Local School Helps Fellow Sisters in Need

The devastating earthquake in Haiti didn't spare the Sisters of St. Cluny, much of whose buildings were destroyed.

NEWPORT, R.I. – The Sisters of St. Joseph Cluny, the order present at the Cluny School in Newport, have been involved in education, health care, women’s promotion and social development in Haiti since 1864 via 14 active communities. While the Sisters here were thankful to hear none of the Sisters in Haiti died in the deadly Jan. 12th 7.0-magnitude quake, three sustained significant injuries after climbing out or being rescued from the rubble. Their schools and sites however, were devastated with four communities, three schools and one newly constructed orphanage, La Madeleine, completely destroyed.

Sisters Paauline and Marion help to pack the bus. (Photos courtesy Cluny Sisters)

Thankfully, most of the children were out of the building that houses Providence Day School in the center of Port-au-Prince before it collapsed. On an average day, the Sisters cater to 600 primary pupils and about 60 street children throughout the evening. But the Sisters there did suspect that some adults and children were on the school compound at the time of the quake. A new school building there and the convent were completely flattened.

At the St. Rose of Lima school, the Sisters work with 513 pupils at the primary school, 400 pupils at the secondary school and have a literacy center servicing 102 adults. This school took a direct hit and is swarmed with those seeking aid as the Sisters also ran a dispensary there. The Sisters who provide meals at the Mere Louise school, a school for 650 impoverished children, are sleeping in the yard with the people they serve. Principal Sr. Edwige Désir was trapped under the rubble for 12 hours and suffered a broken leg. She, along with the other injured Sisters and four others have made it to the Province of Antilles/Guyanne in Guadeloupe (French Antilles), according to the order’s Provincial, Sister Joan Van der Zyden, who’s based in Middletown.

“At least they got the injured Sisters out, but the pictures that were sent—the St. Rose of Lima school—is just rubble,” she describes. “It’s just gone.”

The school, she says, was just down from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption (often called Port-au-Prince cathedral) and the presidential palace on John Browne Avenue, and though pieces of the structure still stand, every building there is compromised, and she suspects the sisters are still sleeping in the yard. “They’re just so scared, and the aftershocks” says Sister Joan. “The aid workers have to be asking ‘Where do we start?’”

Since the quake, the Cluny School here in Newport has created a Facebook page, Help Cluny Sisters in Haiti Rebuild, to offer a way for families, alumni and concerned citizens to donate and to try and keep people updated on the situation on the ground. Updated news about the state of things in Haiti has been slow to receive, admits Kathleen Clair, Development Secretary at the Cluny School, citing the communication challenges there.

Clair notes, however, that the Sisters’ main priority right now is tending to the children and adults who so desperately need their help. The Cluny School community, says Clair, has been generous to help, but cautioned that help will be most needed when the media attention dwindles in the coming weeks and months. “Unfortunately, they’ll need us for a long time to come,” Clair predicts.

“We pursue our mission by listening, comforting, [and by] sharing the little we have with those who come knocking at our door,” wrote Sister Christiane Gervais from Haiti in a note received yesterday and shared with Sister Joan in Middletown, who just had it translated from French. Sister Christiane describes the damage as “incalculable,” adding, “Nevertheless, the Haitian people continue to hope.” To donate to the Cluny Sisters in Haiti, checks can be sent (made payable to the Cluny Sisters) to:

Cluny Sisters
7 Restmere Terrace
Middltown, RI 02840

Or visit www.clunyschool.org, click on the “ONLINE GIVING” link on the right-hand side of the page, and write “HAITI” in the comment box. Your full donation, either made via check or online, will be forwarded directly to the Cluny Sisters.

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