Print   

---

Related documents

Haiti – Life begins again

RMG – Coordination Meeting for Haiti

---

---

(ANS – Port-au-Prince) – The efforts of the Salesians in dealing with the emergency and the reconstruction of Haiti after the earthquake continue. Further progress was made at a meeting between 10 and 13 April of Missionary Offices and NGO at Port-au-Prince as a follow up to the meeting in Rome on 27 March where support for the “Rinaldi Foundation” was confirmed.

Among those present were Fr Ducange Sylvain, Superior of the Vice Province of Haiti, and Fr Francesco Cereda, Councillor for Formation in the name of the Rector Major. On 11 April they visited the centres affected by the earthquake of 12 January.

On Monday 12 Fr Sylvain opened proceedings declaring once again “Haiti must rise again!” and addressing those present said: “You are the protagonists and the collaborators in this great enterprise!”

Fr Mark Hyde, from the New Rochelle Mission Office, who has been working in Haiti for three months, presented the aims of the meetings. The Principal of the Faculty of Ethnology in Haiti, Dr. Paul Antoine, described the current situation in the country after the earthquake and spoke about the social and historical prospects.

Fr Jacques Charles, former Superior of the Vice Province and the Director of the Rinaldi Foundation, presented the identity, the purpose , the needs and also the limitations of the Foundation, and at the same time the commitment requested from the NGO and the Mission Offices. Fr Sylvain then gave a brief historical account of the presence of the Salesians in Haiti.

In the afternoon the group were joined by the Rectors of the Salesian houses in Haiti and representatives of the sectors for pastoral work with the marginalised, vocational training, education and youth centres.

The NGOs and the Mission Offices confirmed their commitment to providing support and also the collaboration of qualified personnel for the “Rinaldi Foundation” in its work on the ground. The first stages were mapped out for the building of some halls and a dormitory at Gressier and for the training of teachers.

Present at the meeting in Port-au-Prince were representatives of “Jugend Dritte Welt” from Bonn (JWD), “Jóvenes y Desarrollo” from Madrid (JyD), “Jugend Eine Welt”  from Austria, “DMOS-COMIDE” from Bruxelles, “Volontariato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo” (VIS), "JUHILA” from Switzerland, "Builders without borders” from Canada and some Salesians from the Antilles Provice.
 
Published 15/04/2010