Dear Haiti Friends,

Partnerships:  Over the past few weeks some of you have experienced a more than usual delay in getting funds transferred from your bank via wire or check to Haiti and from the Haitian bank to your partners.  The Haitian bank took a long time to process the change in leadership on the Standing Committee in Haiti, which created delays.  Please see the attached letter from the Diocese of Haiti Partnership Coordinator, Pere Kesner Gracia, with more details.  Fortunately all is now completed.

Temporary Shelters:  Many thanks to those of you who have responded to Pere Alphonse’s appeal for funding for shelters for refugees currently living in churches or outside on the ground.  Their plan is for essentially two dormitories at each shelter housing about 50 people each, one for men and boys and the other for women and girls.  They will include a sanitary block and a cooking area.  The land is already secured.  As is usual in Haiti, whenever funds arrive, they will build as much as they can with the money they receive.  Again, I thank you for considering this effort.

Below my signature please see a flyer for a fundraiser for Haiti Outreach Mission coming up in October in Royal Oak, Michigan.  HOM has been providing medical assistance in Mirebalais and the surrounding area for many years, including support for St. Pierre Clinic behind St. Pierre Church and School on Blvd. Jean Jacques Dessalines.   We hope and pray that they will be able to resume work in Mirebalais someday soon.  As yet, no one has been permitted by the gangs to return.

Yours,

Serena