Trip team Members:
Gerti Leonard, Al
Dornan,
Heather Morassini, Jessica Suarez, Jack Tomasiello,
Sal Uccello, Betty
and Steve Weaver, Barbara Wysocki, Bob McNally,
Jeff Cantin and Father
Jim
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The entire group on the steps of the Chapel of Mary
Magdelene in Vialye - 2001
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The mountain chapel of the Holy Family
is one of
sixteen that are part of the church
in Vialye - 2001
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Bookmarks
for Articles on this page:
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PARISH TRIP TO
HAITI
The beginning.
In January of 2000, Jeff Cantin, while in training to be a Physician’s
Assistant, went on a medical mission trip to Haiti. There he spent 10
days touring from the Norwich Mission House to visit poverty stricken orphanages,
hospitals, schools, a home for handicapped children and many other
places. Members of his group distributed books, medicine, computers and
gifts for the children who live in poverty. While on his trip, Jeff
decided that he wanted an opportunity to go back to Haiti in the future,
with his church and a mission.
After much organizing, in March of 2001, 12 members of Saint
Elizabeth Seton will travel to Haiti to tour the poverty stricken areas
and team up with a parish in need. Called "Parish Twinning",
the church group will attempt to find a parish that they feel would be a
good spiritual match with Saint Elizabeth Seton. After selecting a
Haitian parish, members of Saint Elizabeth Seton will establish their
presence there and get involved in a long-term commitment to help the
parish with its ongoing needs.
Once the "Parish Twinning" is established, Jeff is hoping
that there would be an annual trip of a Saint Elizabeth Seton delegation
to Haiti, and that a delegation from the Haitian parish can travel to
the U.S. to visit Saint Elizabeth Seton on an annual basis. Fundraisers
will be established at Saint Elizabeth Seton with proceeds to be used
for the needs of the Haitian parish and to fund the trips back and forth
to Haiti. A trip to Haiti will cost approximately $900.00 to $1,000.00
per person. Many donations have been made toward the first parish trip
to Haiti already, which has made it easier for many people to go on the
trip.
Once in Haiti, the delegates will spend the first two to three days
visiting parishes that have particular needs. The delegates will then
decide at a later time which parish to select. For the rest of the
visit, the delegates will spend their time touring some of the same
poverty-stricken areas that Jeff visited on his first trip to Haiti.
Saint Elizabeth Seton Haitian delegates are: Gerti Leonard, Al Dronan,
Heather Morassini, Jessica Suarez, Jack Tomasiello, Sal Uccello, Betty
and Steve Weaver, Barbara Wysocki, Bob McNally, Jeff Cantin and Father
Jim. Donations toward the parish trip to Haiti would be gratefully
accepted by the delegation.
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We Come To Tell Our Story of Haiti
School in Haiti
by Betty Weaver
In Haiti only 50% of the
children attend school. Only about 10% are really educated. At Sacred
Heart School in Viyale, eight hundred children from preschool through
sixth grade are educated. For many of these students, school stops at
the end of sixth grade.
A typical classroom in Viyale has
concrete floors, bare concrete walls with openings for light and air and
no electricity or running water. Classrooms are crowded. The chalkboards
are old and worn. Older children have their own desks; younger ones
share benches and tables. Older children have a few books and writing
tablets. Younger children have tiny slates and nubs of white chalk to
write their lessons. Each teacher has a small square desk and a wooden
chair.
One building houses 200 fourth and
fifth graders. It has the "open classroom" concept. Rickety 4
x 8 plywood sheets attached end-to-end divide the children into four
classes. One would never know there were 200 children in there!
Respect is key. The children were
quiet and attentive. We didn’t see one child being disciplined. Each
class was proud to sing for us, recite poetry or show us their lessons
in gardening, sewing or math. They were proud to welcome "visitor
americano".
We saw no children with special needs
in this school. I wondered where they were. There are no truant officers
or DCF (Department of Children and Families) in Haiti so they probably
are not provided for.
The children wear uniforms to school
whether in the village of Viyale or the city of Port-au-Prince.
Different grade levels have different uniforms. No matter how poor a
home they come from, their uniforms are clean and beautifully pressed.
One needs to realize that there is very little electricity in Haiti.
Even if a family can afford electricity, they cannot depend on having
it. There is precious little of it as with safe, running water. So
without a washer and dryer, how do these children look so nice for
school? Clothes are washed by hand and hung out to dry. And if you can
imagine, the uniforms are the pressed with charcoal heated irons.
School at Sacred Heart is certainly a
different experience than mine at Cromwell High. Although the needs are
so great in Haiti, I was truly touched by the simplicity of school in
Haiti and how the teachers and administrators manage. I try not to
complain now when I am reminded that I don’t have a phone in my
classroom to call parents or employers at our job sites or that I don’t
have an internet connection for my students to use. I quickly remember
school in Haiti and just how very little they have.
Education is the key to progress.
Whatever we can do to help educate the children of Haiti will help them
to break the cycle of desperation that they are in.
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A Roof For A School
By Salvatore Uccello
Building a structure is very different in Haiti than
it is here. Most buildings in the poorer neighborhoods of the city and
in the rural areas are made from the immediately available raw materials
usually found right at the site.
The very poor in the rural areas have structures made
from bamboo and woven palm leaves or grass for the walls and roof. None
have toilet facilities or running water. The cooking is done outside the
structure using wood charcoal or coal fuel. Clothes are washed in the
local stream and placed on nearby bushes for the sun to dry.
We witnessed some building sites while we were in the
City of Port Au Prince. The buildings are constructed with cinder blocks
that are made right at the building site. The cinder blocks serve as the
finished material for the exterior as well as the interior of the
buildings. Small slots are left on each wall to act as windows for
ventilation and light. They do not have the money or access to glass or
screens for windows.
The roof is usually where people will spend the most
money. We saw many abandoned structures built of stones or cinder blocks
without roofs. The builders of these structures probably could not come
up with the money to pay for the roof structure. Most roofs are composed
of strips of tin or welded pieces of different metals from scrap. The
roof structures we saw were rusty looking and probably leaked.
While we were visiting the Sacred Heart Parish in
Viale, we were shown the unfinished school structure at the Parish
school. It is a two-story cinder block structure that had no roof. When
we questioned the Pastor that evening at dinner, as to the greatest need
for the parish, he quickly responded, the roof for the school. He said
they have out grown the present building and some children do not have
classroom when it rains. The Pastor said he was being reassigned in a
few months and his dream would be to leave his friends in the parish
with a completed school. Our parish provided the funds needed to
complete the school from your donations for our Parish mission to Haiti
2001.
THANK YOU!
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Eyes in Haiti
By Betty Weaver
As Joe approached another milestone in his life (the
big 4-0), he planned a huge celebration. This was a big one and he would
do it big! He sent invitations to ALL his family and friends. On the
invitation her quested that there be no gifts. Guests could make a
donation instead to the eye clinic, part of the Haitian Health
Foundation in Jeremy, Haiti. You see, Haitians can develop cataracts
from all the dust and bright sun by the age of thirty-five. Eye care,
along with all medical care, is not just readily available to Haitians
as we are used to here in our country.
The party was a wonderful success and after the
guests left,
Joe counted the donations his family and friends had
given. They donated over $2,500 for Joe to give to the eye clinic! You
see, Joe is an optometrist who supports the work of medical persons and
others who do mission work in Haiti. Joe and his family were members of
Saint Elizabeth Seton until they moved too far to "commute"
with small children. What a wonderful way to spend a milestone. Thanks,
Joe for your generosity and example!
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Mme. Sonson’s Feeding Program
By Bob McNally
A few days into our stay in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, we left the Mission House for a walk in the
neighborhood. We climbed up a steep, dusty road for a while, and then
turned off and descended down a steep, sometimes slippery dirt and stone
path, which wound between cramped and crowded residences and shops.
Finally we came to Madame Sonson’s place. With financial support from
the Norwich Mission House, Mme. Sonson operates a daily soup kitchen out
of her home for kids in the neighborhood. Without her program, those
children would have little if anything to eat. When we arrived, the kids
– there must have been forty or more – were all lined up on benches
with their metal bowls and spoons a t the ready. They sang several songs
to welcome us, and they were extremely well behaved and patient –
despite the heat and the dust and their hunger. Mme. Sonson also has the
kids pray before they eat. After a few minutes, several of her
assistants carried out a huge pot of food – it looked like corn meal
– which she proceeded to ladle out, add gravy, and distribute to the
kids. Mme. Sonson runs a very tight ship – there was no pushing or
shoving or shouting, and everyone waited patiently for his serving –
but her love and concern for the kids was obvious. Our visit gave us a
powerful example of what one person can do in the face of what appears
to be overwhelming adversity.
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A Morning at the Children’s Hospital
By Barbara Wysocki
After ten days in Haiti, I thought I was prepared
to visit a children’s hospital run by Mother Theresa’s order. I wasn’t.
We’d only been in the place five minutes when I found tears welling in
my eyes. I retreated to a workroom where a man from New Hampshire stood
disinfecting containers. "You didn’t last long," he said
good-humoredly. We exchanged a few words and I wiped away a few tears.
Then I headed down the hall where I heard a child crying. When I picked
up little Vilton, we both cried for awhile. Gradually he calmed but it
was a half-hour before he shuddered under his last hiccuping sob.
Because it was visiting day, there weren’t too many crying babies.
Many mothers were feeding their children, so Vilton and I looked out the
windows and played with a rubber glove balloon. But after two hours, the
bell rang for all visitors to leave. I dreaded putting this frail
toddler back in his clean, but spare room; I knew he’d start to cry
again. Then I realized how much harder it must be for all those mothers
putting their own babies into the other cribs in Vilton’s room. These
mothers knew their precious little ones would cry, but in hopes of
getting them well, they left them in the Sister’s care until the next
visiting day.
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A Story of a Martyr
by Fr. Jim
As we mentioned at Mass last weekend, the
missionaries in Haiti mourn the loss of one of their own – Maureen
Nielson, age 33. We met Maureen on Wednesday, March 7, 2001. We had
joined the Sisters and guests at the Hospice Saint Joseph for Mass in
the early morning and then went to Paula Thybulle’s Orphanage and
Clinic. Paula was a Haitian woman who lived and worked for many years in
New Jersey and after a conversion experience and call from God returned
to her native Haiti to found an orphanage – Foyer Des Filles de Dieu/Clinic
Notre Dame de Lourdes. Paula was sick the day we were there and instead
Maureen welcomed us with great joy. She had three little girls clinging
to her as she entered the room and explained that since they were too
young for school, they would stick with her most of the day. She
explained her own call to the people of Haiti and how much she loved her
work. She gave us a tour of the facility and answered all our questions.
She had the girls sing and dance for us outside and they enjoyed the
lollipops we brought. Sadly we learned that on Friday, March 23, 2001,
as she was leaving a bank in Port au Prince, a car pulled up and she was
shot in the neck and her bag taken. She died before they got her to the
hospital. She had no money with her – a senseless act of random
violence. We offer our prayers for her and her family in Rochester, New
York. May her life and death be a testament to the giving of one’s
self for others. May the girls of the orphanage who mourn her loss
receive comfort and the needed care they so deserve as "daughters
of God."
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A Story of
Personal Space
by Fr. Jim
The very first thing I noticed when we arrived at
the Norwich Mission House in Port au Prince was how the people in this
hot, crowded and dusty city all lived, worked, prayed and played side by
side. In all of Haiti, in the city and the country, people are not
concerned about a specific space for this or a space for that. Since
there are no closed windows and often limited walls, everything sort of
takes place simultaneously. Quiet is rare, even in the middle of the
night. We slept six in one room. When we gathered for prayer or
reflection in the Mission House "chapel", a white grate was
our "wall" and just yards away was a grammar school where the
children were singing and playing – often times louder than we were!
Likewise across the street, there were no barriers between people
selling food and clothes, those living in a garbage dump or those making
beds or grates out of iron. What a luxury our quiet time and personal
space is. It is a challenge to us to make sure that it does not isolate
us from one another.
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