CWS - An oasis of caring and practical assistance

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> An oasis of caring and practical assistance
> Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The shockwaves from the earthquake that ravaged
Haiti also swept across the Haitian-American
community. It was not unusual to have lost five,
10, even 20 family members in the rubble.
Everyone heard story after heart-wrenching story
of death, injury, and loss of home and
livelihood. Survivors' pleas for help from their U.S.-based kin multiplied.

?Every time I come into the house, mommy always
talks about the earthquake.  I?m so scared.?

> - a Haitian-American girl in Palm Beach, Fla.

> By Carol Fouke/CWS

The shockwaves from the earthquake that ravaged
Haiti also swept across the Haitian-American
community.  It was not unusual to have lost five,
10, even 20 family members in the
rubble.  Everyone heard story after
heart-wrenching story of death, injury, and loss
of home and livelihood.  Survivors? pleas for
help from their U.S.-based kin multiplied.

A year later, the Haitian-American community
continues to suffer from stress and grief.

?We still get 100 calls a day, mostly from people
seeking trauma counseling,? said Sounedy Amedee,
program coordinator for the CWS Haitian Family
Services Program in Palm Beach County, Fla.

?There is so much going on with our clients,? she
said.  ?They repeat, ?First the earthquake, now
the cholera.  How much can we bear??  A child who
hears that over and over thinks, ?God doesn?t
love us.?  I really want to help families get
some therapy to ease the pain.  This is our
biggest challenge right now, where to refer people who are traumatized.?

Over the past year, Church World Service has
sought to be an oasis of caring and practical
assistance for the U.S. Haitian community.  CWS
offices and affiliates in several states have
done so in myriad ways, including reception of
medical evacuees from Haiti, immigration legal
services for Haitians in the United States, media
outreach and referral to community services.

Following the earthquake, CWS was called upon to
organize support for 63 medical evacuees and 48
accompaniers.  Most were evacuated to hospitals
in Miami, Fla.; Atlanta, Ga., and Durham, N.C.

These severely injured Haitians needed not only
urgent medical care, but also material,
logistical and social support, and their
accompaniers needed lodging, daily transportation
to and from the hospital, clothing, food and other basics.

Most eventually were released from the hospital,
and several were placed in Louisville, Ky.;
Lancaster, Pa.; Portland, Ore.; Houston, Texas,
and Syracuse, N.Y., where CWS offices and
affiliates helped them with food, lodging, cash
assistance, transportation to medical
appointments, community orientation and social support.

Still in the care of the CWS Miami office are
Luckens Cedoit and his wife Edeline Jean.  His
back and legs were injured when a wall collapsed
on him as he tried to protect his pregnant wife
from the earthquake.  They were evacuated and
hospitalized in Miami on January 23; in February,
Jean gave birth prematurely to a baby girl.

?Luckens has been in and out of the hospital
since then, and had his fourth surgery on
November 30,? said Mabel Hernandez, CWS Miami
Associate Director.  ?The injuries were severe
enough that he has been confined to a wheelchair
since the earthquake.  The goal of the doctors is to get him to walk again.

?Luckens and his wife have expressed on countless
occasions their gratitude for the assistance and
support that they have received from CWS and the
Cuban-Haitian Program staff,? Hernandez
said.  ?Luckens has stated that he has been able
to endure all these long months of recovery
because he has had the support of CWS.?

CWS?s Haitian Family Services Program in Palm
Beach County works with refugees, asylees and
other Haitian entrants to strengthen family
stability and community integration, prevent
delinquency, and keep youth in school.

The program?s three staff serve 300 clients and
their families.  Through media outreach and
referrals, they have touched the lives of thousands more.

?CWS is everywhere, giving information out,?
CWS?s Amedee said.  ?We are there for them.  We
encourage them.  They are not all our clients,
but they feel they are!  People call in to our
radio show and say, ?CWS is number one!??

All in a day?s work for Amedee and her

colleagues: helping other agencies in Palm Beach
County translate for their Creole-speaking
clients; referring people to medical, legal and
social services and pastoral care; taking extra
blankets and coats to Luckens Cedoit and Edeline
Jean when South Florida temperatures recently
dropped into the 30s; visiting medevac Julemene
Maurice in the nursing home ? even throwing a birthday party for her.

?I can relate so well to the Haitian-American
community because I lost 20 family members myself
in the earthquake, and I can empathize,? Amedee said.

She added, ?When I went to Haiti for some closure
about three months after the earthquake, I found
Julemene?s family and got them on the phone with
her.  When I met with the son, he said, ?It?s a
miracle ? I thought my mom was deceased from the earthquake.??

In Miami, New York City, and several other cities
with Haitian communities, Church World Service
and local affiliates also have offered
immigration legal assistance, especially with
applications for Temporary Protected Status,
which the U.S. government extended to Haiti for
the first time following the 2010 earthquake.

Nancy Denis, CWS-Miami?s managing attorney, said
her office has provided TPS assistance to approximately 150 clients.

?In addition to the professional and courteous
service, what clients appreciated the most were
the follow-up services that were provided once
the application had been mailed,? she said,
noting that some clients of other agencies were
denied TPS because they missed the deadline for
the filing of additional documentation.  ?One
particular client called to thank us for the
diligent service we had provided in filling out a
subsequent waiver for her previously filed TPS application.

?Another client called to let us know that he had
been granted TPS, saying, ?Since I got TPS, I am
able to work to help my family.  People used to
help me; now I am helping myself.  I?m not afraid
to walk in the streets anymore.  God bless you
for everything you have done for me and Merry Christmas.?

Following the earthquake in Haiti, CWS-New York?s
then brand-new immigration legal services program
undertook an extensive TPS information and
assistance campaign.  CWS member communions
provided the initial funds for the program?s TPS
services, with additional support following from
the Fund for New Citizens at the New York
Community Trust and the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

?We have appeared on Haitian radio shows and were
interviewed for Haitian newspapers like Haiti
Liberte,? said CWS Associate Director for
Immigration Tara Pinkham.  ?We have distributed
about 30,000 TPS brochures in English, Creole and
French, and about 5,000 business cards through
outreach, community contacts and other organizations.?

The New York program has served 69 clients to
date, 58 of them Haitian, providing assistance
with TPS and other applications.  Clients have
included Naromie and Geraldy Jean-Louis.

Following their wedding in 2006 in Haiti,

Naromie, then a U.S. permanent resident, returned
to New York City and applied to U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services for Geraldy to join her.

She was visiting Geraldy in Haiti in January 2010
when, just three days before the earthquake, two
men accosted the couple, robbed them and shot
Geraldy.  He was in the hospital when the
earthquake struck.  Paralyzed, he was evacuated
to a Florida hospital, then transferred to New
York upon discharge from the hospital.

In late summer 2010, CWS helped Geraldy apply ?
successfully ? for permanent residence.  ?Church
World Service made it easy for us,? Naromie
said.  ?The lawyer even went to the interview
with us.  I am grateful for the way they helped us.?

Today Naromie is working as a certified nursing
assistant and studying social work and psychology
at City College.  Geraldy, a mechanical engineer
by profession, is still using a wheelchair and
getting daily physical therapy.  ?Even though he
doesn?t walk yet,? Naromie said, ?hopefully he will.?

Media Contact:

Lesley Crosson, 212-870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526, jdragin@gis.net