January 22, 2010
By Mary Frances Schjonberg

Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin and other members of the diocese briefed two Episcopal Relief & Development officials Jan. 22 about the diocese's relief and recovery priorities.

The meeting came 10 days after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake decimated wide swaths of Haiti just before 5:00 p.m. local time Jan. 12.

It was the second time Katie Mears, the agency's program manager for USA disaster preparedness and response, and Kirsten Muth, Episcopal Relief & Development's senior program director, have been in Port-au-Prince to assist the diocese in the last week.

During that time, Mears and Muth have been operating out of the Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. They are assisting the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic's efforts to aid its neighbors to the west, as well as the Haitian diocese itself.

The Haitian diocese suffered greatly with the quake. A number of the diocese's other 254 schools, ranging from preschools to a university and a seminary, were destroyed or heavily damaged, including the Holy Trinity complex of primary, music and trade schools adjacent to the demolished diocesan Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral) in Port-au-Prince.

A portion of the St. Vincent School for Handicapped Children, also in the Haitian capital, collapsed, killing between six and 10 students and staff. Many of the students are living at the camp while arrangements are being made for them to be housed elsewhere.

More than 100 of the diocese's churches have been damaged or destroyed, Duracin has said.

As many as 3,000 quake survivors, including many members of the diocese, have congregated on a rocky field next to College Ste. Pierre, a diocesan primary school that the quake destroyed. Duracin, who was left homeless by the quake, has led the effort to organize and maintain the camp, where conditions are described as grim.

Episcopal Relief & Development's efforts include coordinating shipments of medical supplies and food to affected rural Haitian communities and parishes, organizing air drops to isolated rural areas and the provision of satellite phones and solar power chargers. The latter will enable coordination of efforts between dioceses and increase the organization's ability to communicate with Duracin and his colleagues as they serve thousands of survivors both in Port au Prince and in other areas served by the Episcopal Church of Haiti.

The agency said Jan. 21 that its work is also helping to establish a response mechanism that can continue to operate efficiently as the recovery process gets underway in the coming weeks and months.

In the days just after the quake, Haitians in various stages of health began fleeing into the Dominican Republic. In addition, because the nation was the closest place where the infrastructure is intact, it became an important relay point in the wave of assistance for Haiti.

On Jan. 21, the Haitian government and the United Nations said that 150 Dominican soldiers could join the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Dominicans will join Peruvian troops that are guarding a humanitarian supply corridor from their country into Haiti. Those reports came amid confusion following reports that Haitian President René Préval had earlier rejected an offer of 800 Dominican troops because of historic tensions between the two countries.

News received from head of Holy Trinity School

Every day more news of the Diocese of Haiti emerges from that country and beyond. For example, on Jan. 22, the Rev. Mere Fernande Pierre-Louis sent an email, as reproduced in a translated version at http://web.me.com/merelaurens/GoIntoTheWorld/Go_Into_The_World/Entries/2010/1/22_Mere_fernande_tells_her_story.html, saying that she is alive and in Montreal with her son where she was receiving medical evaluation and treatment. Pierre-Louis is the headmistress of the Holy Trinity school.

"Alone in the third floor of my house, I was struggling with the multiple falls caused by this devastating earthquake," she recalled in the email. "The house just nearby mine collapsed and hit the side of my house, resulting in the collapse of a part of my house too. My house was shaking so much that objects were falling down and water was spreading all around the third floor where I was. Trying desperately to get out, the quake was so intense that I slipped on the stairs to fall down from the third to the second floor."

The next morning, she said, she went to Holy Trinity to assess the damage. She saw that a part of the school complex had collapsed and the computer room, cafeteria and other parts were seriously damaged.

"I was very shocked and the tragedy was incredible to me," she wrote.

She later went to College Ste. Pierre to meet with Duracin and other members of the diocese.

Two days after the earthquake, Pierre-Louis said, she was having difficulty moving because of the fall she suffered and had caught a heavy cold caused by allergies. Her sons arranged for her to come to Montreal for treatment.

"Thanks be to God, I consider that I am a miracle of God, according to these bad circumstances that I experienced … the Lord saved my life to testify of his almighty power," she wrote. "I'll continue to pray for you, so I ask you to continue to pray for Haiti and for me."

Haiti on the tenth day after the quake

Meanwhile, the overall relief effort in Haiti continued to pick up speed while still facing criticism about disorganization and bottlenecks, rescue operations began to scale back and the ground continued to shake underfoot.

Between 9:15 local time Jan. 21 and 7:54 Jan. 22, Haiti experienced five aftershocks, with the strongest one measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale occurring just before noon Jan. 21.

Further violent outbreaks were reported Jan. 22 as hungry and desperate Haitians awaiting aid were attacked by a stick-wielding mob at a food distribution center on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, the BBC reported.

Joyce and John Pipkin, parishioners at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Columbia, South Carolina, were about two miles from the epicenter of the earthquake on Jan. 12, according to a Jan. 22 report in The State newspaper.

The Pipkins, who have led short-term mission projects to Haiti through their church, cautioned that now was not the time for volunteers to head to the devastated country.

"Unless you are part of a first-responder team, this is not the time to go down," John Pipkin said, according to the newspaper.

That is a sentiment echoed by retired Diocese of South Carolina Bishop William Skilton, assisting bishop in the Dominican Republic, in a recent email to Bob Stevens of the Episcopal Church-related Dominican Development Group.

"I need to make clear that I have not visited Haiti after the earthquake," he wrote on Jan. 17 in an email given to ENS by Stevens. "I really don't have any plans at this time to do so. Someone here looked puzzled and said ‘don't you want to help?' I don't think I can be of help and would be more of a hindrance or burden to them if I went."

Skilton described a recent trip he made with Dominican Republic Bishop Julio Holguin and others to a clinic in Jimaní near the Dominican-Haiti border, during which he learned that what was most needed was medical care, food and nourishment and organized help.

"I know the importance of connecting, and expressing solidarity with those who are suffering and even ministering," he wrote. "But a Cuba/American/Dominican, white-haired, blue-eyed, 69-year-old, non-French/Creole-speaking Bishop is not needed."

Ten days after the quake, more than 75,000 people have been buried in mass graves, according to the Haitian government, with some reports estimating that the death toll could reach as high as 200,000.

The Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration reports that at least 472,000 people are living outdoors in an estimated 508 makeshift camps in the greater Port-au-Prince area.

The Haitian government and the United Nations said Jan. 21 that more than a dozen tent cities will be set up in and around Port-au-Prince, including on the lawn of the heavily damaged presidential palace, according to the New York Times. Reports said that the new encampments could evolve into permanent communities.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces were stepping up efforts Jan. 22 to repair the main seaport in Port-au-Prince, which would serve as a conduit for much-needed emergency supplies to enter Haiti and serve as a lifeline to the millions of people in desperate need.

According to the BBC, 50 percent of the port was destroyed by the earthquake, "but engineers have decided some parts of one pier are strong enough to handle limited amounts of cargo." The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the port can received 250 containers per day and the goal is to increase that number to 350 containers Jan. 25.

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is ENS national correspondent and editor of Episcopal News Monthly. Matthew Davies, ENS editor and international correspondent, contributed to this story.