From Haiti

After more than a week of frustrating uncertainty and lack of communication, telephone communication between the Fondwa community and the US has been re-established and conditions on the ground there are improving little by little. An "extreme team" from Heart to Heart International were the first to visit the Fondwa community after the quake of January 12, 2010 destroyed more than 20 years of infrastructure development by PIP's Fondwa partners, the Association of Peasants of Fondwa (APF). The team brought water, food, and medicines to the Sisters of St. Antoine and more than 50 children from the Fatima House orphanage. Soon after, Sr. Judy Dohner, HM, who was living in Fondwa at the time of the quake, delivered two tents and additional supplies. The Sisters are now operating a field clinic from one of the tents and are again providing medical care to the Fondwa community.

An APF engineer made an initial assessment of damage to property last week. Among other things he found that the orphanage suffered structural damage to its foundation, but that may be repairable. There are 3 pre-school classrooms at the St. Antoine School that are still standing and may be able to be rehabilitated for later use. A separate building with 3 classrooms is still standing. This building was found to be minimally damaged and can be restored for use. The school campus will have to be carefully cleared of rubble, but APF has set an ambitious goal of reopening the school in some manner by March 1.

Damage to the APF community and guest center (with the clinic and radio station) was severe, but rebuilding on the same location will be possible. The adjacent depot was also severely damaged, but a separate, unfinished building (intended to be a dormitory for the University of Fondwa 2004) survived mostly intact except for cracks in the water cisterns built into the foundation. The cisterns are repairable and construction can eventually be resumed on the building.

Several APF members and others in the community lost houses and suffered damage to property. Still efforts are underway to recover a degree of normalcy in Fondwa. The bakery and beverage depot are reported to be reopened and functioning!

Waiting, praying, hoping.

The sight of "ti machan yo" - the market women - selling in the open air markets of Haiti has always been a comfortably familiar one during my many visits to Haiti. They sit patiently all day waiting, hoping, and perhaps praying for a customer and a sale.

It is, I suppose, an odd form of solidarity with the "ti machan yo" of Haiti that today we must continue to wait, and pray, and hope for news of our friends, associates and partners in the aftermath of the massive earthquake that shook Haiti only two days ago. Yesterday and today were a blur of activity - answering phones and emails - against a background of waiting, praying and hoping. Our senses are flooded with the sheer magnitude of the disaster as the airwaves overflow with images of devastation and suffering. The news we most want to hear - the fate of our partners, who are also our friends - does not sound in our ears.

In past visits to Haiti I have noticed too how common it is to see makeshift and pieced-together objects fashioned from bits of this and pieces of that. Any Haitian boy can fashion a kit from a few sticks, a split-open plastic bag, and some string. It is again an odd form of solidarity with the people of Haiti that our considerable efforts to know about our friends and partners yield only a bit of information here, a scrap of news there and we begin to piece them together. William escaped the collapse as did Paulin and Remy. One of the brothers died. George is safe in Canape Vert. Little Therese was located and all the children at the orphanage are safe. Their house collapsed but the boys and Michael are all right, except for that one boy whose arm is broken. Leigh is injured, but will recover. Joseph is OK. Ernst is OK too. The place we knew as "home" is in ruins, but Max and the others are safe.

At the end of the day we are grateful for those bits and shreds of news - good news most of it. But still we know nothing about our many other partners who are also our friends. Not even a clever Haitian boy could fashion a kite from what we have. So we wait. We pray. We hope.

Dear Friend of PIP,

At 4:47 pm yesterday a 7.0 earthquake shook Haiti, collapsing much of the capital of Port au Prince and causing widespread death and destruction. A series of more than a dozen aftershocks - many of which themselves were classified as "large earthquakes" - continued to collapse buildings made vulnerable by the first quake, rendering them uninhabitable and forcing survivors to remain outdoors through the night.

We know the devastation is severe, but thus far - with phone lines down and electricity scarce - we have only scant information about any our friends and partners who live and work in the areas that were so severely shaken.

Already our friends and supporters are asking "How can we help?" We first invite your prayers for the immediate victims of the devastation and their families and for those who will suffer in the days ahead as the effects are compounded.

Contributions to provide immediate disaster relief can be made to:

Catholic Relief Services, www.crs.org
The American Red Cross, http://www.redcross.org

It is too early to know how best to respond to the needs our own partners, particularly the Association of Peasants of Fondwa (APF) and Centre d'Intervention Jeunesse (CIJ), but also the schools, churches and other projects in and near Port au Prince that receive support from PIP. We anticipate there will be significant need for disaster assistance. Therefore, we are immediately setting up an "Earthquake Relief" fund that will help us respond to their needs.

DONATIONS can be made online at DONATE NOW or checks marked "earthquake relief" can be mailed to Partners in Progress, 329 N. Fairfield Street, Ligonier, PA.
We will continue to update you via the PIP e-news distribution list and my blog .

Thank you,

Rich Gosser
Executive Director

Partners in Progress
329 N. Fairfield Street
Ligonier, PA 15658