ARTICLES

Update on Haiti

While emphasizing that it is critical for parishes to continue assistance to their twin communities in Haiti after the earthquake, diocesan leaders of Haiti outreach ministry are also developing a strategic plan for the best way to participate in the recovery of the entire country.

Patrice Schwermer, regional coordinator of the Richmond Diocese Office of Justice and Peace with concentration on Haiti and global issues, organized a committee to develop short, medium and long term goals for the diocesan response to the changed situation in Haiti.

She said the committee of 15 people, drawn from all the various areas of diocesan Haiti ministry, already has drafted a plan and is now in a process of communication with our partners in the Diocese of Hinche to develop workable, effective solutions.

“It’s important that we work primarily with our partners in the bishop’s office and Diocese of Hinche and Caritas,” Ms. Schwermer said, “but we realize that we also need to have a broader partnership as well.”

“We are hearing from the UN and all the entities that are doing so much in Haiti the NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) and different religious organizations that while we need to partner with each other, it also is most important that we partner with the Haitian government agencies in their efforts to serve their people,” she emphasized.

Ms. Schwermer said that in the first days after the quake her office concentrated on providing information to the diocese’s twin parishes as to where and how they could direct people who wanted to contribute to earthquake relief.

“We also were aware that, because of the exodus of people from Port-au-Prince, it was just as critical to aid our own twin communities with their growing needs,” she said, “and we have to be as responsive to that as we can.”

She added, “But we realized that, as a diocese, it also is really critical now that we support the overall rebuilding of Haiti.”

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