More Links to Haiti

We hear today, January 24, that camps managed by the Episcopal Church in Haiti are hosting 23,000 people in some 21 locations. These efforts were highlighted in an article in last Thursday's Wall Street Journal and also a video interview with Msgr Duracin, our bishop there. Debbie, on the Hodgepodge page here on the Farm, gives us the link to the video. It's amazing to see that, somehow, despite the enormous physical damage to the church's facilities, the people and institution are able to continue such active relief work.

Notably, in today's communique from Episcopal Life Online, a letter from Bishop Duracin emphasizes that Episcopal Relief & Development continues to be the best conduit for financial assistance. And, financial assistance is the help they need most right now, he explains. The ER-D staff members there are coming in from the Dominican Republic.

Moreover, as we have come to understand so well about ER-D, it will not leave as relief efforts wind down. This same organization will also be there for the rebuilding. Surely this is an efficient approach, so that people's donations go farther in providing help rather than having to pay for the breaking down and reestablishment of administrations in a given disaster site. Here's the link to their website: http://www.er-d.org/.

We've continued to follow the Sisters of St. Margaret. As explained in our note of January 15, their three Sisters there are fine. Two of them and four "pre-postulants" are staying now in the home of friend of the Order's, while the eldest Sister, Marjorie Raphael, is at the Partners-in-Health medical facility in Cange, along with the bishop's wife, who was injured in the quake. Again, we recommend the material on their website, which includes commentary and numerous links to articles about the people and work of the church in these extraordinary days. http://www.ssmbos.com/. The Sisters have been in Haiti since at least 1945.