Haiti: Field Update, Fr. Mark Hyde SDB

A convoy of 3-4 trucks will leave on Tuesday morning, Feb. 2, from La Vega, D.R., for Pétion-Ville and Thorland with food and emergency relief supplies.  A second convoy will depart later in the week with food and emergency relief supplies bound for Cap-Haitien.

The warehouse and repacking facility at Jimaní on the Haiti-Dominican Republic border is slated to become operational on Feb. 9.

Edson Timana has joined the Salesian Missions staff providing managerial support to the Haiti Emergency Relief and Reconstruction effort.

Silvia Cromm from Don Bosco Jugend Dritte Welt was contacted today by a printing company in Bremerhaven (Müller-Ditzen AG).  The company offered services for the children in Haiti.  Their idea was to print textbooks free of cost for the SDB schools in Haiti.  They also offered free transportation of the books from Bremerhaven to Haiti or Santo Domingo.  The offer was declined since it may be more cost-efficient to receive a cash donation for the same purpose and procure the books locally than having to ship the books all the way from Germany.

Bro. Gerard Schoorl, SDB, from Missieprocuur Don Bosco in the Netherlands has informed Salesian Missions that it is customary there to organize a national collection when there is a disaster in the world.  On January 21 a fundraising activity for Haiti netted 83,000,000 euros, part of which will be entrusted to Cordaid (http://www.cordaid.nl/English/About_Cordaid/Index.aspx?mId=10182).  Last Friday Bro. Gerard spoke to one of the two directors of Cordaid and requested that they contact Salesian Missions directly for reconstruction project funding, using some of these resources.

The water purification equipment donated has been installed in Thorland and Pétion-Ville.