CLC-USA Haiti Solidarity Action

Little by little the bird builds its nest.

--Haitian proverb

CLC-USA Haiti Solidarity Action - “Earthquake Relief & Rehabilitation Fund”

Total = $6,912.00, as of April 2010

Dear CLC Friends,

Wanted you to know the above donation results of our attempt at a national CLC-USA response to the Haitian catastrophe.

Recently I saw an editorial cartoon with the image of a person watching tv with clicker in hand as the tv newscast reporter spoke the line: “A desperately poor neighbor is now the epicenter of media attention. Following a strong series of aftershocks, it will soon become invisible again.” With God’s help, this will not be true for people of faith called to walk in solidarity day by day over the long haul in a many-faceted approach to advocacy and action as Love’s invitation motivates us to faith-filled reverence in our work for justice, whether in Haiti, Chile, China, the Gulf Coast, Nigeria and around the world.

To give a brief overview of this Haiti action, CLC financial participation came from the following states (my advance apologies if in error there are any omissions):
AZ, CA, FL, GA, MD, MISSOURI, MN, NE, NJ, NY, OKLAHOMA, OR, PA, VA, and WIS, representing more than eighteen different local CLC’s, including the Rieman Great Lakes Region as well as from Ontario, Canada! We explored the use, thanks to Liem and the Dong Hanh community, of an online pledge site to help facilitate a quick response, with actual checks mailed to central CLC office for distribution in the following ways:

1.Jesuit Relief Services ($2,304.00)

2. Friends of the Orphans/ Haiti Project ($2,304.00)

Pittsburgh CLC have had opportunity to be with Fr. Rick Frechette, a Passionist priest and physician who ministers in Haiti as the Executive Director of St. Damien’s Pediatric Hospital, the only free care hospital in Haiti. He also has an orphanage ministering to nearly 300-350 children, having rescued many who have been kidnapped in the prevailing violence that occurs in Haiti. He is a recent author of the book “Haiti the God of Tough Places the Lord of Burnt Men.” Fr. Rick will be preaching at the Sunday Liturgies on the Weekend of May 1 and 2 at St. Paul of the Cross Monastery as well as offering reflections on Tuesday evening May 4 at 7 p.m. at St. Paul’s Monastery. He will also be on Chris Moore’s KDKA radio show 4p.m. on Sunday May 2, perhaps accessible for other CLC around the country via internet?


3. Partners in Progress/Fonkoze ($2,304.00)

Fonkoze ($1,152.00)
Partners in Progress ($1, 152.00)

Here’s a link to a Newsweek article about Fonkoze’s crucial role in the micro-lending aspect of disaster recovery and sustainable development: http://www.newsweek.com/id/233334

The Assn. of Pittsburgh Priests recently welcomed Dr. Rich Gosser, Executive Director of Partners in Progress, to their meeting on March 22 at Epiphany Church, downtown Pittsburgh. Dr. Richard Gosser, a Pennsylvania physician just returned from Haiti where he has long been actively involved in rural sustainable development, including the Fondwa water project to provide access to sustainable potable water to the people in the area of Fondwa. He spoke on the grave and continuing situation in Haiti.

Its people spend an average of three hours a day retrieving water. Most Haitians utilize about 1.2 gallons of water per day for both eating and cleaning. This is less than what most people in industrialized nations use in a single flush of the toilet. Haiti is thought to be the most water poor nation in the world.

The Apostolic Action Team (who coordinated this national response) recognizes that we’re blessed with numerous local, cluster, and regional responses by CLC-USA (and the world community) to this and other outreach efforts. It is our hope we will find increasing ways as CLC to communicate these consoling movements. One example of this was our attempt to use Facebook for a more in-depth and unfolding conversation about how to proceed together in the face of so many systemic needs before us. An example of such a regional response to the crisis in Haiti is included here for you as well, submitted from South Florida by Maggie Khuly.

The South Florida Region contributed to the Haiti earthquake relief effort with donations going directly to the Jesuit Province of the Antilles through Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Miami. This was done almost immediately after the earthquake due to the magnitude of the disaster and to our Region's relationship with the Jesuits in South Florida, who belong to the Antilles Province. The Region voted to send an amount from our regional account and in addition encouraged CLC members to donate individually. We also shared within our communities the first-hand experiences of the Jesuits from Dominican Republic who assisted in the relief effort; these accounts included the challenges encountered but also the graces, in particular the generosity of the Dominicans to the Haitians they have historically viewed with great animosity.

Some CLC members in the region also contributed funds to the Good Shepherd Orphanage in Port-au-Prince. These contributions went through a parish in our area that has a long-lasting relationship with Father Luc Jolicouer of the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd. AMDG

Gratefully Yours,

Carol Gonzalez for the Apostolic Action Team
(Kathy Tobin, Vivian Valencia, Jeanne DeSimone Sieger, Bonnie Hugeback, Cathy Hoehn, Mac Johnson, Maggie Khuly, Ann Marie Brennan, Sylvia Picard Schmitt, Brad Hinze, Jungsook Chung)