Update from Haiti by Fr. Gerry O' Connor

Fr Gerry O'Connor CSsR has just returned from a visit to Haiti where he witnessed the devastation caused by the recent earthquake. He is a Redemptorist priest working in Cherry Orchard, Dublin. He stayed with his Redemptorist community during his visit to Port-au-Prince.

"The Redemptorist's house in Port-au-Prince has been completely destroyed, just like the houses of many of the other missionary groups. Everyone is sleeping outside, on the footpaths. Luckily none of our students died as they were all out in the community when the earthquake struck but they have lost many personal friends and family members, as well as friends from other religious congregations. "

Fr O' Connor told us that everywhere you look you can see destruction as streets have been completely demolished. People are sleeping outside, too scared to re-enter their homes. Families have suffered immeasurable losses. Everyone has lost a friend or relative in this tragedy. At the moment, the greatest difficult is making sure that everyone is getting food and water. 

This is where the missionaries and seminarians are playing a vital role. They know every street and home in each of the districts of Port-au-Prince and they have provided the aid agencies with details about the families who live in each area and those who are most in need of food and shelter. This on-the-ground knowledge has been built up over many years and it has allowed the food programmes to be implemented rapidly.

As a result of this tragedy, the people of Haiti, now more than ever, are seeking guidance and help. Fr O' Connor stated that:

"Haiti is strongly Catholic country. People go to church all the time. They call upon their priests for support in many ways: to bless them in times of difficulties; to journey with them when they need healing; to be with them in times of death or pain; and to build education and health projects to help them to fight the terrible pain of poverty which is widespread."

Fr. Gerry also spoke about his visit to Saint Gerard's school. The 300 students who were in the school at the time were killed. If the earthquake had occurred earlier in the day, all 1500 students could have been lost. Overall, 800 schools in Port-au-Prince were destroyed and will need to be rebuilt. Now, the focus is on temporary schools and trying to allow the children to return to school and to some sort of normality as soon as possible.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti in this terrible time of suffering and we will be working with the religious orders in the area to help them rebuild their life's after this tragedy.

Whilst World Missions, Ireland are not launching an appeal, you can make a donation to Missionary Children by cheque, postal order or online at http://www.wmi.ie/go/home/donate 

All donations sent to Missionary Children will be sent without deductions to help the missionary organisations who are working with affected children in Haiti. Please contact us at Tel: 00353 1 4972035 if you have any further questions.

Two videos of Fr Gerry's interview are available on You Tube at: www.youtube.com/user/WorldMissionIreland

All photos have been supplied and copyrighted by Fr. Gerry O' Connor.