Today, 22 January, at 10.00 in the morning local time, in Port-au-Prince there will be a meeting of the Councils of the Salesians and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians with Fr Mark Hyde, from the New Rochelle Missions Office. For safety reasons the meeting is taking place outside the Provincial House buildings, “under a tree,” and then at the end of the meeting there will be a visit to the places destroyed by the quake.
The “Cross International” organisation from the Unites States has repeated its readiness to send in the next 2 or 3 days a boat-load of food and first aid equipment; it will call in at the Dominican Republic and from there go to Haiti.
To respond to the emergency situation, an active relief centre will be set up in Santo Domingo. The NGO “Jóvenes y Desarrollo” and VIS will also be making their contribution.
All the gifts of food and other material collected are always transported by road from Barahona to Jimaní, on the frontier between the two countries, where at present the Salesians are looking for a place from which to distribute aid to families.
The Salesians in Thorland have confirmed that on their premises they are looking after 3,000 refugees who have lost everything and in their desperation have asked for help from the Salesian house. The primary and most urgent need is food.
The New Rochelle Salesian Missions Office have held discussions with the “Visionlink, Inc.” company, in attempt to set up a database for first aid. The Company has set up a network of communications with “Cross International” other organisations engaged in the relief effort and more than 200 pharmaceutical companies.
From tomorrow the Council of the Vice Province will start work to establish a set of priorities for the future re-organisation of its activities. Various offers of solidarity for the re-construction have come from the Government of Castiglia and Leon (through “Jóvenes y Desarrolo”), from Misereor/City of Aachen (through the Salesian Missions in Bonn), from the Ministry for Economic Cooperation in Germany and from the Rector Major of the Salesians.
Published 22/01/2010
