I begin this short article with the words of a young Haitian who is a theology student in his second year. This young man lost ten companions in the earthquake in January. He himself had been buried beneath rubble for 15 hours. As a result, he had to have a leg amputated.
HAITI: “A people who suffer
but who continue to hope....”
We are sharing this article with you since one
of our sisters, Geni Do Santos Camargo, who is a Brazilian, is a member of the
Team that visited Haiti after the earthquake.
I begin this
short article with the words of a young Haitian who is a theology
student
in his second year. This young man lost ten companions in the
earthquake in January. He himself had been buried beneath rubble
for 15 hours. As a result, he had to have a leg amputated.
Three months after the earthquake, he spoke for the first time of his
experience. He said: “When people speak to me of pain and suffering,
I can truly understand because I know now what suffering is”.
The words and
the experience of this young man remind me of the text from the Gospel
of Mark where Jesus looks at the crowds and feels compassion for them
because they were like sheep without a shepherd. (Mark 6, 34a).
This was the sentiment of the team sent out from the National Missionary
Council. (Comina). This team was made up of Sister Geni dos Santos
Camargo, Holy Family Sister, the president of the regional CRB of Sao
Paulo, Father Jose Altevir, secretary of Comina and me. We felt
great compassion on the peoples in the cities of Haiti that we visited.
Our visit
lasted
12 days and the object of the visit was to look at the possibility of
sending an intercongregational community through the missionary project
in the Church of Brazil. We wished to be a sisterly presence to
the people of Haiti in this difficult situation. We wished to
be open to them, be in solidarity with them and bring them the good
news of the Gospel. It is completely impossible to be in that
country without sharing in the pain and suffering of its people.
We are aware
of the historic struggles and the abandonment they have experienced.
Those few seconds of the terrible earthquake were sufficient to add
pain and suffering to the lives of these people. The situation
that they are in at present is scandalous and cries out to Heaven for
justice.
The entire
city of Port au Prince and the cities of Leogne and Jacmel that we
visited,
remain more or less the same as they were in the aftermath of the
earthquake
– a scene that is difficult to describe and forget. The
Haitians that survived, as well as the losses they suffered (families,
houses, documents...) have to fight for survival with more than three
thousand Non Governmental Organisations. They are obliged to exist
in a state of misery battling with the dust, dirt, lack of response
from aid agencies and social and political paralysis.
After all that
I have seen and heard in Haiti, I know that as Christians and members
of Religious congregations, we cannot allow this tragedy to be forgotten
nor can we allow ourselves to become accustomed to tragedies like
this.
I had the
experience
of celebrating Holy Week with this people and I dare to say that “we
went through the dark night of injustice”. The situation of
extreme poverty of this people is hard to accept. Tiredness, cowardice,
even the death of many of the country’s leaders, the savagery of wolves,
the absence of a sense of meaning in life, lack of development, abuse
in all its forms, lack of life ...cry out to the One who can give LIFE.
There is a
permanent and painful cross weighing down on this people. In the
midst of the poor, death comes early and death is a daily companion
in many of these families.
I conclude
by saying that I believe in the transforming and liberating power of
the Gospel that enables the people of Haiti to cultivate joy in the
midst of so much distress and hopelessness. As a Brazilian Church
we hope to leave sometime soon for Haiti.
We count on
your prayers, support and solidarity for this new intercongregational
community which we will form there.
Sister Antonia
MENDES GOMES, ndc
National
Executive
Consultant – Mission Project.
(Magazine
CONVERGÊNCIA,
June 2010. nº 432)