Haiti in our Hands have returned safely from their successful trip to Haiti. The group consisted of Greg Cross and Joseph McCullagh with their friend Sr. Kathleen Osbelt. They were kindly escorted by Alies Orisme for the duration of our trip.
They met with the new Priest of Chauffard Fr. Brissault in order to get to know him better and welcome him to Chauffard. They were warmly greeted with a wonderful meal at Chuaffard on Friday evening where they had a good chat with him.Fr. Brissault is as committed to the people of Chauffard as his predecessor Fr. Estiverne.
Fr. Brissault (centre) with the crew
The following day they got busy setting up the clinic. Dr. Alix Joseph and his colleague and friend got set up with the medicine that was donated and brought to down to Haiti. They spent 5 days seeing as many patients as they could.
Dr. Alix gets ready to see the patients
After the clinic was up and running the crew got busy sampling the local water. Our last Medical Mission revealed the water was making the locals ill so it is necessary to understand what contaminants are in the water. Alies kindly brought along the rights jars for the job, they were filled and sent of to a local laboratory for testing. Once the results come in, plans for a suitable water filter will be made and become a big task for Haiti in our Hands.
Greg Cross samples the water
Swiftly later that day they met with Caritas Swiss; a large global charitable organisation aiming to alleviate poverty worldwide. They have an office based in Port-au-Prince and have been working in Haiti for 30 years. Our contact here is Thomas Friebel, a german civil engineer, with whom we had a meeting set up prior to our arrival. In short, Caritas Swiss have plans and funds to help rebuild the school of Chauffard. They presented their plans and were delighted to learn about our involvement in Chauffard. They are very keen to work together to build a school as big as possible so as many kids as possible get educated. They were very impressed with their plans and very excited to see their enthusiasm to help our friends of Chuaffard. Read the school plans or contact JosephMcCullagh@hotmail.co.uk to find out more.
The next day they visited Fr. Estiverne in his new parish. He is settling in OK and has big plans for the new parish. It is is a very different place compared to Chauffard called Arcahaie located on the outskirts of the capital city. The 4th and final day was spent was spent speaking with Pure Water for the World. They provided information on various filtering solutions and sent the crew away with lots of wonderful ideas.
This brought the trip to a close. Everyone made it back to New York in one piece! The next trip may be later in the year possibly in November time. Our focus now is to raise enough money for the school and providing safe drinking water. Please support us if you can.