic sheeting stretched over a frame of two-by-fours that shelters some pews rescued from the cathedral ruins.
The two bishops each prayed aloud with those who happened to be at the site. Some of the older women members of the cathedral were combing the ruins for pieces of the building's world-famous murals depicting biblical stories in Haitian motifs. The gathered congregation also sang "How Great Thou Art" in French, Stanley said.
During the visit, Stanley said, Duracin asked her to "tell the world that physically the church is broken, but the church is still there in faith. Our faith is still strong." She said the bishop asked for the support of Episcopalians everywhere to help Haitians rebuild the structures of the church because that work "will have a positive impact on our faith. It will bring us courage, confidence and a good future." "We are approaching Lent," Stanley quoted Duracin as saying. "I ask people to be with us in the desert so that on Easter, all of us in Haiti and all the Episcopal Church may sing together in joy: 'Alleluia, Alleluia, the Lord is risen indeed.'"
The trip was also meant for Jefferts Schori and Duracin to talk about the immediate and future directions of the diocese. The presiding bishop assured Duracin that the entire Episcopal Church stood with his diocese in prayer and support, and would continue to do so, according to Stanley.
Stanley is one of four Episcopal Church missionaries assigned to Haiti and the only one who was not in-country at the time of the Jan. 12 quake. Duracin has asked Stanley to help the diocese coordinate offers of relief and recovery made by others in the Episcopal Church, and to tell the diocese's story.
Stanley said part of the discussion in Port-au-Prince centered on how she can continue to assist Duracin and the diocese by splitting her time between Haiti and the U.S. As part of that work, she will begin to help coordinate the work of Episcopalians elsewhere in the church who have interests in or connections with specific places and ministries in Haiti, she said.
Stanley said she was gratified to hear Duracin's confidence in her ability to help the diocese connect more strongly with "our partners who are working together to help God's beloved children in Haiti."
Stanley, who spoke with ENS by phone from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, after the visit, said that Duracin wanted the presiding bishop to see the extent of the devastation the diocese suffered. While the full extent of damage is still being assessed, it is clear that most of the diocese's churches and schools were destroyed or heavily damaged. The convent of the Sisters of St. Margaret, adjacent to the cathedral, was also destroyed.
The lost schools include the Holy Trinity complex of primary, music and trade schools next to the demolished diocesan cathedral, the university and the seminary. A portion of the St. Vincent School for Handicapped Children, also in the Haitian capital, collapsed. Students and possibly staff were killed at some of the schools.
Stanley said that Duracin, Jefferts Schori and she visited the Holy Trinity school complex, the Episcopal University and the survivors' camp on a rocky field at College Ste. Pierre, a diocesan school destroyed by the quake. (The diocese, known locally as L'Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti, is caring for about 25,000 Haitians in roughly 20 makeshift camps around the country. Since the quake, many people have left the capital for the countryside.)
The three also surveyed Duracin's home which collapsed in the quake, trapping and severely injuring his wife, Marie-Edithe. Duracin has told ENS that he is been spending his night sleeping in a tent outside another home that he was having built for his family.
The Rev. Kesner Ajax, head of the diocese's Bishop Tharp Institute of Business and Technology (BTI) in Les Cayes, drove the three around the city. Everywhere they where they saw evidence of destruction and death, Stanley said. The Holy Trinity music school once housed the country's only concert hall, but now "you can see where it came smashing straight down and there are still bodies of our students in there as well," Stanley said.
Duracin told them that "this is why we cannot just use a bulldozer" to clear the wreckage.
There is a common grave just outside of the Episcopal University and Stanley said they stopped to pray at that grave. One of the lower level classrooms that was destroyed usually had more than 100 students in it, she said, but only nine bodies have been found. People are going through the rubble by hand searching for the dead.
On the street outside the university, there is an outdoor holding cell for prisoners, Stanley said.
At the diocesan trade school, only the façade is still standing, Stanley said.
"There nothing left except bodies," she said. "We could actually see one body at the ruins."
Stanley said: "It was heart-wrenching to see the city that I love -- to see the things that this church has done for so many years that makes me so proud to be an Episcopalian in Haiti -- totally gone," Stanley said. "It is beyond heart-breaking. I don't have adequate words to describe the devastation."
Jefferts Schori flew to Santo Domingo on Feb. 7 from Havana, Cuba, after being a co-consecrator at the Rev. Griselda Delgado Del Carpio's consecration and ordination as bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Church of Cuba. She and Stanley, who met her in the Dominican Republic capital, flew into Port-au-Prince the next day for the visit. They brought with them a number of gifts and supplies for Duracin and the diocese, including six episcopal clergy shirts for the bishop that were a gift from the Church Pension Group, three liturgical stoles and 3,000 communion wafers from the presiding bishop, and pants and socks for Duracin and a bottle of Taylor tawny port communion wine from Stanley.
She also gave the bishop an alb and cincture that was purchased by Rhonda Bush, an administrator at Church of the Good Shepherd in Burke, Virginia. The church, where Stanley was priested and which still supports her missionary work, offered a requiem mass Feb. 4 for the victims of the earthquake who were members of the Church of St. James the Just in Pétionville, Haiti. Stanley serves the English-speaking congregation there.
"In our culture it is very important that the leader look like a leader," Stanley said. "In the church in Haiti, it's very important that the bishop look like the bishop because when he is properly dressed and properly vested then we know that he can take care of us and we know that we have not been forgotten."
Duracin told Stanley that the bread and wine will be used Feb. 12 during the Episcopal Church's part of the nationwide prayer services planned to mark the one month anniversary of the earthquake.
Stanley also brought with her a nearly 150-year-old brass cross that had once been part of a processional cross used by missionaries. She was given the cross by the Woodson family of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, whose members attend St. Paul's Episcopal Church there. While looking through the rubble at College Ste. Pierre, Stanley said, the presiding bishop found a staff that might have been a short processional cross or a verger'swand and which the three discovered fit the cross perfectly.
'You have already had your Good Friday,' Jefferts Schori tells Duracin
By Mary Frances Schjonberg, February 08, 2010
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori paid a poignant visit to Port-au-Prince Feb. 8 to survey with Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin the devastation wrought by the Jan. 12 magnitude 7.0 earthquake.
After climbing over the ruins of the diocese's Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral), the presiding bishop turned to Duracin and said "You should skip Lent this year; you have already had your Good Friday."
"Yes, we can all sing Alleluias together," Duracin replied, according to the Rev. Lauren Stanley, who accompanied Jefferts Schori on her five-hour visit. Pointing to some of the cathedral's 13 bells that were visible among the ruins and that appeared to be salvageable, Jefferts Schori said "they will ring again" and that the cathedral "will rise again," according to Stanley.
While at the cathedral, Jefferts Schori and Duracin said prayers at what the Haitian bishop is calling the diocese's "open-air cathedral," which consists of some plastic sheeting stretched over a frame of two-by-fours that shelters some pews rescued from the cathedral ruins.
The two bishops each prayed aloud with those who happened to be at the site. Some of the older women members of the cathedral were combing the ruins for pieces of the building's world-famous murals depicting biblical stories in Haitian motifs. The gathered congregation also sang "How Great Thou Art" in French, Stanley said.
During the visit, Stanley said, Duracin asked her to "tell the world that physically the church is broken, but the church is still there in faith. Our faith is still strong." She said the bishop asked for the support of Episcopalians everywhere to help Haitians rebuild the structures of the church because that work "will have a positive impact on our faith. It will bring us courage, confidence and a good future." "We are approaching Lent," Stanley quoted Duracin as saying. "I ask people to be with us in the desert so that on Easter, all of us in Haiti and all the Episcopal Church may sing together in joy: 'Alleluia, Alleluia, the Lord is risen indeed.'"
The trip was also meant for Jefferts Schori and Duracin to talk about the immediate and future directions of the diocese. The presiding bishop assured Duracin that the entire Episcopal Church stood with his diocese in prayer and support, and would continue to do so, according to Stanley.
Stanley is one of four Episcopal Church missionaries assigned to Haiti and the only one who was not in-country at the time of the Jan. 12 quake. Duracin has asked Stanley to help the diocese coordinate offers of relief and recovery made by others in the Episcopal Church, and to tell the diocese's story.
Stanley said part of the discussion in Port-au-Prince centered on how she can continue to assist Duracin and the diocese by splitting her time between Haiti and the U.S. As part of that work, she will begin to help coordinate the work of Episcopalians elsewhere in the church who have interests in or connections with specific places and ministries in Haiti, she said.
Stanley said she was gratified to hear Duracin's confidence in her ability to help the diocese connect more strongly with "our partners who are working together to help God's beloved children in Haiti."
Stanley, who spoke with ENS by phone from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, after the visit, said that Duracin wanted the presiding bishop to see the extent of the devastation the diocese suffered. While the full extent of damage is still being assessed, it is clear that most of the diocese's churches and schools were destroyed or heavily damaged. The convent of the Sisters of St. Margaret, adjacent to the cathedral, was also destroyed.
The lost schools include the Holy Trinity complex of primary, music and trade schools next to the demolished diocesan cathedral, the university and the seminary. A portion of the St. Vincent School for Handicapped Children, also in the Haitian capital, collapsed. Students and possibly staff were killed at some of the schools.
Stanley said that Duracin, Jefferts Schori and she visited the Holy Trinity school complex, the Episcopal University and the survivors' camp on a rocky field at College Ste. Pierre, a diocesan school destroyed by the quake. (The diocese, known locally as L'Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti, is caring for about 25,000 Haitians in roughly 20 makeshift camps around the country. Since the quake, many people have left the capital for the countryside.)
The three also surveyed Duracin's home which collapsed in the quake, trapping and severely injuring his wife, Marie-Edithe. Duracin has told ENS that he is been spending his night sleeping in a tent outside another home that he was having built for his family.
The Rev. Kesner Ajax, head of the diocese's Bishop Tharp Institute of Business and Technology (BTI) in Les Cayes, drove the three around the city. Everywhere they where they saw evidence of destruction and death, Stanley said. The Holy Trinity music school once housed the country's only concert hall, but now "you can see where it came smashing straight down and there are still bodies of our students in there as well," Stanley said.
Duracin told them that "this is why we cannot just use a bulldozer" to clear the wreckage.
There is a common grave just outside of the Episcopal University and Stanley said they stopped to pray at that grave. One of the lower level classrooms that was destroyed usually had more than 100 students in it, she said, but only nine bodies have been found. People are going through the rubble by hand searching for the dead.
On the street outside the university, there is an outdoor holding cell for prisoners, Stanley said.
At the diocesan trade school, only the façade is still standing, Stanley said.
"There nothing left except bodies," she said. "We could actually see one body at the ruins."
Stanley said: "It was heart-wrenching to see the city that I love -- to see the things that this church has done for so many years that makes me so proud to be an Episcopalian in Haiti -- totally gone," Stanley said. "It is beyond heart-breaking. I don't have adequate words to describe the devastation."
Jefferts Schori flew to Santo Domingo on Feb. 7 from Havana, Cuba, after being a co-consecrator at the Rev. Griselda Delgado Del Carpio's consecration and ordination as bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Church of Cuba. She and Stanley, who met her in the Dominican Republic capital, flew into Port-au-Prince the next day for the visit. They brought with them a number of gifts and supplies for Duracin and the diocese, including six episcopal clergy shirts for the bishop that were a gift from the Church Pension Group, three liturgical stoles and 3,000 communion wafers from the presiding bishop, and pants and socks for Duracin and a bottle of Taylor tawny port communion wine from Stanley.
She also gave the bishop an alb and cincture that was purchased by Rhonda Bush, an administrator at Church of the Good Shepherd in Burke, Virginia. The church, where Stanley was priested and which still supports her missionary work, offered a requiem mass Feb. 4 for the victims of the earthquake who were members of the Church of St. James the Just in Pétionville, Haiti. Stanley serves the English-speaking congregation there.
"In our culture it is very important that the leader look like a leader," Stanley said. "In the church in Haiti, it's very important that the bishop look like the bishop because when he is properly dressed and properly vested then we know that he can take care of us and we know that we have not been forgotten."
Duracin told Stanley that the bread and wine will be used Feb. 12 during the Episcopal Church's part of the nationwide prayer services planned to mark the one month anniversary of the earthquake.
Stanley also brought with her a nearly 150-year-old brass cross that had once been part of a processional cross used by missionaries. She was given the cross by the Woodson family of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, whose members attend St. Paul's Episcopal Church there. While looking through the rubble at College Ste. Pierre, Stanley said, the presiding bishop found a staff that might have been a short processional cross or a verger'swand and which the three discovered fit the cross perfectly.
Monday, February 8, 2010
HAITI 20
G7 nations pledge debt relief for quake-hit Haiti
The world's leading industrialised nations have pledged to write off the debts that Haiti owes them, following a devastating earthquake last month.
Canada's finance minister announced at a summit in Iqaluit, northern Canada, that Group of Seven countries planned to cancel Haiti's bilateral debts. Jim Flaherty said he would encourage international lenders to do the same. Some $1.2bn (£800m) of Haiti's debts to countries and international lending bodies has already been cancelled.
"We are committed in the G7 to the forgiveness of debt, in fact all bilateral debt has been forgiven by G7 countries vis-a-vis Haiti," Mr Flaherty said at the end of the two day gathering of finance ministers. "The debt to multilateral institutions should be forgiven, and we will work with these institutions and other partners to make this happen as soon as possible," he added.
At least one million people are in need of aid in Haiti after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake which struck in mid-January, killing more than 200,000 people. The G7 group - which includes Canada, the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - has been under pressure to help Haiti recover since the 12 January quake by cancelling the money owed by Haiti. Haiti was rated as the poorest nation in the western hemisphere even before the earthquake struck.
Though exact figures are difficult to obtain, the exact amount owed bilaterally to G7 countries is believed to be quite small.
Brown's pledge
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed the pledge, saying: "It must be right that a nation buried in rubble must not also be buried in debt". "The UK has already cancelled all debts owed to it by Haiti and I strongly welcome today's G7 commitment to forgive Haiti's remaining multilateral debt," he added. "We will work with others to make sure this is delivered."
On Friday, the US voiced support for the plan to extend international debt relief for Haiti.
"The earthquake in Haiti was a catastrophic setback to the Haitian people who are now facing tremendous emergency humanitarian and reconstruction needs, and meeting Haiti's financing needs will require a massive multilateral effort," said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
He said the US would seek to reach an agreement for the funds owed to the multilateral donors, which include the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the International Development Association. Mr Geithner also echoed the call by the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to provide full relief of the country's outstanding debt to the body, including a $102m emergency loan approved in January.
Last June, the international community agreed to cancel some $1.2bn (£800m) of the country's total debt of $1.9bn owed to bi- and multilateral lenders including the IMF, World Bank and the US government, as part of a programme for heavily indebted poor countries.
UK-based charity Oxfam has urged the writing off of about an additional $900m (£557m) that Haiti still owes to donor countries and institutions.
The world's leading industrialised nations have pledged to write off the debts that Haiti owes them, following a devastating earthquake last month.
Canada's finance minister announced at a summit in Iqaluit, northern Canada, that Group of Seven countries planned to cancel Haiti's bilateral debts. Jim Flaherty said he would encourage international lenders to do the same. Some $1.2bn (£800m) of Haiti's debts to countries and international lending bodies has already been cancelled.
"We are committed in the G7 to the forgiveness of debt, in fact all bilateral debt has been forgiven by G7 countries vis-a-vis Haiti," Mr Flaherty said at the end of the two day gathering of finance ministers. "The debt to multilateral institutions should be forgiven, and we will work with these institutions and other partners to make this happen as soon as possible," he added.
At least one million people are in need of aid in Haiti after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake which struck in mid-January, killing more than 200,000 people. The G7 group - which includes Canada, the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - has been under pressure to help Haiti recover since the 12 January quake by cancelling the money owed by Haiti. Haiti was rated as the poorest nation in the western hemisphere even before the earthquake struck.
Though exact figures are difficult to obtain, the exact amount owed bilaterally to G7 countries is believed to be quite small.
Brown's pledge
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed the pledge, saying: "It must be right that a nation buried in rubble must not also be buried in debt". "The UK has already cancelled all debts owed to it by Haiti and I strongly welcome today's G7 commitment to forgive Haiti's remaining multilateral debt," he added. "We will work with others to make sure this is delivered."
On Friday, the US voiced support for the plan to extend international debt relief for Haiti.
"The earthquake in Haiti was a catastrophic setback to the Haitian people who are now facing tremendous emergency humanitarian and reconstruction needs, and meeting Haiti's financing needs will require a massive multilateral effort," said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
He said the US would seek to reach an agreement for the funds owed to the multilateral donors, which include the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the International Development Association. Mr Geithner also echoed the call by the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to provide full relief of the country's outstanding debt to the body, including a $102m emergency loan approved in January.
Last June, the international community agreed to cancel some $1.2bn (£800m) of the country's total debt of $1.9bn owed to bi- and multilateral lenders including the IMF, World Bank and the US government, as part of a programme for heavily indebted poor countries.
UK-based charity Oxfam has urged the writing off of about an additional $900m (£557m) that Haiti still owes to donor countries and institutions.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Haiti 19
Haitian Episcopalians struggle in the present, look to the future
'The church is the people,' bishop says
By Mary Frances Schjonberg, February 04, 2010
[Episcopal News Service] There may not be a single Episcopal church standing in Port-au-Prince today but that lack of walls and roofs does not mean that the church in the Haitian capital is dead.
"As the largest diocese of the Episcopal Church until now, we are physically destroyed but the church is there because the church is the people,"Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin told Episcopal News Service Feb. 4. "Even though we have lost our buildings, the people continue to gather. The communities are there."
Duracin spoke to ENS in both English and French as he described life in Haiti and the work of the diocese in caring for survivors of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit just outside of Port-au-Prince in the later afternoon of Jan. 12.
The quake left an estimate 200,000 dead and made homeless hundreds of thousands of people. About a third of Haiti's approximately 9 million people lived in Port-au-Prince before the quake.
The Episcopal Church of Haiti, known locally as L'Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti, is caring for about 25,000 Haitians in roughly 20 makeshift camps. Since the quake, many people have left the capital for the countryside. While the exodus could eventually improve the country's economy and its ability to sustain itself, the out-migration isreportedly straining the meager resources of rural communities.
Duracin said almost all Episcopal Church buildings -- schools as well as churches and the Sisters of St. MargaretConvent -- in Port-au-Prince "are gone," but "every Sunday there are services, even at the cathedral … everything has been lost but … our communities are alive." For instance, the bishop said, a group gathers behind the ruins of Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral) "to continue to pray and to receive communion."
"In spite of everything that happened to Haiti -- that happened in Port-au-Prince -- the church is alive and strong," Duracin said, through translator Margareth Crosnier de Bellaistre, Episcopal Church Center director of investment management and banking.
"They look at the future and they see hope, and they are optimistic about the future," Duracin said. "They invite all their brothers and sisters in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion to help them physically to re-build the church."
However, Duracin warned that the diocese is not now prepared to welcome people. He said he understands that many people would like to come to Haiti and help in that work, but "there is no way for the church to receive any visitors right now."
Everyone, including himself, sleeps outside, the bishop said. Even at the few hotels that are still standing, guests must sleep outside for fear of aftershocks and the unknown condition of those buildings that are still standing, he added.
Thus, he said, the best way for Episcopalians to aid the diocese right now is to contribute to Episcopal Relief & Development.
"We are grateful to ERD. They are really helping," Duracin said. "They have come here. They have started working with us in this emergency, but now we have to think about the future."
Since shortly after the quake, Katie Mears, Episcopal Relief & Development's program manager for USA disaster preparedness and response, and Kirsten Muth, the agency's senior program director, have been operating out of the church center in New York and the Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. They have been assisting the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic's efforts to aid its neighbors to the west, as well as the Haitian diocese itself.
"It is very difficult for us to plan for the future now because we have so many people who have been injured so we have to take care of them," Duracin said. "So many have died, so many people have no houses so we are taking care of them to see how we can provide tents for them. We need a lot of things now in Haiti."
Duracin has begun to steer at least part of the diocese's focus toward the future. He appointed a 15-member special commission to help him in that response. The commission is made up of clergy, laity and one of the Sister of St. Margaret -- "people who reflect the whole diocese," the bishop said.
One of the commission's subcommittees is looking specifically at building reconstruction, Duracin said. "We have to wait before beginning reconstruction because I suspect we have to re-think the type of construction in Haiti now," he said.
Meanwhile, many people, including Duracin, are living in tents or makeshift shelters. The bishop said he splits his days between the survivors' camp on a rocky field at College Ste. Pierre, a diocesan school destroyed by the quake, and a room at the diocesan offices. The building that housed the diocesan offices is the only Episcopal Church building in Port-au-Prince that survives relatively intact, according to Duracin.
At night, he said, he sleeps in a tent in the yard of a house that before the quake was being built for the Duracin family in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. When the quake hit, the house in which the bishop and his family were living collapsed, trapping and injuring his wife, Marie-Edithe.
Within a few days of the earthquake, the Rev. Kesner Ajax, head of the diocese's Bishop Tharp Institute of Business and Technology (BTI) in Les Cayes, managed to take the bishop's wife, their children and two diocesan employees to Zanmi Lasante, the Partners in Health (http://www.pih.org) hospital at Cange on the central plateau outside of the Haitian capital.
Mme. Duracin, whose leg was severely injured, was later transferred to the USNS Comfort hospital ship. The Rev. Lauren Stanley, an Episcopal Church-appointed missionary to Haiti and Duracin's liaison in the U.S., told ENS that George Packard, bishop suffragan for federal ministries, and others helped the Haitian bishop and his wife relay messages to each other. An Evangelical Lutheran Church in America chaplain, Commander David Oravec, has been visiting Mrs. Duracin on the ship.
"Here in Haiti, we are not well," Duracin told ENS. "If someone is alive in Haiti now, it is a miracle."
"I would like the church at large to know we are in a very, very difficult situation," Duracin said, adding that relief workers have told him that they have never seen such devastation or such a complicated relief effort, even after the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia.
Duracin spoke to ENS in both English and French as he described life in Haiti and the work of the diocese in caring for survivors of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit just outside of Port-au-Prince in the later afternoon of Jan. 12.
The quake left an estimate 200,000 dead and made homeless hundreds of thousands of people. About a third of Haiti's approximately 9 million people lived in Port-au-Prince before the quake.
The Episcopal Church of Haiti, known locally as L'Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti, is caring for about 25,000 Haitians in roughly 20 makeshift camps. Since the quake, many people have left the capital for the countryside. While the exodus could eventually improve the country's economy and its ability to sustain itself, the out-migration isreportedly straining the meager resources of rural communities.
Duracin said almost all Episcopal Church buildings -- schools as well as churches and the Sisters of St. MargaretConvent -- in Port-au-Prince "are gone," but "every Sunday there are services, even at the cathedral … everything has been lost but … our communities are alive." For instance, the bishop said, a group gathers behind the ruins of Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral) "to continue to pray and to receive communion."
"In spite of everything that happened to Haiti -- that happened in Port-au-Prince -- the church is alive and strong," Duracin said, through translator Margareth Crosnier de Bellaistre, Episcopal Church Center director of investment management and banking.
"They look at the future and they see hope, and they are optimistic about the future," Duracin said. "They invite all their brothers and sisters in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion to help them physically to re-build the church."
However, Duracin warned that the diocese is not now prepared to welcome people. He said he understands that many people would like to come to Haiti and help in that work, but "there is no way for the church to receive any visitors right now."
Everyone, including himself, sleeps outside, the bishop said. Even at the few hotels that are still standing, guests must sleep outside for fear of aftershocks and the unknown condition of those buildings that are still standing, he added.
Thus, he said, the best way for Episcopalians to aid the diocese right now is to contribute to Episcopal Relief & Development.
"We are grateful to ERD. They are really helping," Duracin said. "They have come here. They have started working with us in this emergency, but now we have to think about the future."
Since shortly after the quake, Katie Mears, Episcopal Relief & Development's program manager for USA disaster preparedness and response, and Kirsten Muth, the agency's senior program director, have been operating out of the church center in New York and the Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. They have been assisting the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic's efforts to aid its neighbors to the west, as well as the Haitian diocese itself.
"It is very difficult for us to plan for the future now because we have so many people who have been injured so we have to take care of them," Duracin said. "So many have died, so many people have no houses so we are taking care of them to see how we can provide tents for them. We need a lot of things now in Haiti."
Duracin has begun to steer at least part of the diocese's focus toward the future. He appointed a 15-member special commission to help him in that response. The commission is made up of clergy, laity and one of the Sister of St. Margaret -- "people who reflect the whole diocese," the bishop said.
One of the commission's subcommittees is looking specifically at building reconstruction, Duracin said. "We have to wait before beginning reconstruction because I suspect we have to re-think the type of construction in Haiti now," he said.
Meanwhile, many people, including Duracin, are living in tents or makeshift shelters. The bishop said he splits his days between the survivors' camp on a rocky field at College Ste. Pierre, a diocesan school destroyed by the quake, and a room at the diocesan offices. The building that housed the diocesan offices is the only Episcopal Church building in Port-au-Prince that survives relatively intact, according to Duracin.
At night, he said, he sleeps in a tent in the yard of a house that before the quake was being built for the Duracin family in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. When the quake hit, the house in which the bishop and his family were living collapsed, trapping and injuring his wife, Marie-Edithe.
Within a few days of the earthquake, the Rev. Kesner Ajax, head of the diocese's Bishop Tharp Institute of Business and Technology (BTI) in Les Cayes, managed to take the bishop's wife, their children and two diocesan employees to Zanmi Lasante, the Partners in Health (http://www.pih.org) hospital at Cange on the central plateau outside of the Haitian capital.
Mme. Duracin, whose leg was severely injured, was later transferred to the USNS Comfort hospital ship. The Rev. Lauren Stanley, an Episcopal Church-appointed missionary to Haiti and Duracin's liaison in the U.S., told ENS that George Packard, bishop suffragan for federal ministries, and others helped the Haitian bishop and his wife relay messages to each other. An Evangelical Lutheran Church in America chaplain, Commander David Oravec, has been visiting Mrs. Duracin on the ship.
"Here in Haiti, we are not well," Duracin told ENS. "If someone is alive in Haiti now, it is a miracle."
"I would like the church at large to know we are in a very, very difficult situation," Duracin said, adding that relief workers have told him that they have never seen such devastation or such a complicated relief effort, even after the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Haiti 18
Episcopal Relief & Development Collaborating on Earthquake Response in Haiti
Updated February 1, 2010
In the wake of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, Episcopal Relief & Development has been working closely with local partners to assist those most impacted by this disaster. It is estimated that one in three Haitians were affected by the quake, roughly three million people.
In the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, Episcopal Relief & Development is offering technical support and funds to help secure critical supplies for those in need. In addition to supplying food and water, the agency has secured vehicles to assist the diocese in delivering supplies, fuel for those vehicles and camping supplies to provide shelter. These efforts are expanding the diocese’s capacity to help the 25,000 survivors who are currently residing in 23 diocesan camps. Episcopal Relief & Development is also helping the diocese increase its capacity and human resources by enabling them to hire camp liaisons and logistics personnel.
The camps, many of which are located at the sites of the Episcopal churches and schools, range in size from a few hundred people to 8000. Camps are located in the following areas:
Crois des Bouquets Grand Colline
Leogane 17th section de Poucey
Port au Prince Petit Harpon
Delmas Bouteau
Carrefour Miragoane
Bolosse Petit-tron de Napps
Taifer Bainet
Pointe Rouille L'azile
Cape Haitian Kompan
Montrouis
Prior to the earthquake Episcopal Relief & Development was partnering with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti’s Development Office. This diverse program included fostering a network of 28 community development workers trained in disaster management. Since the quake, these development agents have completed initial needs assessments in their own communities, and they are providing their data to the Diocese and Episcopal Relief & Development. Their information is enabling the Diocese and Episcopal Relief & Development to work together, setting priorities for ongoing relief and recovery efforts.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, activities supported by Episcopal Relief & Development include:
Episcopal Diocese of Haiti
•Supplying over five tons of food to survivors living in diocesan camps. This includes both purchased and donated food.
•Delivering food by helicopter to six camps not accessible by vehicles. These camps are inhabited by more than 15,000 survivors. Each drop contains 216 pounds of rice, 204 pounds of beans, 12 gallons of oil and 36 kilograms milk powder.
•Constructing permanent latrines and clean water sites in eight camps. These new facilities will be earthquake-resistant. In addition to providing sanitation and clean water, the construction is creating jobs in affected communities.
•Working closely with the Diocesan Disaster Council, which has been charged by Bishop Duracin to coordinate the earthquake response and long-term recovery plans.
IMA World Health
•Providing 25 medicine boxes to diocesan community health workers. Each box contains enough pain relief medications, nutritional supplements, antibiotics and basic first aid supplies to assist 1,000 people in diocesan camps.
Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic
•Procuring and purchasing three trucks to transport supplies. Two of these trucks are being used by the Diocese of Haiti and the third is being used by the Diocese of the Dominican Republic.
•Gathering critical supplies and taking three supply shipments from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince each week.
Updated February 1, 2010
In the wake of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, Episcopal Relief & Development has been working closely with local partners to assist those most impacted by this disaster. It is estimated that one in three Haitians were affected by the quake, roughly three million people.
In the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, Episcopal Relief & Development is offering technical support and funds to help secure critical supplies for those in need. In addition to supplying food and water, the agency has secured vehicles to assist the diocese in delivering supplies, fuel for those vehicles and camping supplies to provide shelter. These efforts are expanding the diocese’s capacity to help the 25,000 survivors who are currently residing in 23 diocesan camps. Episcopal Relief & Development is also helping the diocese increase its capacity and human resources by enabling them to hire camp liaisons and logistics personnel.
The camps, many of which are located at the sites of the Episcopal churches and schools, range in size from a few hundred people to 8000. Camps are located in the following areas:
Crois des Bouquets Grand Colline
Leogane 17th section de Poucey
Port au Prince Petit Harpon
Delmas Bouteau
Carrefour Miragoane
Bolosse Petit-tron de Napps
Taifer Bainet
Pointe Rouille L'azile
Cape Haitian Kompan
Montrouis
Prior to the earthquake Episcopal Relief & Development was partnering with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti’s Development Office. This diverse program included fostering a network of 28 community development workers trained in disaster management. Since the quake, these development agents have completed initial needs assessments in their own communities, and they are providing their data to the Diocese and Episcopal Relief & Development. Their information is enabling the Diocese and Episcopal Relief & Development to work together, setting priorities for ongoing relief and recovery efforts.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, activities supported by Episcopal Relief & Development include:
Episcopal Diocese of Haiti
•Supplying over five tons of food to survivors living in diocesan camps. This includes both purchased and donated food.
•Delivering food by helicopter to six camps not accessible by vehicles. These camps are inhabited by more than 15,000 survivors. Each drop contains 216 pounds of rice, 204 pounds of beans, 12 gallons of oil and 36 kilograms milk powder.
•Constructing permanent latrines and clean water sites in eight camps. These new facilities will be earthquake-resistant. In addition to providing sanitation and clean water, the construction is creating jobs in affected communities.
•Working closely with the Diocesan Disaster Council, which has been charged by Bishop Duracin to coordinate the earthquake response and long-term recovery plans.
IMA World Health
•Providing 25 medicine boxes to diocesan community health workers. Each box contains enough pain relief medications, nutritional supplements, antibiotics and basic first aid supplies to assist 1,000 people in diocesan camps.
Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic
•Procuring and purchasing three trucks to transport supplies. Two of these trucks are being used by the Diocese of Haiti and the third is being used by the Diocese of the Dominican Republic.
•Gathering critical supplies and taking three supply shipments from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince each week.
As often as possible, Episcopal Relief & Development prefers to purchase items locally. This practice supports local economic recovery, creates local employment and ensures Haitian leadership in program design and management.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Haiti 17
02-01-2010BY JEFF BRANSCOME (Fredericksburg Freelance Star)
The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley checked an e-mail from Haiti on her iPhone as she was introduced yesterday at St. George's Episcopal Church.
"My job doesn't stop," she told about 30 people who had come to hear her story. "We're trying to get food for one of our refugee camps, and we're having trouble."
Stanley, who is a missionary in Haiti for the Episcopal Church, held a 50-minute forum and also preached at the church in downtown Fredericksburg.
She spoke about the magnitude-7 earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12.
"This is personal for me because Haiti's my home," she said. "These are my kin."
She said it would take at least 25 years to rebuild the island nation, and called on everyone to help.
"We're not asking whether you want to be involved," she said. "We're asking how you want to be involved."
Stanley was in Virginia for theological studies when the quake hit. For now, she has been tasked by the Episcopal bishop of Haiti, the Rt. Rev. Jean Zache Duracin, with coordinating relief and development efforts from here.
In fact, the e-mail she received at the beginning of yesterday's forum was from a relief agency.
In an interview with The Free Lance-Star, she said she recently stopped a sermon in Burke to take a phone call from the Episcopal Church's headquarters in New York. It confirmed that two missing missionaries were alive.
"That was a phone call worth taking in the middle of my sermon," she said.
During yesterday's forum, Stanley addressed news reports that the U.S. had stopped flying critically injured quake victims to American hospitals for treatment because of a dispute over who would pay the medical bills.
"If we cannot help our brothers and sisters right off our shore, I am going to stand at the White House, and I am going to scream and yell," Stanley said.
Some Haitian parents, she said, have let their children die rather than have lifesaving amputations because "to be an amputee in Haiti is to be condemned to a life of poverty."
But not all the news is bad.
Aid organizations are working together. "We're getting the supplies, and we're helping the people--believe me on that," Stanley said.
The Episcopal Church has a 149-year history in Haiti, and educates about 85,000 Haitian children.
"The church is strong in Haiti, and the earthquake isn't going to stop us," Stanley said.
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