Members of the Lincoln County Ecumenical Committee for Haiti (LCECH) visited Gros Morne, Haiti, at the end of February to deliver the proceeds of the Haiti Benefit Dinner held at St Patrick’s Church in Damariscotta Mills on February 7. The dinner raised almost $8,000 for projects in Gros Morne.

Committee C o-chair Dean Curran, of Damariscotta, and Haiti Benefit Dinner founders Frazier and Susan Meade from St. Andrew’s Church in Newcastle, spent two days in the northwest Haiti town of Gros Morne as the guests of the newly formed "Friends of Gros Morne Committee." Now, four years after the massive earthquake which hit Port au Prince and provoked a flow of refugees to towns like Gros Morne, many refugees have returned to Port au Prince. However, extreme poverty in Gros Morne has not diminished and it was thought appropriate to refocus the activities funded by the annual Haiti Benefit Dinner on the needs of the very poorest, regardless of whether they were affected by the earthquake.

It was agreed dinner proceeds would be used in four main areas. The priority will be on education and a portion of the proceeds will go to the San Gabriel Catholic School for girls. Potential projects at the school include refurbishment of latrines, improvements to the kitchen (a hot lunch is served to students each day) and the repairs to the leaky 120-year-old roof of the main school building. The committee visited the school and its dynamic director, Haitian nun Sister Mariani Sultan, and participated in the morning prayers and songs by all 750 of the students gathered in the school courtyard which was paved by monies raised in a previous dinner. Sister Mariani and some of the students are pictured.

Some monies will also be reserved for scholarships for poor students at the Resurrection School of the Episcopal church. Newly arrived Father Soner, who acts as an informal chair of the Friends of Gros Morne, will manage the scholarships and will oversee disbursement of funds for all projects.

Based at Pope John the XXIII School, long time Gros Morne residents and American nuns, Sister Pat Dillon and Sister Jackie Picard with the assistance of Marcel Garcon of the Gros Morne Peasants Movement, will start a new project of micro credit to help the poorest women begin or expand small commercial activities. This project is being funded by the proceeds from the sale of Alan Baldwin bowls at the dinner. Because these women are the poorest, they often have had little or no education so it was decided to add a literacy component to the project to give the women a leg up for their businesses. Intern Laura Lucas of Illinois, doing volunteer work with the sisters for a year, will supervise this project.

Traditionally Haiti Benefit Dinner proceeds have also helped the poor house in Gros Morne. The team visited the Good Samaritan poor house and met with the new and very dynamic director, retired Haitian nurse Lulianne Casimir. The facility provides shelter, meals and primary medical care to equal numbers of destitute and homeless men and women, many of whom are elderly. It is supported by several churches in Gros Morne as well as the municipal budget. The Lincoln County team was impressed with a new project at the home to grow fruits and vegetables for their own consumption, to save money on food purchases and to improve the nutrition of the residents.

The LCECH team also visited the nearby hamlet of Figaro, where St Andrew’s Church has been supporting the Episcopal school of St Luc for several years with projects involving building and didactic materials, clean water, latrines, school garden, etc

The next activity of the Lincoln County Ecumenical Committee will be support for the annual Maine Walks with Haiti which will take place in Portland on May 31. The walk raises money for health projects of the Maine based NGO Konbit Santé, in Cap Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city and provides an opportunity for other Maine organizations to raise monies for their own economic and social development projects in Haiti. It is hoped that teams from St Andrew’s and St Patrick’s Churches, and Lincoln Academy as well as a number of individuals will participate in the Walk.

For more information on the Walk or LCECH activities, please call 380-5103.