Update on L'Arche in Haiti
Many people have expressed concern about how the L'Arche Communities in Haiti are doing. We will continue to post updates from L'Arche International below. There are also links to additional information about the situation in Haiti.
To Donate
If you would like to make a donation that goes directly to L'Arche in Haiti, you have two options:
- By check: Write a check to L'Arche USA and put "Haiti Solidarity" in the memo. Checks can be mailed to L'Arche USA at 1130 SW Morrison St, Ste 230, Portland, OR, 97205
- Online: Visit www.larchehaiti.org to make an online donation through the L'Arche Canada Foundation. These donations will be restricted to Haiti Solidarity, but all donations are made in Canadian dollars.
Sites with Information about L'Arche Haiti
L'Arche Haiti Blog - a reporter-photographer's chronicle of life in Haiti (begun in the fall of 2009)
Correspondences from L'Arche International
January 26, 2010
Update from Joan Mahler, US Zone Coordinator, regarding L'Arche in Haiti:
Thank you for all of your prayers and messages of concern about our communities in Haiti. Today, we heard for the first time a confirmation that the Carrefour community in Port-au-Prince has suffered some significant structural damage. Mary Hurley, an assistant from L’Arche Cleveland, has been in Haiti the past week to help the Missionaries of Charity in Port-au-Prince. Mary sent word that she was able to visit the community, where she found community members happy and enjoying dinner in a tent. She said that one of their homes was completely destroyed and the other one damaged. We’ve also read that, until the infrastructure in the capital improves, some members of the Carrefour community will be living in the Chantal community to the southwest, where damage was significantly less. L’Arche USA has begun collecting financial donations for the community; we are awaiting instructions from L’Arche International regarding how they can be securely transmitted.
January 14, 2010
Dear friends,
We are slowly receiving information from Port-au-Prince. Little by little we are receiving news about the scope of the disaster, which is absolutely unprecedented, and what the Haitian people are going through today. Extreme poverty, weak infrastructure and environmental deterioration make Haiti such a vulnerable country, and it is this already fragile country that has been hit, and completely destroyed.
I do not have much more news to report than what I shared yesterday, since all communication is out. The members of the Carrefour community near Port-au-Prince are doing well; they spent the night outdoors. For the time being they still have food and water, but that will not last long and everyone is wondering what they are supposed to do if the roads are impassable. The city of Cayes, a few kilometres from the community of Chantal, has been partially destroyed and although we have had no direct news, we get the impression that this rural region has probably been spared. Jonathan, a young Quebecois assistant who has been at L’Arche Chantal for two years, is en route to Port-au-Prince to lend a hand.
Given the sizeable Haitian community here in Montreal, many people here are panicking. Many of you have perhaps met Dominique Anglade who is on the McKinsey team and who has been helping us over the last few months. Dominique just found out that both her parents died, buried under the rubble of their home. Evelyne Verdier, President of the Board of Directors of the Carrefour community, had to leave her home and was not able to contact the community, but she gave us what news she had, counting the dead and injured around her. Isabelle Robert, who assists the two communities in Haiti, is trying to establish more regular communication and we will share with you any news we receive in the coming days.
Many of you are wondering how you can help with the reconstruction. We know that the community has suffered substantial material damage. A special assistance fund has been set up for the communities in Haiti, and you can contribute now through your associations or national foundations. Make sure to indicate that your donation is for “Solidarité Haiti”.
Yesterday evening in Port-au-Prince there were other weaker tremors… Let us pray for no more aftershocks, for all the people mourning the disappeared, for all those who find themselves literally in the streets today, and for God to express his compassion in this situation of extreme vulnerability in every way possible.
Jean Christophe Pascal, L'Arche International Coordinator
January 19, 2010
Dear Friends,
We have learnt with great sadness, from an email sent by Evelyne, (Board President of L’Arche Haiti), that two Board members were lost through the earthquake:
“L’Arche Haiti is in mourning: we have learnt that L’Arche Board members, Marie Cécile Dumontier and Schella Jovin, have died as a result of the earthquake. Marie Cécile is still buried beneath the debris of the “Villa Manrese” and Schella as well as her sister Gina perished beneath the debris of their family home. We feel overwhelmed by the news.” It is a huge lost for the L’Arche Communities and our deepest sympathy goes to their families and to L’Arche Haiti.
In view of the situation, the Chantal community has been preparing to welcome some members from L’Arche Carrefour district. Jonathan returned to Chantal yesterday in order to prepare the ground with the community, and buy basic foodstuff. He will return to the Carrefour district tomorrow in order to accompany the group of L’Arche members present there. Communication within the country is slowly being re-established, to the extent that Evelyne and Jacqueline were able to contact each other yesterday. Even so medical needs are becoming more and more urgent. The emergency committee is organising itself with the help of Maria Elvira Santacruz, coordinator for Arche Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to send medicine to Carrefour as quickly as possible. We are also looking into the possibility of sending Isabelle Robert to Haiti so that her presence may be seen as a tangible sign of friendship and support. Indeed, solidarity continues to show itself amidst this devastating situation that the country is undergoing. I would very much wish to encourage you to continue doing all in your power to help, be it by sending a gift to the Foundation of Arche Canada, praying, or by any other means.
We invite you to consult the Meeting Point (http://www.larchecommons.ca/index.php) to follow the events in Haiti.
Yours in peace,
Gabrielle Beaulieu, L'Arche Quebec Regional Coordinator