(ANS – Rome) – On 12 January 2010 an earthquake of 7.0 with its epicentre about 25 kilometres from Port-au-Prince severely struck Haiti. The extent of the damage was enormous; according to the International Red Cross and UNO, over 3 million people were caught up in the earthquake. Two years later the work of re-construction continues, and for the Salesian, the task of educating and training the young.

The Salesians, who this year will shortly celebrate their 75 years in Haiti, and their work were seriously affected. In various places buildings were damaged and collapsed, but more tragic was the loss of human life. Brother Hubert Sanon, two young Salesians in formation, Atsime Wilfrid and Vibrun Valsaint, and about 250 youngsters in the ENAM centre were buried under the rubble. Other pupils from Salesian schools and members of the Salesian Family lost their lives when their homes, churches or places of work collapsed.

The Madrid Mission Office has issued a press release with some information about the work of the Salesians in Haiti, concerned in the first place to educate and train the next generation of Haitians.

There are over 23,000 children and young people and more than 1,200 teachers at present in the Salesian centres of education: schools and vocational training centres. After two years of intense work and great efforts, many youngsters once again have the opportunity to be educated and to take the lead in the re-birth of their country.

For example, at Cap Haitien over 850 youngsters attend ordinary school and there are 145 in the agricultural school; in the Don Bosco Polytechnical Centre at Fort Liberté 120 students are following courses in building and carpentry and in the School of Nursing. At Timtake there are over 600 pupils and soon there will be places for over 1,000 youngsters in the centre at Gressier, which in October received a visit from Queen Sophía of Spain.

Port-au-Prince was the area most affected by the earthquake on 12 January 2010. Hundreds of thousands of people in the capital were looking for help and the means of survival. Since then after two years, great progress has been made but much still needs to be done in one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the “United Nations Development Programme” there are still today about 600,000 people in refugee camps without a home to go to; only 25% of the rubble has been removed. Cholera killed over 7,000 people in 2011.

In Haiti over  80% of the population were living in poverty before the earthquake, and half the population could not read or write. “Haiti is not a country afflicted by the earthquake of January 2010, it is a country that has been despoiled many times before that,” the Haitian economist Camille Chalmers has said. Certainly, “Haiti is a strong country and the earthquake has given us the possibility of making it a better country,” say the Salesians who have been working there for 75 years.

Published 12/01/2012