EARTHQUAKE
UPDATES
UPDATE: May 12, 2010
The following is an excerpt from a
recent letter from Brother Francklin.
My dear Friends,
A Haitian
knows how to laugh easily, and that confuses and shocks people from
other countries who ask: "Why is he laughing?" For Haitian people,
the joy of living is contagious and therapeutic. It is the reason
there are few insane people and few suicides. Some would say the
Haitian people are fatalists, accepting anything. But I reply this
is a false assumption. Rather, there is in Haiti a profound wisdom
and an unbelievable and realistic ability to wait for the favorable
moment to say or do something. A Haitian knows that, whether acting
for himself or for his country, he cannot fail and he cannot afford
the luxury of throwing himself into ventures with no future.
However, the population is in real need of food aid and work in
order to be able to take its life in hand, and credit in order to
construct earthquake-safe houses. Community soup kitchens are a
welcome relief for refugees who have neither a roof over their heads
nor a stove, but Cash for Work and Food for Word programs are
urgently needed! The State has promised to help families who have
lost everything. Will it be able to honor its promises? The people
in the back country wait, but who will meet their needs?
Francklin
--
Again we at Kindred Journey express our prayerful gratitude for the
ongoing charitable donations in support of the earthquake victims in
Haiti. Today, it is exactly four months since the earthquake,
and your gifts have now reached a total of $317,193.53.
UPDATE: April 5, 2010
Not quite 90 days following the
earthquake, the situation in Port-au-Prince is still chaotic. On
the positive side, those refugees who have relocated to the Central
Plateau around Pandiasou are faring much better.
Click here to read a detailed
update based on the latest news that we have received.
Funds continue to stream into
Kindred Journey. As of now, we are quickly approaching the
$300,000 mark in donations received since the January 12 quake.
Thank you for your generous and ongoing support.
UPDATE: March 30, 2010
A message from Kindred Journey
founder, Msgr. Arnold Gaus:
Through my Haitian contact in St.
Petersburg, FL, who is my contact with Brother Francklin, he recently
shared with me some informative facts. He is housing 700 people in only
80 tents. The children of these Haitian refugees are now enrolled in the
schools around Pandiassou. Each day between 1000 and 1500 children are
receiving two meals. Adults transferred from Port-au-Prince are fed
three times each day if necessary.
The men are being trained in
masonry. Their hand-made cement blocks will be used to construct their
personal huts. Other men are being taught the use of soil about the
lakes, so that they will be able to provide food for their families.
Only one person of the three thousand has requested to return to
Port-au-Prince. Our dollars are paying for medical care in Hinche if
that becomes a necessity. All the Little Brothers are educating these
new neighbors in programs which will lead to self-reliance. AND as of
March 18th Kindred Journey has received a total of $285,768.65. May the
Lord bless each of you for your generous financial assistance which
ultimately will bring about the return of a healthy self-image and
self-respect to these penniless Haitian individuals. Again I express
profound, prayerful gratitude for your loving and caring support for our
brothers and sisters attempting “life” in that devastated country.
UPDATE: March 7, 2010
Hundreds of thousands of Haitians
living in tents or other makeshift dwellings are now facing an
additional hardship, namely, rain on a regular basis. These tents,
providing for temporary housing, are located in dirt-field locations.
Rain causes extreme mud conditions, yes, inside and outside their
dwellings.
As of March 1st, Kindred Journey
Inc. has received $250,810.15. The donors surprise us from time to time.
This quarter million dollars has been received from throughout the
country as well as locally. The Penn Cambria Middle School in Gallitzin
recently sent a check in the amount of $1,260.00. This is not the only
Public School having their students reaching out to the earthquake
families in Haiti.
UPDATE: February 21, 2010
A lengthy letter was released by
Brother Francklin this past week. He had reason to travel from
Pandiassou to Port-au-Prince. He described what he had seen in
Port-au-Prince. More than a million men and women living outdoors under
waterproof tents or simply under a tarp. Thousands of children and
grandchildren are sleeping in the streets. Large numbers suffering from
fever and various types of gastrointestinal distress. Psychotic fear is
prevalent caused by the concern of additional aftershocks. He says that
fear is growing stronger and that three million of his compatriots are
profoundly traumatized.
Aid is not getting everywhere in
Port-au-Prince or to the countryside. He says that in the Central
Plateau where he lives, only one municipality out of 12 is receiving
aid. About to receive ten 40-foot containers of food and supplies from
Canada, he is concerned for their safe transportation from
Port-au-Prince to Hinche. The contents from these containers will be
shared with 12 municipalities involving 52,000 people.
He concludes his letter by
thanking, from the bottom of his heart, each and every one who has been
able to show compassion and understanding, especially sharing financial
generosity, to his weeping and martyred people. To date, Kindred Journey
Fund Inc., within a five week period, has received $227,464.53. We
prayerfully and gratefully thank these considerate benefactors.
Click here to read the full
text of Brother Francklin's latest letter entitled "Thirty Days after
the Quake".
UPDATE: February 14, 2010
How overwhelmed we are with the
response of the public to the needs of our brothers and sisters in Haiti.
Since the earthquake barely one month ago, Kindred Journey Fund, Inc.
has raised over $220,000 in cash donations. How pleasantly naive
we were to establish an initial goal of only $50,000!! As
significant contributions continue to flow in from various parts of the
United States, we are now hopeful that by the end of February, we will
have accumulated a quarter of a million dollars.
Click Here to see a description of
some of the fundraising activities that are taking place. Please
forward a description of any activities that you have been involved in
to
webmaster@kindredjourney.org and we will try to post an updated list
of various activities.
Contact was made this past week
with Little Sister Emmanuel in Pandiassou. She was reached by cell phone
as she was working with the peasants in one of the many gardens made
possible by the irrigation pumps Kindred Journey has helped to provide.
She indicated that everyone there is OK but exhausted by the daily
efforts to merely survive. So important is this ministry to earthquake
victims that every member of the Little Brothers/Sisters of the
Incarnation has been recalled to Pandiassou to assist in these efforts.
Brother Francklin is organizing the ever growing number of refugees into
“tent neighborhoods.” The Little Sisters are organizing the women to
prepare and serve a daily meal at the feeding centers, as well as
gathering the children to teach some basic skills. More and more of the
new arrivals are being involved in the planting of new gardens and the
re-planting of existing gardens to expand the food source over the long
haul.
Many refugees arrived with
injuries; the more seriously hurt are being housed at the Clinic and
Birthing Center where Little Sister Nellie helps to oversee their care.
Native Haitian Dr. Clervil, whose family is among the homeless from
Port-au-Prince, is also tending the wounded. There have been more major
aftershocks creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear. Thus, even
the Little Sisters/Little Brothers continue to sleep outdoors in tents.
In Port-au-Prince, hundreds of homeless are housed in tents in the
courtyard of the “Village” school, surrounded by the ruins of former
classroom buildings. The concern now is for the spread of disease such
as malaria, typhoid and TB, as close quarters and the onset of the rainy
season present new challenges. Please continue to pray for our dear
friends in Haiti. Above all, do not forget the great suffering
that is theirs and which will be part of their lives for many years to
come.
UPDATE:
FEBRUARY 7, 2010
You have noticed that TV coverage
of the horrific carnage that continues to be a daily occurrence in Haiti
is gradually fading as noteworthy news. There ought to be a universal
mission applied to this devastated country. What experts are properly
assessing the ongoing deterioration of the vast area damaged by the
January 12th earthquake? Is there in place a coherent strategy in
responding to this natural disaster? Will there be adequate resources
over the course of future years to restore sanity to normal living
conditions for the Haitian people?
Officials are numbering the death
toll at over 200,000 people. This nation, impoverished to begin with, is
earning the title of “one of the worst natural disasters of the
century.” Information has been received that only a limited amount of
food has been provided with the relocating of three thousand
Port-au-Prince residents to Pandiassou. There
will be a strain for Brother Francklin to supply adequate quantities of
food and water to these relocated individuals.
As of February 1st, Holy Name Church parishioners have contributed $59,935.00
toward this emergency appeal. Through sizeable donations to Kindred
Journey Fund, Inc., a cumulative sum of $160,000.00 was wire-transferred
to Brother Francklin’s bank account in St. Petersburg, FL this past
week. We at Kindred Journey are overwhelmed by the financial response to the “cry
of the poor” coming from our Haitian brothers and sisters. Prayerful,
prayerful gratitude to one and all.
UPDATE: JANUARY 20, 2010
Msgr. Arnold Gaus, the founder of
Kindred Journey had established a goal of raising $50,000 by the end of
January. As of the 20th, over $35,000 has already been collected,
and we are hopeful that we can now double that amount by the end of the
month. This is on top of large cash transfer to Haiti in December,
2009, and a supplemental amount just days after the earthquake.
We are thrilled to have received
word that Brother Francklin Armand, Sister Emmanuelle Victor, and all of
the Little Brothers and Little Sisters in Haiti have been accounted for.
They are working diligently to assisted their fellow countrymen in this
huge time of need. Brother Francklin has committed to relocating
3,000 homeless from Port-au-Prince to the village of Pandiasou.
While this may not seem like much given the huge number of people
affected by the quake, taking responsibility for such a group with the
limited resources available in Pandiasou is a formidable task.
Without the work that has been done in and around Pandiasou over the
past 30 years, housing refugees like this would never have been
possible.
Click
Here for Letter from Brother Francklin Armand written shortly after
the earthquake
Please send any questions
or comments to
webmaster@kindredjourney.org
