Twinning helps hope flourish in Haiti despite crises

Children at a school in Savanette, Haiti, take a little break from classes in 2018 for a snack. St. Mary, Blacksburg, has three sister parishes in Haiti, supporting schools in each of them. (Photo/Richard Neves)

United in faith: parish to parish, diocese to diocese

The moringa tree, known for its creamy-white blossoms, is resilient and drought-resistant, well-suited to the mountains of Haiti. Much like hope, it thrives in even the toughest of conditions.

And, as one might say in Haiti, “Lespwa fè viv.”

Hope makes life.

Over the past few years, Haitians have weathered crisis after crisis. A devastating earthquake. Political unrest. A rise in gang violence. Inflation.

Still, hope flourishes.

“We are facing a tough time, but still, we keep moving forward,” said Bishop Désinord Jean of the Diocese of Hinche.

The Diocese of Hinche — with whom the Diocese of Richmond has shared an abiding friendship since the establishment of a parish twinning program in 1984 — lies a two-and-a-half-hour drive north of Port-au-Prince, but it, too, has been affected by the turmoil in the capital.

“When you say Port-au-Prince, you say Haiti,” Bishop Jean said. “What is happening in Port-au-Prince affects the entire country. For example, all the fuel comes from Port-au-Prince, and sometimes, when the roads are blocked, it causes shortages.”

“As for security, we are OK, thank God,” he said. “Economically, it affects us a lot. Poverty is getting worse in Haiti today.”

Despite adversity, the work of the two dioceses — separated by 1,300 miles, but united in one faith — keeps moving forward, toward new possibilities — whether working to build up a diocesan healthcare system, or creating revenue from the nectar of a simple moringa flower.

A fruitful season

Around 50 parishes in the Diocese of Richmond have twinned parishes in Haiti, largely in the Diocese of Hinche, but also in La Gonâve and Cap-Haïtien.

The Diocese of Richmond’s Haiti Commission serves as an advisory board to the ministry and supports the work of committees devoted to specific issues, such as the Haiti Healthcare Support Team and the Haiti Education Support Team.

“There’s been very little travel to Haiti in the past few years, between COVID and the unrest there,” Diane Atkins, chair of the Haiti Commission, said.

To keep the lines of communication open, the commission has turned to Zoom, holding monthly get-togethers with representatives from the Hinche Commission.

“So we do have direct contact with the leadership in Haiti, which has been helpful,” Atkins said.

“It’s not the same as meeting in person, face to face,” she said, but, in this challenging time, we are offered the chance to reflect and to re- evaluate — to find new, more sustainable ways of fostering growth.

Twin to twin, team to team, and even diocese to diocese.

One tree, many branches

The Haiti Twinning Ministry at St. Mary, Blacksburg, has grown into a thriving parish family of four.

St. Mary and St. Jean Baptiste, Savanette, located in the Diocese of Cap-Haïtien, began their work together by opening a school before going on to embark on several sustainable economic ventures, including a dairy goat program and a water treatment plant.

St. Jean Baptiste flourished — so much so that two of its chapels were elevated to parishes, Richard Neves, chair of the Haiti Committee at St. Mary, said.

Today, St. Mary has three sister parishes: St. Jean Baptiste, St. Roch, Gaucimal, and Our Lady of Lourdes, Bailly.

Although the last trip to Savanette was in 2019, Neves said, “We still maintain a good relationship, largely through email.”

St. Mary supports a primary school in each of the three parishes and a middle school in Savanette.

“The middle school has been adding grades, so that now it goes through grade 13,” the equivalent of senior year under the French education system, he said.

“What has changed dramatically — beyond my expectations — is that when I first visited Savanette in 2008, there were no girls in classes after grade four. Now, in the new photos I’ve seen, half the graduating class is women.”

This will be the first year for a graduating class to have gone to year 13.

“It will be interesting to see what they do,” Neves said.

With prayerful care

The Diocese of Richmond Haiti Healthcare Support Team not only aids twinned parishes in opening clinics, but also works to support Haitian efforts in bolstering the Diocese of Hinche’s healthcare system.

Since 2018, Father Herald Jean, director of the Diocesan Health Commission of Hinche and executive vice-rector of the University of Notre Dame of Haiti at Hinche, has served as a liaison between his diocese’s commission and the team in Richmond.

“It’s our priority to care for the most vulnerable,” Father Jean said, to provide training for healthcare workers and health education for all.

Richard Neves of St. Mary, Blacksburg, and Father Nicolas Floréal, pastor of St. Jean Baptiste, Savanette, celebrate a new school. (Photo submitted)

“If a parish wants to open a clinic, we help them,” he said. “We guide them in the purchase of medicine, of equipment, and with inventory management.”

A central clinic in Hinche is supported by the University of Notre Dame, which has schools of nursing and of medical biology, he said. For those who cannot reach a clinic, the commission collaborates with parish priests to set up mobile clinics for children and adults.

“Every year we also try to carry out training sessions, not only for our staff, but for all goodwill health personnel,” Father Jean said. “On- going training is not required by the state, so it’s the duty of the Church to help.”

“What we are doing is not easy,” Father Jean said, noting that with a population of more than 700,000 in the central plateau region, there are many to reach. “But it is our goal to have a clinic in almost all of our schools,” he said, and “to provide not just medical, but also social and pastoral care.”

In full bloom

The Diocese of Hinche is also working on plans for overall economic development, Bishop Jean said.

“I have to ask: ‘How can I make the Diocese of Hinche independent?’” he said.

One project he feels shows particular promise is a bee-keeping venture, with the aim of cultivating specialty honey for export.

“I feel that this will be something big for us, because we are trying to produce a specific kind of honey, from the moringa tree,” he said.

A priest from Hinche has recently completed a degree in France, where he studied the science of honey production, he said, and the diocese has planted 2,000 moringa trees thus far.

The Diocese of Richmond contributed to the start-up of the project through the Battaglia Fund, a grant set aside for economically and ecologically sustainable projects in Haiti.

Such efforts bring the relation- ship between Richmond and Hinche to a new level, Bishop Jean said, beyond one of parish to parish, to one of diocese to diocese.

“I wish that this relationship continues between the Diocese of Hinche and the Diocese of Richmond,” Bishop Jean said. “Unfortunately, for the past three years,
our friends from Richmond have not been able to visit. Part of the relationship is also the friendship — seeing our friends from the U.S. coming here, sharing our daily lives, eating our food. This means a lot to us, really — because we are united in one faith, because we are brothers and sisters.”

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