JoanC's Journey to Help Haiti & Her People

Greetings!

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This post comes to you from Joan Calendrillo one of our committee's original members when we began our ministry in 2007.

Joan is on the Medical Mission Team and is also the committee's liaison with our Parish school. Joan has done an outstanding job educating both students and faculty about our ministry and mission in Haiti! (her work with the school is worth a few blog entries by themselves!)

In recent months Joan has taken to the "Meeting Circuit" as a guest speaker to various parish groups and committees in St Mary and St Agnes parishes in Milford, CT.

As mentioned, Joan will again be a member of our Medical Mission Team headed to Haiti in February.

So I asked her to take a few minutes of her time to share her thoughts on Haiti for our blog and she gladly obliged...

This is the first of a three part article that Joan wrote about her involvement with our committee and her quest to help Haiti and her people! Enjoy!
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Joan's Haitian Journey - Part 1

My relationship with the tiny island of Haiti began long before St Mary Parish twinned with St Therese in Marbial.

The year was 1995 and I along with 13 other family members was on a Caribbean cruise. The ship was luxurious and made a number of ports.

One stop was on the beautiful beach of Coco Bay in Haiti. This is a private beach owned by the cruise ship line for the exclusive use of the guests. The day was beautiful, sunny and the water the deepest blue. After many hours of water activities we strolled through the tents where a few locals were permitted to sell their items to the tourists. I stopped by one Haitian man who sold crude wooden carvings.

I decided to buy a crucifix from him. The crucifix I chose was a simple design and just the right size to be held by the children in my preschool class. I found myself overwhelmed by the poverty of the people and wondered if could make a difference.

Well that crucifix has been hanging in my classroom since my return and each day as we say our morning prayers I say an extra one for the poor of Haiti. Many crosses have been added to my classroom since this original one. The Haitian cross is the one most often chosen by the children.

I told myself that prayer for Haiti and her people is important but I always wanted to do more.

Fast forward to February 2001. My youngest son was asked to join a missionary trip to a very remote mountain village in Mexico. The Campus Ministry at Springfield College was organizing the trip and Matthew wanted to go.

When we discussed his wanting to go, my maternal instinct kicked in and I asked,” Why take the risk?” “What if you get sick?” “Injured?” I realized quickly that Matthew’s eagerness to go was born out of his need to give and help. His experience in Mexico was life changing. The stories he told me were sad and inspiring. I knew I could keep praying for Haiti but I also knew there was so much more I wanted to do.

Fast forward again to 2007. St. Mary’s Parish had begun a new Ministry twinning with a remote mountain parish in Haiti. This was my chance. I signed up with the committee to be the Educational Liaison to St Mary School. I would help the children of our school learn and connect with the children at St Therese.

Early on I was hopeful that in years to come, I would be able to visit Marbial Parish. At each committee meeting I waited for the chair to ask the question, “So is anyone interested in going to St Therese’s?” My hand I promised myself will be the first raised. I didn’t have to wait long. In May 2009 I was on my way to Marbial with two other committee members for our first trip to St Therese’s parish. I was about to do more than pray.

Joan Calendrillo
Preschool Director
St Mary School
Milford CT
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Stay tuned and Please come back for the second installment of Joan's article.

Also look for a post soon from our Committee Chair Mike Mercurio.

Bye for now,
Andy aka The Blogmeister

St. Mary to Bring Clean Water to Haiti

Greetings!

The following is an article written by Valerie Carlson of the St. Mary Haiti Ministry Committee.

Enjoy!
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ST. MARY PARISH TO BRING CLEAN WATER TO HAITI

MILFORD, CT – In retrospect, the timing of the St. Mary Parish Twinning Committee’s decision to bring clean water to its twin parish, Ste. Therese in Marbial, Haiti, could not have been much better, given the cholera outbreak that struck the country last month.

The emphasis in prevention of cholera, according to the World Health Organization, is in ensuring clean water as well as promoting good personal hygiene and food handling practices, including proper hand washing. Last month’s outbreak in Haiti began in the north and has not yet made it to Marbial in the south, so filtration and purification systems will be especially welcome when they arrive

The St. Mary Twinning Committee (which sent a medical mission to Marbial last March and is planning another in February 2011) has been discussing a clean water program for months. The group, however, began making significant progress in September toward bringing filters that will provide clean water to over 1,000 residents of Marbial, located near Jacmel to the southeast of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

“A very generous anonymous gift received during the summer from a parishioner of Holy Infant, Orange, CT, provided us with the seed money to begin the process in earnest,” said Michael S. Mercurio, Chair of the St. Mary Twinning Committee. Current plans provide for safe, simple water filtration to be available to Ste. Therese parishioners as soon as January 2011.

The Twinning Committee has been working with Gift of Water, a well-established, not-for-profit water purification program that has been working primarily in Haiti for over 15 years. The St. Mary Twinning Committee’s support will provide 150 water filtration systems. The program includes initial setup, establishment and training of a Ste. Therese Water Committee to manage the process locally; identification of a Community Water Technician, who will be responsible for day-to-day operations of the purification program; initial purifier distribution; and follow-up to ensure the program is running smoothly.

“It is nice to see that one of our original committee goals will finally be accomplished,” remarked former Twinning Committee Chair Andy Ancel.

“During the follow-up, which will occur several months after the initial setup, a representative of Gift of Water will meet with the Ste. Therese Parish Pastor, Water Committee and Community Water Technician to resolve problems, if any,” said Pete Murphy, a Board Member of Gift of Water. “Members of the group will also tour a sampling of homes to ensure proper usage of the systems and recommend corrective actions, if needed.” Twinning Committee members, who will be in Marbial in early February for the 2011 Medical Mission, also will inspect the filtration and purification systems to ensure they are working well and that households using them are applying safe water handling and good hygiene practices.

Maintaining and expanding the safe water project will require additional funds, which the Twinning Committee continues to collect. The current cost of a system that can provide a family or group of eight to ten individuals with safe water for a year is $40.

The St. Mary Twinning Ministry, which began in the spring of 2007, unites St. Mary with Ste.Therese Parish located in Marbial, Haiti. The program is a result of a call for Global Solidarity from the U.S. Catholic Bishops, encouraging parishes in this country to build bridges to others internationally and thus enrich the Catholic faith throughout the world. In response, Father James Cronin, Pastor of St. Mary Parish, encouraged the Parish Council to answer the call. St. Mary is a member of the “Parish Twinning Program of the Americas” (PTPA), which consists of over 340 “twins” between U.S. Parishes and parishes throughout Haiti, Central America, Cuba, Mexico, and Canada with the majority of “twins” located in Haiti.

Those who wish to support the St. Mary Twinning Committee’s efforts may write a check to St. Mary Parish with “Haiti” in the memo line and mail them to St. Mary, 70 Gulf Street, Milford, CT 06460-4811.
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Our thanks to Valerie Carlson for writing the article and bringing the story to you!

Also thanks to John Defeo and Joe Debs for their continued research over three years. They always kept "clean water" alive and on the agenda even in those times where "clean water" could not be high priority.

In addition thanks to the efforts of Committee Chair Mike Mercurio for putting all of the pieces to the "clean water" puzzle together for implementation.

The Blogmeister...
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Bye for now,
St Mary Haitian Ministry Committee

Welcome to The St. Mary Twinning Committee Blog!

In our first blog entry we would like to introduce you to a bit of history of our Haitian Ministry and give you an overview of our program! Enjoy!

Twinning Ministry

The St. Mary Twinning Ministry is a unique program that, in Spring 2007, united St. Mary with St. Therese Parish located in Marbial, Haiti. At the outset, the Twinning Committee identified specific areas of need, including education, medical care, clean water, infrastructure development, entrepreneurial support and guidance. While the medical mission of 2010 has ended and another one has been planned for 2011, significant progress has been made in each of these areas. You can read about the 2010 medical mission here.

Overview
The St. Mary Twinning Ministry is a unique program that, in Spring 2007, united St. Mary with St. Therese Parish located in Marbial, Haiti. Why? In their call for Global Solidarity, the U.S. Catholic Bishops encouraged U.S. Parishes to build bridges internationally and thus enrich the Catholic faith throughout the world. In response, Pastor James Cronin encouraged the St. Mary Parish Council to answer the call, and we did.

St. Mary of Milford is a member of the “Parish Twinning Program of the Americas” (PTPA), which consists of over 330 “twins” between U.S. Parishes and parishes throughout Haiti, Central America, Cuba, Mexico, and Canada.

Haiti is the third poorest country in the world and the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The challenges are immeasurable and unbounded, but the country presented an opportunity for Catholic social and humanitarian success. Our ministry has already made, and will continue to make a significant difference in the lives of our Haitian brothers and sisters, which, in turn, will enrich our own lives.

St. Therese is a very large parish of over 25,000 parishioners located in southeastern Haiti. The parish consists of a primary church, ten satellite chapels, and a school (K through 12) with over 500 students. The school provides food and living accommodations Monday through Friday for 15 children who live too far to walk to school. The needs of St. Therese are boundless: Pastor Bertrand Dieuveuille receives no financial support other than what St. Mary provides.

Thank you for dropping "in" on our blog and please come back as we will be updating our blog regularly!

Bye for now,
St Mary Twinning Ministry Committee