Encouraging news from Haiti

We are publishing a letter sent in the previous days by Sister Marcella Catozza, the nun from Busto Arsizio, who has been committed in Port-au-Prince (Haiti), in the association KAY LA which sustains her commitment, for years. In Waf Jeremie, thanks especially to Kay La’s support, but also with the concern and the appeal of the citizens of Busto Arsizio, a difficult rebuilding is in progress. The conditions of the capital are still terrible, and lately a cholera epidemic, a disease that had been practically disappeared for 50 years, occured.

My dearest friends who help us make the life of our friends in Waf Jeremie easier, the union of all our forces is little by little allowing the fulfilment of what seemed impossible just a few months ago.

The “Vilaj Italyen” (Italian Village) is nearly on the home straight, at least in this first part.

The casualty department built by our friends of “Terres des Hommes” is finished, and with the aid of AVSI we are equipping it with the minimum which will allow us to start using it by working inside of it, whilst waiting for the container, that we are preparing with many of you and that will allow us to provide it with everything it will need. With “Albero della Vita” (Tree of Life) and “Medici in Prima Linea” (Doctors on the Frontline) we have negotiated  with a young doctor from Haiti and we are organising the educational activities for my colleagues.

The small houses are almost ready, we will finish to paint them by this week and they will be ready to be given to the people who are happily waiting for them: blue, green and yellow…we have made the road signs with the names of the different fruits, because this is what they wanted, and near the name we have made the respective drawing so that even the people who can’t read, will be able to recognise the way.

We are concluding two series of toilets and maybe, with the Italian Caritas, we will have the chance to build some more.

The school, which we will receive from “Hands Together”, an American NGO founded by Father Tom, who has been living in the slums of Port-au-Prince for forty years, will be ready by the end of November and it will be able to welcome 500 children.

Once the casualty department will be started, I will have to begin searching for the school teachers, which is forecasting to be an almost impossible challenge!

Santa Chiara refectory goes on every day happily and lively as always, even if this week I have kept it closed because of the possible cholera epidemic which could have reached us, but that luckily didn’t arrive here.

We have taken advantage of that to redo the cement of the floor which had been made in haste and in an…experimental way: while now we have a nice place than can be useful not only for eating, but also for holding meetings, games and different activities and let’s hope to find, sooner or later, a priest who is going to celebrate a Mass in order to thank the good God for the beauty we have seen in these months.

So we will open the new village soon, even if we will be forced to do it before the previously fixed date because of the cholera risk.

But meanwhile, we are equipping ourselves to be ready to face the epidemic in the event it explodes. We don’t have cases in Waf Jeremie at the moment and Port-au-Prince seems not to be in danger neither.

A Korean NGO which is preparing the land for building a school, has been here in Waf for some days: I have asked them to build a professional school in order to support our future baker’s shop, so that our kids not only will be able to learn a trade, but they will be also able to learn to read and write. In the meantime they are building a road to provide an alternative to the only street of Waf, and this will reduce the level of danger which now exists because there is just a single way of access to the shantytown. If it had to be interrupted for any reason, it would be difficult for all of us to manage to get out of it.

We are waiting to welcome in Waf, for next Saturday, a new religious community from Brazil, sent by the archbishop of São Paulo: the Belem Mission, a new community created in Brazil by an Italian priest, with the aim of bringing God and the Church to all the people living in the streets. Now they are sending a community to Waf which will start living and working with us. I will tell you about it, but the beautiful thing is that the Church becomes richer in the beauty of the different charismas.

During the month of November we will stop the construction works, in order to start the casualty department in a right way, to distribute the houses, to start the refectory again and to organise the water distribution in a better way (with the Italian Caritas, we want to arrange the point of distribution by building some big tanks, like mountain drinking troughs to make things easier). Then we will wait to see what is going to happen with the elections and, if we will be able to, we will start again in December by giving the starting signal to the construction of the welcome house for the undernourished children and for those who were left orphans after the earthquake, but that house will also welcome the volunteers and me, so that I will be able to be, at last, with my people during my everyday life.

I will tell you about all this very soon. In the meantime I thank you all for being part of this big and beautiful history that is changing a very small piece of the world, but that tells the world that we can do it…if we want it, we can manage to give hope to people in every corner of the world, us, whose Hope is given everyday by the love of God who now, as 2000 years ago, gives his life for me.

All my love,

Sister Marcella

P.S. I inform you that with Enrico, who stayed here for a month, we are working on a website which wants to allow everybody to follow the life in Vilaj Italyen: http://www.vilajitalyen.org/ It is still under construction, just give us the time and you will be able to be with us everyday, meet our kids, read how things are changing and follow our works.

If you register you will have access to a confidential part of the site where it will be possible to receive some news about the costs of the works, the source of the funds and other information.