Leaving Miami

After having a long and encouraging conversation with our Board Chair in Haiti, Patrick Brun, at 2 am this morning, I am reaffirmed with my entrance plan into Haiti through the Dominican Republic and expect to arrive in Haiti no later than noon tomorrow and possibly even late this evening.  Christina Crow, former THP Volunteer and Director of Projects has helped to coordinate the logistics of getting me to Haiti from Santo Domingo.  Last night I was picked up in DC by former Volunteer Adam Osielski, and spent the night at the home of Sue & Mike Williams in Arlington.  With his expertise in engineering, Adam is prepared to arrive in Haiti when possible.  We are grateful for the many former Volunteers and active community members of THP who have offered their skills and support.

Once in Haiti, our priorities will be to assess the physical integrity of our buildings to begin reentry. We will also reassess the food situation and begin allocation of more supplies. We will continue to assess the security situation as well, which we have hope will only be improving as aid from U.S. troops increases.
During my conversation with Patrick Brun this morning, our first lengthy conversation since the earthquake, he expressed much concern, but also a lot of hope -- as a team (both Haiti and the US) we have a lot of experience to work through difficult situations.  On Tuesday, in my first conversation with Patrick Brun after the earthquake, he said “I don’t know how I’m keeping it together.”  Last night, two days going on three after the shock Patrick Brun felt it was the charism of The Haitian Project and the Holy Spirit making it possible and enabling us to do much more than keep it together.

As we expressed earlier, we expect that we will receive some unfortunate news of the loss of those who are close to our hearts in Haiti.  Louverture Cleary School has a large Alumni community at and we will do our best to keep you informed.  It is with great sadness and regret that we share with you that this morning we received news that two of our graduates were victims of the earthquake.  We will wait to release those names until we have absolute confirmation of their passing.  Again, we will do our best to keep the community informed.

Thank you as always for your tremendous support.

The Haitian Project has operated without interruption for over twenty years. Having worked through boycotts, hurricanes and political upheaval, we know from past experience that the cost of operation will increase greatly during this crisis. We all also know there is no more important time to keep up our mission than now. Whatever the increase in cost, we are committed to continuing to house, feed and educate our 358 students as well as provide direct aid to the hundreds of families who live around our school. We are proud that our students, staff and volunteers are already engaged in the relief effort. More than ever, they need your support.