Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Port-au-Prince (Agenzia Fides) – Knowledge about the current situation of the Salesians in Haiti is still limited and incomplete some two days after the earthquake which devastated the capital. It is still difficult to make direct contact.
The New Rochelle Salesian Mission Office has already begun coordinating the arrangements for the first aid-shipments and is trying to establish direct contact with Haiti.
Fr. Calixte Iguintz, from the Gonaives community, has set out for Port-au-Prince to re-establish contact with the other Salesians. The Provincial Economer of the Antilles Province, Bro. Alberto Rodriguez, the Director of the Development Office for Haiti, Bro. Franklin Ortega, are on their way to the capital of Haiti to make an assessment and find news about the situation of the Salesians. They have managed to obtain three solar–energy powered satellite telephones and are trying to establish a communications link to support the organisation of Salesian relief efforts. After obtaining the necessary government authorisation they should be operational by 19 January.
“Feed My Children” and “Cross International”, on their way to Haiti, have been asked to monitor the situation and requirements of the Salesians. The “Catholic News Service” and CNN have given information about the work at Port-au-Prince Enam where the collapse of the buildings has buried over 200 pupils and the Salesians. The body of Salesian Brother Hubert Sanon is still under the rubble. The School Secretary Miss Herodianne Thelot is among those missing. They have also found the bodies of Atsime Wilfrid and Vibrun Valsaint, the two young Salesians in formation, in the third year of philosophy, who died when the “Saint Francis of Sales” Philosophical Institute in Fleuriot-Tabarre (Port-au-Prince) fell to the ground. The New Rochelle Salesian Mission Office has already sent a large container of rice which is due to arrive by Monday, January 18. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 15/1/2010)
