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Aftershock rocks Haiti: Diocese expands its recovery role
Posted On : January 22, 2010 11:19 AM | Posted By : Webmaster
ACNS: http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2010/1/22/ACNS4679
Related Categories: USA

As a major aftershock rocked the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and
Léogâne, more news emerged Jan. 20 about the growing role of the
Episcopal Diocese of Haiti in the country's short-term relief efforts
and long-term recovery.

The news included reports of babies being born and the loss of more
people served by the diocese.

A magnitude 5.9 aftershock struck just after 6 a.m. local time about 35
miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, according to the U.S. Geological
Survey, which had earlier in the day calculated the aftershock at 6.1 on
the Richter scale. It was one of 28 temblors the USGS recorded up until
4:43 EST Jan. 20. A magnitude 6.0 quake is 10 times less in magnitude
than a magnitude 7.0, such as the one that devastated Port-au-Prince and
the surrounding area eight days ago.

The Haiti Nursing Foundation reported on its website Jan. 20 that three
students from the diocese's school of nursing in Léogâne died in their
homes during the Jan. 12 quake that also destroyed 80 - 90 percent of
the buildings in the main part of town.

That report came along with the news that six babies had been born at
the makeshift hospital that has been operating at the school's buildings
since just after the earthquake.

The foundation reported that 27 members of a relief team from Japan,
including four doctors and seven nurses, are now working at the school
and sleeping in one of the dormitories. Members of Doctors Without
Borders have also been treating people at the school and members of the
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti have fixed the school's
generator and are due to work on its water pump, nursing school dean
Hilda Alcindor said on the foundation's website.

She has said that she, the nursing students and the incoming medical
personnel have treated at least 5,000 people since the quake. A tent
city has sprung up in the open fields around the school. The school's
foundation also reported that the nursing students have set up 10
first-aid stations around Léogâne.

In addition, the foundation said, Chip Lambert, a doctor from the
Medical Benevolence Foundation had arrived Jan. 19 with a stock of
supplies.

The Medical Benevolence Foundation was already a partner with the
nursing school as well as the diocese's Hôpital Ste. Croix in Léogâne,  a
clinic on LaGonava Island, and St. Vincent School for Handicapped
Children in Port-au-Prince.

According to confirmed reports, included on CNN's iReport here, at least
six children and staff, and possibly as many as 10, were killed when one
of the school's buildings collapsed. Since then, the school has been
robbed of materials, St.Vincent's director, the Rev. Léon Sadoni said in
the CNN iReport and elsewhere.

About 130 St. Vincent students are living at a survivor camp of about
3,000 that diocesan Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin, who was made homeless by
the quake, established near College Ste. Pierre in downtown
Port-au-Prince. Plans are being made to transfer the St. Vincent
students to other living quarters.

Ste. Pierre, a diocesan primary school, was destroyed in the quake, as
were at least three other of the diocese's 254 schools, ranging from
pre-schools to a university and a seminary. Another of the destroyed
schools is the Holy Trinity complex of primary, music and trade schools
adjacent to the demolished diocesan Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy
Trinity Cathedral) in Port-au-Prince. More than 100 of the diocese's
churches have been damaged or destroyed, Duracin has said.

The Rev. Canon Oge Beauvoir, the dean of the diocese's seminary and one
of four Episcopal Church missionaries assigned to Haiti, has been
assisting Duracin at the camp. He is working with the Jacksonville,
Florida-based nonprofit FreshMinistries and its international arm, Be
The Change International to help coordinate the Haiti portion of an
effort to bring in doctors, medical technicians, translators and
prescription medications.

BTCI issued a news release Jan. 19 that said the U. S. Department of
Health and Human Services had asked it to help in the relief
coordination. The Rev. Dr. Robert V. Lee, chair of FreshMinistries and
BTCI, has long-standing relationships with the Episcopal Church in Haiti
and close ties with the Haitian government, according to the news
release.

Be The Change Haiti will coordinate those efforts on the ground, the
release said. Beauvoir, who also heads Be The Change Haiti, has thus far
found nearly 40 Haitian physicians and 37 translators, the organization
said. Beauvoir, who escaped harm during the earthquake, has offered the
diocese's school buildings for use in administering aid and coordinating
further relief efforts.

Trinity Wall Street is also participating in the effort to gather
personnel for the effort. Lee, BTCI's chair, asked his friend and
Trinity rector the Rev. James Cooper for help in locating French and
Creole speakers, particularly those with medical backgrounds, who would
be willing to help in Haiti. Trinity made the need known and about 50
people responded, according to Donna Presnell, Trinity assistant manager
for public relations and promotion. She said the parish is awaiting
further word from Lee and Be The Change.

Article from ENS by By Mary Frances Schjonberg, January 20, 2010

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