HAITI
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
In the spring of 2004 Notre Dame Parish was visited by Deacon Eugene Parrabo, a program Director for Christian Child Care International [CCCI]. It was during this visit that he invited any interested parishioners to travel with him that coming fall to Haiti. Subsequently Father Chris Lynch, Mark Stanistreet and David Lowe made the first Parish mission trip to Haiti in October 2004.
During there visit the group visited various school project sites developed by CCCI. These schools are funded by CCCI through a sponsorship program. A sponsored child receives a school uniform, a cooked meal, access to basic heath care and a paid education. It was at one of these project sites, a small village 6km west of Jeremie called Carrefour Sanon, that the group came across a situation calling for action. The school children had to eat their meals outdoors, as there was no facility for them to eat indoors; furthermore, the food they were eating was limited to cold plates as there were no cooking facilities. The group was told that a cafeteria was needed but no funding was available from the Haitian government and that the cost of the building would be about $25,000.
On their return, Fr Chris, Mark, and David presented to parish council the opportunity for the Parish to fund the building of a cafeteria. Parish council approved and the fund raising project was given the name Building Blocks for Haiti.
The Parishes response to the appeal was outstanding and $45,000 was raised. The following year the project was completed and the cafeteria was officially put into use in September 2005. The project came in on budget leaving a surplus of $20,000. These additional funds enabled the parish to finance two more, much needed projects. The second project being the building of a classroom at a trade school located in the town of Latibolliere at a cost $8,000. The third project was the building of a small convent home to provide housing to a group of Nuns who provide care to the aged and homeless in a village called Mafranc.
In addition to the above capital projects, the parish has donated $1,000.00 to an orphanage in Jeremie, purchased school supplies for the school children of Carrrefour Sanon and donated $3000 for Sister Monica’s food program in Jeremie. The parish has also donated clothing, Tylenol and school supplies.
THE FUTURE:
Through the parish’s commitment in helping the poor and needy of Haiti, Notre Dame has established a bond with The Good Shepherd Sisters of Jeremie. Through this relationship the parish is now able to plan for other mission trips and hopefully undertake new initiatives.
SISTER MONICA’S FOOD PROGRAM
Sister Monica’s food program is an outreach to feed the homeless people of Jeremie. These homeless folk are the truly disadvantaged, they are the poorest of the poor. Many of them are blind and live their lives begging on the streets. They have nothing as their only possessions are the clothes on their backs; though many are without shoes. Once a week, they gather in a community hall where prayers are said, and hymns are sung, but the highlight for these people is the distribution of the food. There is nothing fancy to offer: just a big scoop of rice. The rice is put into a plastic bag and they leave with a smile on their face. Throughout the next week, they will trade this rice for other food. It is an accepted practice for the homeless to go to peoples homes and trade a cup of rice for a meal. This is how they are fed.
This simple program is both effective and efficient. It costs about $50.00 to buy enough rice to feed one homeless person for one year, or $5,000.00 to fund the whole program.
To date, Sister Monica has no funding in place for the forthcoming year.
Contact David.
