Marcdaline Abelard was in her home in the mountains above Leogane on Saturday, June 3, when her husband Claudy left to go search for the family goat. Rain was pouring and the wind had picked up.
While she waited, she tried to calm her baby who is only a few months old. Her 2-year-old and 4-year-old were frightened by the weather.
The heavy rains caused flash flooding that ripped through the mountain village.
Claudy never returned.
In 2013, mission co-workers Cindy Corell and Mark Hare were working with Viljean Louis, coordinator of the Peasant Movement of Bayonnais in Haiti. More than 100 people in the mountain community arrived to receive training for starting yard gardens. They were to learn the skills and then share them with neighbors.
Even as she’s been working stateside during the pandemic, mission co-corker Cindy Corell continues to walk alongside her Haitian partners. As Monday’s Between Two Pulpits broadcast made clear, Corell’s heart is very much in Haiti, especially following Saturday’s kidnapping of 12 adults and five children connected with a U.S. missionary organization.
The Advisory Committee of the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) met last week to pore over grant requests from organizations around the globe that are addressing systemic poverty, climate justice, racism and other pressing issues in their communities.
Two-and-a-half weeks after a 7.2- magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) partners in the country are working to meet basic needs and looking to the future, supported by gifts from Presbyterians across the country.
David Guervil, who’s been consulting for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in Haiti throughout political unrest, Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Saturday’s 7.2-magnitude earthquake and the tropical storm that followed, told an online gathering Thursday that most Haitians survive “on a daily basis. Every day they have to fight. Every day they struggle for the next day.”
Since the 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti Saturday, people have been sleeping outside waiting for possible aftershocks. When tropical storm Grace hit Monday, they had yet another horrible choice to make.
The Rev. Edwin González-Castillo said Monday he knows the Haitian people will overcome the most recent calamity to befall them, Saturday’s 7.2-magnitude earthquake that has killed at least 1,300 people to date, injured thousands and left many tens of thousands without adequate shelter, food, water and access to health care.
In 2013, mission co-workers Cindy Corell and Mark Hare were working with Viljean Louis, coordinator of the Peasant Movement of Bayonnais in Haiti. More than 100 people in the mountain community arrived to receive training for starting yard gardens. They were to learn the skills and then share them with neighbors.
