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Holy Union Sisters in Port au Prince Safe

For the first few days after the 7.0 level earthquake on January 12, the only news of Sister Eileen Davey from the U.S. State Department was that she was alive. Living with Sr. Eileen are Irish Holy Union Sisters Maria Hawkes and Helen Ryder. Late on Friday, January 15, news of their well-being came indirectly via a satellite telephone message from a Cameroonian Holy Union Sister, Elizabeth Kunsah. Sister Elizabeth lives in St. Michel, a small town northwest of Port au Prince with two Holy Union Sisters from France. She had traveled to the capital to see if the sisters were safe. Here is the account of her trip: Sister Elizabeth (Eli) went to Port au Prince to be assured that the sisters were all right as the sisters in St Michel had no news whatsoever. When she arrived, she found the sisters well and appreciative that she had made the journey to be with them. Their own house, the church and school are the only buildings intact in their area. The sisters sleep each night in the field with the rest of the people of their neighborhood in a field that adjoins a nearby factory. Eli says that what one sees on the television does not even reflect the horror of the reality.

Sr. Eileen is moving around assuring herself of the situation of the children of her nutrition centre. She and the other sisters are helping wherever they can. During the day, they can go into the house and have been able to have food. The serious difficulty is water - both drinking and otherwise. Eli said that there were already NGO’s in their locality that were able to distribute necessities. During the night she spent in Port au Prince there was an aftershock at 4 a.m. and immediately all the people in the field broke into prayer and song.

Holy Union Sisters first came to Haiti in 1987. Sr. Eileen has ministered there since 2000. With many years of experience in early childhood education, soon after she arrived she established a nutrition and early childhood education center in St. Louis Marie de Montfort Parish. Here the children eat a nourishing meal each day and learn skills which will prepare them to enter primary school.

Sr. Helen Ryder conducts literacy classes and serves as a catechist in the parish. Sr. Maria Hawkes, a primary school teacher joined the community in September 2009. She assists with the older children in the education program. St. Louis Marie deMontfort, which was established in the early 1990's has over 30,000 parishioners. Pastor Fr. Nicholas Gerard is a Haitian Montfort Father.

Holy Union Sisters in the United States are sending contributions to assist the victims of the earthquake to Catholic Relief Services, an aid agency with a long-time presence in Haiti. Here is the link to their website. www.crs.org

Here are photos of the Holy Union Sisters in Haiti and the Early Childhood and Nutrition Centre of St. Louis Marie deMontfort Parish in happier times.