According to a recent declaration by Haitian premier Jean-Max Bellerive, the tragic earthquake that has left the country on its knees and razed capital Port-au-Prince to the ground, has caused 212,000 deaths. For survivors, and children in particular, the situation remains dramatic.
Our Missionaries, who have lived and stood alongside the Haitians since 1935, have also been tragically hit: as well as an elderly Salesian and two young novitiates, the bodies of around 300 children and young adults were recovered from under the rubble of the Enam centre and the adjacent arts and crafts school dedicated to Father Bonhem. The structure, which housed primary and professional schools and a care centre for street children, is now an easy target for thieves and looters who, taking advantage of the fact that the perimeter wall has been destroyed, have stolen everything and continue to enter the site to plunder whatever they can.
Many Salesian missions were hit: the Vice Province of Drouillard, Gressier dormitory, the Missions of Fleuriot and Thorland, the church and parochial centre of Cité Soleil, the Pétion-Ville Mission.
Many of the Missions of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians crumbled, without causing any victims.
From the first frightening moments, Salesian Fathers and Sisters sought to aid survivors and the injured. They are currently providing aid to 32,000 children and adults, many of whom have been physically or psychologically traumatised by their involvement in the disaster, because they have lost members of their family or because they have nothing left.
The Salesian Mission Offices in New Rochelle and Turin have been working round the clock to coordinate aid, together with the Salesian Provincial Centre of Santo Domingo – a country that borders Haiti - where the containers to send across the frontier are sorted.
Plenty of supplies have already arrived in Haiti (camp tents, tablets for making water drinkable, food, water), and others are on the way. The fact that such convoys of basic supplies are often attacked and looted represents yet another hurdle at an already traumatic time.