St. Mark’s and St. Andre — Over Twenty Years Together
The Latest from Canon Serena
Long-time St. Mark’s member Canon Serena Evans Beeks, D.Min., is US Coordinator for Haiti Episcopal School Partnerships. Over the past 20 years, whenever political conditions allowed, she has traveled to Haiti, sometimes several times a year. Read her latest posting below about the country, the people, and our paternership with St. Andre in Trinon.
Haiti: Mirebalais updates and other news
Dear Haiti Friends, Updates from Mirebalais and the surrounding area continue to be grim. Partners in Health has been able to move its remaining patients out of the beautiful University Hospital in Mirebalais to surrounding hospitals and clinics including places like...
A Message from the Rev Kesner Gracia
Dear Friends, Attached to this message is a letter from the Rev. Pere Kesner Gracia, Partnership Coordinator for the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti regarding the conditions in the Mirebalais area, which he has asked that I forward to Haiti partners. His testimony is...
April 2025 URGENT Update
Dear Haiti Friends, I am grateful to so many of you for asking how you can help with the current humanitarian crisis in the Mirebalais area. Below my signature, please find a message from For A Reason, Inc. (Full disclosure: I serve on FAR's...
Update from Trianon
Dear Friends and Partners of St. Andre, Trianon, Haiti, We have heard via a forwarded message that Trianon was also attacked by the gangs coming through to MIrebalais and Saut-d'eau (the waterfall near Ville Bonheur which many of you have visited.) Trianon is...
Haiti Partners in and around Mirebalais
Dear Friends, I have just heard from someone who has spoken to Pere Alphonse, priest in charge at St.Pierre in Mirebalais and many "satellites" in the area with partnerships, by phone. He reports that the gangs came to the Rectory. He and his 95-year-old...
Haitian Times Article
Courtesy of Karen Wires, from the Haitian Times: Gangs tighten grip on Mirebalais after deadly raid frees 500 inmates, forcing residents to flee Gangs tighten grip on Mirebalais after deadly raid frees 500 inmates, fo... Juhakenson Blaise Despite police...
Mirebalais and beyond
Dear Haiti Friends, There are some reports that the police in Mirebalais, reinforced by police and helicopters from the capital and local resistance groups, are gaining the upper hand. Apparently the university hospital is OK. The work of rounding up...
Gangs Attack Mirebalais
Dear Haiti Friends, I am sorry to say that the situation in Mirebalais, a city many of us are very fond of, is dire. Piecing together news from various friends (for their security I'm not mentioning by name who is on the road or staying behind and hiding):...
One bright light, one resource, one recent development, one survey reminder
Dear Haiti Friends, Below my signature please find news of a new hospital opening in Petit Trou de Nippes with the partnership of the Colorado group Locally Haiti. Colorado friends, please see information about their upcoming fundraiser in Boulder and feel free to...
Haitian cultural life
Dear Haiti Friends, Courtesy of Cindy Corell, here is unfortunate news about the dissolution of the legendary Haitian rasin (roots music) band, RAM. Haiti - FLASH : Dissolution of the RAM Group - HaitiLibre.com : Haiti news 7/7 Fronted by Richard Morse, owner of the...
The partnership of St. Mark’s with St. Andre’s Episcopal Church and School in Trianon, Haiti began in 2001. That year, one and then two parishioners began making regular visits, taking with them the offering from the St. Mark’s School’s Christmas Eucharist.
The relationship grew until 2007, when St. Mark’s members were able to make our first group visit. Since then, groups from the church and school have visited annually when conditions in Haiti have permitted.
Students at St. Mark’s School took the lead on such projects as a new four-room classroom building, a water project, and new school uniforms. Support from St. Mark’s pays teachers’ salaries, covers the occasional hot meal, and provides for repairs on the water system—which was damaged in the hurricanes of 2008—and the replacement of the old classroom building, which was damaged in the earthquake of 2010.
St. Andre’s was the first church and school on Haiti’s central plateau established by Bishop James Theodore Holly when he founded the Episcopal Church in Haiti in the early 1860s. Since its founding, St. Andre’s has offered a primary school for the children of local subsistence farmers. In Haiti, only 50% of the children have access to any education at all.
Please pray for the people of St. Andre’s, especially the children. If you can, give your financial support.
