Haiti: homeless camp in missionary gardens

Leogane

About a thousand Port-au-Prince residents have set up a makeshift campsite in the garden of the missionaries of the congregation of the Chierici of Saint Viatore, 'Villa Manrèse', or also known as the 'House for Travelers', located on the southern hills over the capital.

The buildings largely collapsed during the quake, killing three employees and a lay missionary from France, Marie-Cécile Dumontie.

"We are all outside, camped out, we are making shelters but food and water are running out," writes Father Duchelande.

Elsewhere, surviving missionaries across Haiti are doing their best to receive the homeless and offer what aid they can.

The death toll among missionaries and their congregations is growing. MISNA has learned of the death of a French monk of the Christian Instruction, Brother Joseph Bergot. His fellow brother Dominique Baron has also disappeared under rubble.

The Monfortian missionaries have lost ten seminarians and one priest. The students had been attending in the CIFOR (Institute for Studies for Religious Men and Women) Conference. The building fell on top of the bus they were on, as they were leaving. Montfortian Fr Jean-Baptiste has also been killed.

The Friars of the Christian Schools, are all well. The Cluny Sisters are safe and their convent remains standing. All the Dominican priests and sisters have survived, with just one nun injured. There is no news of the Barefoot Carmelite nuns. Brother Desravines, of the Little Brothers of Saint Therese, and Sister Cristine, from the Nuns of Wisdom congregation are confirmed dead. The choir that was practicing in the Cathedral which collapsed, are all dead.

One Spiritian seminarian Stephane Douge has died.

Many Salesians still missing, with more than 200 students buried under the fallen trade schoolin Port-au-Prince. Salesian Brother Hubert Sanon, 85, who was the first Haitian to become a Salesian is confirmed dead.

In Leogane, the town next door to Port-au-Prince on the southbound road, which was badly hit by the quake, 100 children are believed to have died under the rubble of a school.

Source: MISNA/Fides