Site Update:
Nou la (We are still here)
Update from St Helene in Kenscoff
March 21, 2010 - Haiti
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The typical Haitian response on the inquiry of somebody’s wellbeing expresses the attitude of the children and employees of St. Helene orphanage – “Nou la - We are still here!”
Luckily, our main home and its people weren’t hit in terms of loss of life or collapsed houses by the earthquake, though some of the houses, perimeter walls and the clinic building show huge cracks. Nevertheless the catastrophe heavily influenced the everyday life of our children. In the first couple of weeks food portions were rationalized and all children except some of the severely handicapped children of our special needs house, Kay Christine, slept outside; regardless of the cold and damp weather in the Haitian mountains, almost 2,000 meters above the capital Port-au -Prince. Nearly all of our children and workers are traumatized which finds its expression in the panic and despair that runs rampant whenever one of the continuing aftershocks shakes our houses at night and makes everybody run. By now all children have moved back into their houses and three weeks ago school started again. We are almost back to what one could consider to be normal life for us here in Haiti.
For now lessons only take place in the morning, whereas the afternoons are used to play games and soccer, or to join the popular cinema presentation set up every afternoon in our open air theatre. The kids enjoy their freedom and through play and joy are slowly recovering from the shock. This recovery is taking much longer for our staff. Many of them use every free minute to listen to one of the preachers of the various Christian radio stations - trying to get some sense out of what happened to them and to integrate the disturbing experience into their daily life.
Especially when listening to the discussions of some of the less educated staff, one is touched by their efforts to cope with the worse case occurrence and their struggle with the question of whether they had been punished for their failures of the past – though they just can’t see why their already hit country and its people need to repent so much.
Foreseeing the danger that is connected to the aftershock-panic-attacks Home and School Director Sr. Altagrace made a wise decision having all classes taken place outside. “I am afraid that in case an aftershock occurs during the day children might hurt themselves when escaping the four and three floors school buildings,” she said. In the beginning classes were held open air until our House Director had the maintenance staff build classrooms made of tarp and wooden frames. We did this to prepare for the rainy season which has already started. The improvised classrooms will also give us shelter in the case of more aftershocks. For our home to be better prepared for a future disaster – may it be an earthquake, a hurricane or erosion damage caused by the ongoing deforestation – a generous donation of some five hundred warm sleeping bags and camping mats to be stored along with our standby one month disaster food supply would be highly welcome.
Much gratitude needs to be expressed towards our local staff that has continued to come to work according to their ability from day one after the earthquake, though many of them had lost family members. We would like to give a special thanks to the local orphanage nurses Marie Clorette Saintima, Marie-Helene Julien-Aurelus and Floride Joachin as well as Hermit Joseph, who usually comes in as a vacation replacement, have kept the orphanage clinic running. While Clorette, Hermit and Floride took turns in covering the clinic, Marie-Helene in the first three weeks after the earthquake was called down to work in our pediatric hospital to help to care for the flood of heavily injured and wounded people. Right now the St. Helene clinic staff in cooperation with Miss Maudeline, a coworker of our HIV Pubic Health center in Tabarre has started implementing a catch up vaccination program for those kids in the orphanage that for different reasons are missing vaccines.
On Sunday March 15th, we were honored by a visit from Sister Yvone Rungoat, international Superior of the Salesian Order that administers the schooling programs of the orphanage. Our Salesian Home and school Director Sister Altagrace and the approximately 400 children and staff in the audience gave Sister Yvone a warm welcome. Sister Yvone and her delegation were visibly impressed by the program the children had prepared for them. After a welcome speech informing the visitors about the orphanage and its location and surroundings in the Haitian mountains, their show consisted of several traditional Haitian dancing acts as well as a presentation of a classic chanson couple that was supported by the orphanage choir and caused a lot of joy and amusement. After the show Sister Yvonne thanked the children and encouraged them to study hard to reach their goals in life. She promised that she will keep the children in memory and is looking forward for her next visit. The Salesian Order is celebrating its 75 jubilee as everybody could read on the nicely printed shirts our kids were wearing. The afternoon was finished with a mass held by our National Director Father Rick Frechette.
Jan Weber
Regional Medical Coordinator Haiti and Dominican Republic
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SEE Nos Petit Frères et Sœurs CAT FACILITY RECORD AT: https://reliefdb.org/shelters/5422