On Saturday, Cross Catholic took part in another emergency aid distribution. The event was held at a church in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Jacquet. Much of the city remains in ruins since the Jan. 12 earthquake, and those who have not fled to outlying areas are still in need of food and shelter.
In an email update from Port-au-Prince to our Florida headquarters, Cross International Catholic Outreach Projects Officer Michael Wilson describes a nation picking itself up by its bootstraps. His observation—a testament to the incredible resilience of the Haitian people—is excerpted here:
Two more staff members will be traveling to Port-au-Prince Wednesday to help with our relief efforts being coordinated from our office in Haiti. They will meet up with Project Officer Mike Henry, who has been working diligently from the devastated country since the earthquake hit Tuesday.
Our Haiti projects officer, Mike Henry, has been working diligently with other relief agencies over the last two days to bring aid to earthquake victims. Mike visited Leogane today, one of the worst hit areas just outside of Port-au-Prince, and he said almost nothing was left standing.
Haiti is still reeling from the devastating earthquake that shook much of Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas to their foundations on Tuesday, but there is hope. People continued to gather in the streets of the capital today, singing hymns and offering prayers to God, as help began to arrive.
Reports have been trickling in all day from our staff and mission partners in Haiti. The devastation from yesterday’s 7.2-scale earthquake has been profound. “It looks like Dante’s Inferno. There are dead bodies everywhere,” said Mike Henry, our Haiti projects officer who is on the ground in Port-au-Prince today, working with our partners to bring aid to the people.