| Haiti – Giving hope and a future |
| Haiti – Video service on the Salesians in Haiti |
| Haiti – First responses to the emergency |
Fr Charles points out how the Salesians presence in the country goes back a long way: the first Salesians arrived in 1935, at the request of the President of Haiti who had seen the work they were doing in the neighbouring country of the Dominican Republic and wanted them to do the same educational work on behalf of poor young people in Haiti.
During their 75 years in Haiti the Salesians have had to face various challenges. If in the past the main problem was the result of the Dictatorship, today there are other problems which make the work of the Salesians difficult. “The challenges are certainly great. For example we have in Haiti 9 communities, six of which have vocational training and technical schools. With the new problems arising from globalisation, how are we to give a technical training to our young people so as to respond to the needs of today, when there aren’t the qualified teachers and when teaching material and the funds to buy it to provide these youngsters with a high quality education are lacking? The youngsters who come to us are from the poor classes” Nowadays Salesians have to distinguish between the poor and the desperate.
The geographical, political and cultural location of Haiti have great implications. “The main problem is the geographical location of the country,” Fr Charles explains. “We are in Central America, but we are an island with the Dominican Republic as our neighbour where they speak Spanish. We are the only ones to speak French and to have a French culture. We are therefore totally isolated. We are of African origin, we were colonised by the French and we are surrounded by North Americans and Latin Americans. We don’t know which direction to go. I think that all these factors together have an influence on the situation of Haiti”.
As regards Church circles, Fr Charles mentions the support of the Congregation and the help and the concern always shown by the Rector Majors, Fr Viganò, Fr Vecchi and today Fr Chávez.
The problem of education does not only apply to the Salesian schools: the Government, which always points out that it does not have sufficient funds, recently held a Congress on education in which the absolute essential need there is to invest in education emerged in order to resolve the country’s future. This reflection on education also included the Salesians who tried to encourage the institutions to focus on the subject of formation and identified the priorities.
The Salesian communities are now well integrated in the country: of 60 Salesians in Haiti only 2 are foreign missionaries - an Italian and a Dutchman. The others are all Haitians; and as part of the Salesian “Interamerica” Region, the Vice Province of Haiti is working to create synergy with the other Provinces, explaining the nature of its specific problems and always working for the benefit of the young people in the Region according the mind of Don Bosco.
Published 19/01/2010
