Haiti Twinning Program

Bishop Higi mandated each parish in the diocese "twin" with a parish in Haiti. The need for help is staggering:

• 80% of all Haitians are illiterate;
• 3% of Haiti's rural children finish grade school;
• 5% attend high school;
• the average daily wage is $3.00;
• 27 of every 100 children die before the age of 5;
• one Haitian child dies every five minutes from malnutrition, dehydration, and diarrhea;
• there is only one doctor for every 50,000 people;
• 80% of all Haitians are Catholic.

Following Fr. John's trip to Plaisance, Haiti, in 1996, he asked the members of St. Francis to choose the parish of St. Michael as our partner.

As part of his incredible multifaceted crusade to elevate the quality of life of his parishioners, Father Andre set about building an elementary school in 2000 to serve the "poorest-of-the-poor" children. A new building now stands as a testimony to his dream and the generousity of many people.

The school day begins at 9am and ends at 1pm. For the remainder of the day, the school becomes a vocational school for young men and women who range from high school to college age.

Our first twinning initiative was a Medical Mission. The people in Plaisance had never seen a doctor. Since 1998, the parish has sent a medical team of doctors and nurses from the parish for a week to minister to the many health needs of the populace who are without even the most rudimentary health care. The parish also provides the salary for a full-time Haitian nurse and enough medicine to staff and equip a year-round clinic.

Since 1999, St. Francis has also sent a service team that attempts to respond to St. Michael many needs as defined by their pastor, Fr. Jose Pierre Angrand.

The 2001 Service team was the first from our parish to actually plan and execute — with local masons and other craftsmen — a construction project that dovetailed into the work of the medical team. Emphasis on the "with" is important because we operate under the premise that we do NOT do it FOR them, but WITH them, thus giving them "ownership" and pride in the project.

A tremendously high percentage of the disease that the medical team treats each year is caused by the widespread consumption of unclean drinking water. Since even basic sanitary facilities were nonexistent, the 2001 Service team decided that initiating a prototype latrine building program would complement the earlier drilling of four new (clean water) wells also financed by our parish.

Thus, both the 2001 and 2002 service teams constructed latrines from designs made by Tony Costello in the field, in conjunction with input from the families to be served and the local masons. The construction uses basic Haitian processes and materials.

• Excavation: by pick and shovel of a 12-14-foot-deep hole
• Walls: sun-dried Concrete Masonry Units (CMUs)
• Floor Slab: a very low-grade reinforced concrete
• Roof: light wood frame and corrugated sheet metal

All of the concrete for the floor slab was hand-mixed and placed using a "bucket brigade." In 2002, the CMUs were carried one-quarter mile "the Haitian way" — on our heads — from the nearest road.

Although the team could only complete the floor and walls (the local craftsmen would finish the roof construction, doors, etc., after they left) the sense of satisfaction felt by the team was tremendous.

The traditional, basilica-plan sanctuary of St. Michael was lit by 10 four-foot-long bare (cool light) fluorescent bulbs crudely attached to the face of the large circular columns. Not only were they unsightly, but about half no longer even worked. When a parishioner had to hold a flashlight so that Father Andre could read the gospel one cloudy morning during a planning trip Eric Banter and Tony Costello made in October 2001, it became obvious that the sanctuary space needed to be relighted.

Tony set about designing a prototype fixture that would be

• worthy of being in a worship space,
• inexpensively made of standard components,
• made of components that when disassembled would all fit in the dufflebags in which we transport supplies,
• and be easily assembled and installed on the columns.

The resulting prototype fixture is composed basically of a 30-inch, 8-foot wide piece of wood to which is attached a corrugated, fiberglass lens. It is lit with one two-foot fluorescent (warm light) fixture. The prototype fixture cost under $20 and was easily transported, assembled, and installed.

The resulting aesthetic and light quality exceeded expectations. The backs for the 10 fixtures were made of local Avocado wood by carpenters in Plaisance, and Tony would supply the remainder of the components the following year.

One of the first programs to be established was a drafting program to train young professionals who could, hopefully, contribute to the establishment of an educated middle class that would become the basis for an improved economic, political, and social society. Tony Costello decided after the 2001 trip to initiate a program that would fully equip this component of the school within six months.