Catholic Charity Work in Haiti 

January 2021

Many of the children and families in the 68 mountain villages surrounding our Queen of Mercy Community Center and Convent in Viloux, Haiti have suffered greatly –  without food. The kind sisters of CFSOP have answered their call. Their Children Feeding and Nutrition Outreach Program helps the poorest children who are in urgent need of regular meals and vital health care.

Through the generosity of donors like you, Catholic World Mission helped feed the village children 3 times a week for five months. “We implore God’s merciful care and CWM’s kindness that this work of mercy may continue through God’s goodness and support.”

On August 14^th 2021 at 8:39 in the morning, a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti. The death toll has quickly rose to more than 2,000 people which includes tens of thousands of children and families on the poor island nation that have been left homeless and suffering.

Sister Rita Bandola informed Catholic World Mission that their building collapsed. The generator we purchased for them was one of the things damaged by the earthquake. They are also in the middle of a hurricane at the same time.

Tragically, one of the children they have cared for on a daily basis died and another one was injured. The Sisters and children have no place to stay now and are putting up a temporary shed for shelter.

A Day with the Missionaries of the Poor

The Missionaries of the Poor rise at 5:30 every morning, to serve the vast needs of the residents in the community. Mass is celebrated early in the morning and then the brothers prepare breakfast. The brothers then feed the members of the community bound to wheelchairs who cannot feed themselves. After sending children to school in the morning, the missionaries focus on the elderly residents and take them on adventures like jumping in the ocean during the day. After lunch, the brothers and volunteers bathe members of the community and clean off their mattresses that may have been soiled in the night. Many members in the community cannot care for themselves and the Missionaries of the Poor are such a gift to the elderly and the disabled children.

You can see the joy the Missionaries of the Poor bring the community.

Oscar Joseph

A volunteer of the Missionaries of the Poor Community

Oscar serves as a tour guide, electrician, plumber and all around handy-man for the Missionaries of the Poor. Every morning Oscar comes out to the Asile Communal to begin his day helping around the mission, beginning with mopping all the buildings. Since he started serving as a lay person alongside the Missionaries of the Poor at Cap-Haïtien the brothers have seen Oscar grow in his Catholic faith. Thus, Missionaries of the Poor have impacted Oscar so positively he has brought up his three daughters to be faithful Catholics as well.

Bonne Jean

A Bethlehem Home resident served by the Missionaries of the Poor

When Bonne was just eight years old he was brought to the Missionaries of the Poor by the police. They had found him roaming the streets and quickly realized he was mentally disabled. Instead of turning him back over to the streets where he could be easily preyed on by gangs and criminals, the police knew he would be safest with the Missionaries of the Poor. The brothers found out that Bonne’s mother had abandoned him. His mental condition was too much for her to handle and his medical care had become too expensive. With nowhere to turn, she made the heartbreaking decision to leave him to the streets to care for himself. In the beginning Bonne was restless and unhappy with the Missionaries of the Poor, crying day and night. Once he realized the missionary brothers were helping him he improved. Now the brothers take him to therapy at the psychiatric hospital three hours away to receive treatments twice a month where he has been able to relax his tense mental state. The brothers teach Bonne the Catholic faith, and he is beginning to thrive in such a loving community.

200 Residents

With 200 residents there are many hungry mouths to feed. The cost per meal is 25 cents. At three meals a day for over 200 residents and staff including the brothers, and volunteers it costs the brothers $225. With so many mouths to feed each day there is little room in their budget for much else. With your generous support of $50 the brothers can feed the residents one healthy meal. For $150 you provide 600 meals for our brothers and sisters in Christ!

The Cap-Haïtien Community

Your support to help provide meals does not just stay within the walls of the community though, it travels to over 1000 locals from Cap-Haïtien who on average eat one meal a day. Sometimes the brothers go weeks without helping feed the community because there is only enough for the residents. They do not often have leftovers to provide for the hungry children that come begging every Wednesday for one more meal. It breaks the missionary brothers’ hearts to deny so many people food, but there are some weeks there is just not enough food for everyone they wish to serve.

CWM’s Operations Manager recently got to visit the MOP compound in Cap-Haïtien with a group of FSU students who generously used their spring break to go on a mission trip. Stephanie and the FSU students spent their week in Cap-Haïtien joining the brothers in prayer and work. They got to help care for the 200 residents and play with the children.

Stephanie also got to talk to the brothers about what their current needs are, and how Catholic World Mission can help them as they serve Haiti’s poor and forgotten.

A big thank you to our donors for all the ways you’ve blessed and supported the Missionaries of the Poor in Haiti over the years. Please continue to pray for them. Pray also for the FSU students who got to visit Haiti, that they would always carry a missionary zeal in their hearts and continue to grow deeper in their faith for their whole lives.

Click through the carousel below to see photos!

Thanks to your amazing support, the Missionaries of the Poor in Haiti were able to buy all needed materials and build new beds for their residents!

You may recall that the need for new beds and mattresses was extreme–old frames were rusted and falling apart, and the 20-year-old mattresses were stained and soaked in bodily fluids. But thanks to you, the residents have new beds and mattresses.

Thank you for upholding the dignity of the Cap-Haïtien residents with the gift of new beds!

Missionaries of the Poor in Haiti have been longing for the intimate worship of Jesus present in the Eucharist. Their request to Catholic World Mission became known in 2014, around the same time that requests came from Ghana for Eucharistic Monstrances. The Eucharistic Monstrance is a golden adorned vessel used for the public display of the consecrated Eucharist for worship in the form of prayer. The gift of the Eucharistic Monstrance will foster opportunities for the community to strengthen their relationship with God through Eucharistic Adoration – a deep rooted and profound Catholic tradition, that brings worshipers into the true presence of Jesus through the exposed Blessed Sacrament.

This gift to the Missionaries of the Poor couldn’t have come at a better time. The brothers are deeply thankful for the blessings to their community, and for the generosity of the Catholic World Mission family.

With or without funds the Missionaries of the Poor brothers will serve this community to the best of their abilities. They will still bathe them, they will still take them to play in the ocean, and they will still wash the soiled mattresses every morning. But our brothers and sisters in the community will be hungry. We are each called in the Gospel to serve the poor, “He that hath two coats, let him give to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do in like manner.” Luke 3:11.

Click the green button to donate to help the poor in Cap-Haïtien.

Mission Youth is an apostolate of the Regnum Christi Movement which was started by the Legionaries of Christ. Mission Youth is dedicated to the welfare of the people of Tent City, Acra. Searching outside the box for solutions to complicated problems, the missionaries have sought out teachers who are residents of Tent City to serve as educators for the children of the village. Refurbishing an old make-shift temporary structure, the missionaries have fabricated a school house, built furniture and provided supplies for the children and teachers. Catholic World Mission is pleased to support the work of Mission Youth in Haiti.

Missionaries hope that a structured school program will provide opportunities for children who have spent their time in aimless activities while their parents roam the streets looking for work.

Thanks to Catholic World Mission donors, missionaries have been able to pay teachers directly for their work in the Tent City school house. CWM donations also allowed for purchases of supplies for missionaries to build school desks and benches, as well as beds for the residential areas. The dual benefit of providing both employment opportunities for some Tent City residents, as well as education for the children residing there, is an offering of hope for these victims of natural disaster.

The work in Tent City, Acra, has just begun for these missionaries, who are dedicated to improving the quality of life for the tens of thousands of people living there.