Hand-in-Hand with Haiti Twinning Outreach
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Save the Date
On Saturday Jan. 20th, 2024, from 5:30 - 9:00 PM, Holy Family Parish will hold its Annual Fundraiser and dinner for our sister parish, St Gabriel in Beau Sejour, Haiti. This is our 16th year of supporting and partnering with St. Gabriel’s.
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Why & What is Twinning?
Twinning is the establishment of a close relationship between parishes of different cultures fostering personal ties with our Catholic brothers and sisters in the larger universal Church. It also serves to deepen our call to mercy and justice through the consciousness of the commitment to global solidarity.
In the 1997 pastoral letter, “Called to Global Solidarity: International Challenges for U.S. Parishes,” the US Catholic Bishops invited U.S. parishioners to become better connected through prayer, mission, and financial support.
Hand in Hand with Haiti
In 2008, Holy Family parish joined with St. Gabriel parish, a community of approximately one thousand six hundred people in the mountains of Haiti, to develop a relationship of sharing, solidarity, prayer and understanding. In the time since our parish twinning partnership began, a strong bond has been created with the faith-filled people from this small community. We are blessed by their prayer and joy as they live a life that is without many of the comforts to which we have become accustomed.
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Holy Family Twinning Mission Statement
To work with St. Gabriel parish in building a healthier and self-sustaining community and to help our parishes grow in the spirit of thankfulness and humility which is evident in the people of St. Gabriel.
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Map of Haiti
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Location of Beau Sejour
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St. Gabriel Parish
Nestled in the mountains of western Haiti about 31 miles from Port-au-Prince and between the cities of Leogane and Jacmel lies the remote village of Beau Sejour and the Catholic community of St. Gabriel Parish, School, and Clinic. Measuring about nine and a half miles, Beau Sejour extends beyond to the near and not-so near chapels and can only be accessed on rocky dirt roads on the sides of the mountains. It can take over 5 hours to arrive there from Leogane, mostly on foot or by mule. It can also be accessible by truck with an arduous trek over ten mountains. The journey can take 6-8 hours.
This rural poor community mostly depends on their own planting of crops for sustenance. In our twinning relationship, in which we have partnered with this parish since 2008, the people of Holy Family have come to know that even with their poverty and isolation, these Haitian people are full of joy and hope. They rejoice when it rains so they can plant their meager crops of corn and beans.
The epicenter of the 2010 earthquake measuring a 7.0 magnitude was only fifteen miles from Beau Sejour. This event destroyed most of the buildings of the parish: the rectory, a school, and an abandoned medical building.
Catastrophic Hurricane Matthew in 2016 then completed the destruction of what remained of the skeleton church building.
With the help of a fellow Twinning partner, St. Margaret Mary Parish in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, some of these buildings have been rebuilt. However, as of December 2022, a church for the people of St. Gabriel had not been started.
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Accomplishments
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Since 2008, Hand in Hand with Haiti has accomplished many milestones including:
- Establishing a relationship with Parish Twinning Programs of America
- Strengthening relationships with St. Gabriel via frequent visits from the pastor of St. Gabriel to St. Petersburg and the Holy Family team members to Beau Sejour
- Between 2010 and 2018 Holy Family provided an annual medical mission team seeing more than 1,200 patients
- Raised more than $100,000 to assist with meds and medical missions as well as the rebuilding of the rectory and the building of a Mission House.
- For over 15 years Holy Family and other dedicated individuals have helped to support St. Gabriel parish through quarterly stipends.
- With the assistance of a grant from the Alleghany Franciscans, Holy Family provided nursing education for a St. Gabriel community member to become a nurse and continue to serve there.
- Between the covid pandemic and now the violent unrest in the country of Haiti, American visitors are no longer able to visit St Gabriel Parish. However, Holy Family Parish continues to support the clinic through monies sent for medications, salary of the nurse, and the monthly visit by a young Haitian doctor, Dr. Roosvelt Romelus. During his weekend visits he often sees over 100 patients.
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Medical Mission 2010
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Statistics of Life in Haiti
- Two out of every three Haitians live on less than $2.00 (US) per day, and nearly 25% live in extreme poverty on less than $1.25 (US) per day. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
- Ten percent (10%) of the richest Haitians possess 70% of the nation’s total income.
- Although agriculture is an important division of Haiti’s economy, the country fails to produce enough food for its people.
- Ninety percent (90%) of farmers depend on rain for their harvest, since only 10% of the nation’s crops are irrigated.
- Haiti’s literacy rate is around 64% for males and 57% for females. By comparison, the average literacy rate for other developing nations in Latin America and the Caribbean is 92%.
- One-third of women and children in Haiti are anemic.
- One-hundred thousand (100,000) children under five years of age suffer from acute malnutrition, while one in three children is stunted or irreversibly short for their age.
- Less than 50% of Haitian households have access to safe water and only 25% benefit from adequate sanitation.
(Taken from Restavek Freedom website, 2023)
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Native Haitian Dr. Roosevelt tends a patient in ST. Gabriel Clinic
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Resilience and Hope
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