Kobonal Haiti Mission - Cross Catholic Outreach

2700 N. Military Trail, Suite 240
PO Box 273908
Boca Raton, Florida 33427-3908
1-800-914-2420
PROJECT 0113
Kobonal Haiti Mission
Food for the Destitute Elderly
— Kobonal, Haiti —
Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and
revere your God. I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:32
WWW.CROSSCATHOLIC.ORG
FOOD FOR THE DESTITUTE ELDERLY
PROJECT 0113
Project Synopsis
Description
Provide the elderly with monthly food rations.
Location
Kobonal, Haiti — a remote farming community in the Diocese of Hinche in Haiti’s Central Plateau.
Cost
$148,500 will provide food staples to 390 elderly community members — that’s just $32 to help
feed a person and their family for an entire month.
Highlights
• Kobonal Haiti Mission was established 25 years ago by Father Glenn Meaux.
• When he first arrived, families were starving, children were dying from dirty water and the
people throughout the Diocese of Hinche were entrenched in voodoo.
• The elderly are especially vulnerable to poverty and malnutrition. They are too old to work and
many have no other alternative besides the Emergency Survival Program.
• In response, Cross Catholic Outreach helps the mission provide basic food staples to 390 of the
diocese’s most needy.
• Cross Catholic has partnered with Fr. Meaux and the people of Kobonal since 2004, providing
food, housing, water and microfinance to the poorest of the poor.
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FOOD FOR THE DESTITUTE ELDERLY
PROJECT 0113
The Need
Among Haiti’s more than 9.8 million people, only 3.9 percent of the population lives above the age
of 65. In a country where the median age is 21 years old, the average Haitian doesn’t live to see his or
her 62nd birthday. Sadly, the nation’s elderly are often disregarded — being too old to work, they
become a burden on their already-struggling families.
“Many elderly men and women would die without our help,” says Father Glenn Meaux, founder of
Kobonal Haiti Mission. “Our Catholic social teaching says that everyone in the world — everyone
who has breath — has a right to basic needs.”
Fr. Meaux has seen the plight of the elderly throughout the Diocese of Hinche. He has met many
widows left with nothing more than a dilapidated house; he has helped scores of grandfathers now
too frail to farm; and he has provided meals for elderly women who otherwise would be forced to
beg for scraps in the streets.
But with the support of Cross Catholic Outreach, the elderly in Kobonal no longer need to worry
about finding their next meal. Through our commitment to the mission’s Emergency Survival Program,
they may finally rest assured that their desperate need for food will be met.
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FOOD FOR THE DESTITUTE ELDERLY
PROJECT 0113
Kobonal Haiti Mission
A Light in the Darkness
On the day Fr. Glenn Meaux came to
Kobonal, Haiti, he passed a crowd of people
descending the hill he was climbing. It was
a foreboding omen — a funeral party taking
a child’s coffin for burial. Upon reaching
Kobonal, things became even more daunting.
Fr. Meaux quickly learned why Kobonal had
earned its reputation as the ‘darkest corner
of the Diocese of Hinche’. The area was
tainted by superstition and controlled by
insidious voodoo practitioners.
“When I arrived, there was no agriculture,
there were no irrigation systems; there was
“I hope to bring about the reign of God in Haiti, not in my lifetime,
literally no hope at the time,” Fr. Meaux
but someday, by planting the seeds of the kingdom,” Fr. Meaux says.
recalls. Hardly anyone in the village owned
the land that their fragile, dirt-floor huts sat
on. No one grew gardens or raised animals
and very few employment opportunities
The Mission’s Many Ministries
existed for the unskilled, uneducated
population.
• Cross Catholic Outreach began working with Fr.
“The people were not only materially
impoverished, but they were morally and
Meaux in 2004, and has since built homes for
spiritually destitute as well. We found a
hundreds of poor families (Project 0114).
people enslaved and oppressed by black
magic priests and their ritualistic services.
• Thanks to the mission, more than 1,273
Voodoo and zombiism were prevalent and
students are able to earn a quality, Catholic
ritualistic sacrifices were practiced.”
education at no cost to their parents.
Undeterred, even when death threats
were made, Fr. Meaux planted his Catholic
mission squarely in the middle of this mire.
• Fr. Meaux’s church has become a pillar of the
He carried light, he knew, and its truth
community, with hundreds of people attending
could stand against any darkness. In the
Mass each Sunday for spiritual formation.
years that followed, his presence chased the
shadows away.
Today the community honors God. The
mission has helped empower families so
they can work and improve their lives. The destitute have been provided with houses, and through
small business loans, many families can now support themselves. They have dignity, faith and hope.
“I hope to bring about the reign of God in Haiti, not in my lifetime, but someday, by planting the
seeds of the kingdom,” Fr. Meaux says. “Yes, that is my goal. I want to plant the seeds of the kingdom.”
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FOOD FOR THE DESTITUTE ELDERLY
PROJECT 0113
Ministry Description
“Life would be
very hard
without this
food. The food
makes me well
and strong. I
would not
have survived
without the
food.”
Gustave Destave,
an 82-year-old widow
“Without these meals — without the cornmeal and beans we give them every month
— they just couldn’t live,” says Fr. Glenn Meaux.
The sun has just risen over the green hills of Haiti’s
Central Plateau and already hundreds of people can be
found gathered within the compound of Kobonal Haiti
Mission. Sitting on wooden benches, lying beneath shade
trees — they all carry empty sacks, waiting for the food
distribution to begin.
Many of these elderly community members began their
journey before the crack of dawn, walking for miles over
muddy, rocky roads. Often frail and sickly, they persevere
because they know this monthly trek will give them the
strength and sustenance they need to survive another day.
“These are the folks who have no children to care for
them,” says Fr. Meaux. “They live alone. Without these meals
— without the cornmeal and beans we give them every
month — they just couldn’t live.”
On food distribution days, the people arrive to the
mission carrying bundles of firewood as a token of their
appreciation. These twigs and branches are then used as
fuel for the school’s cooking fire.
This reciprocal kindness is just one example of the spiritual transformation Fr. Meaux has witnessed
in the people of Kobonal. Though once dominated by voodoo, this community is a living example of
the change that’s possible through a relationship with Christ.
“Many of the people have been baptized and have come into the church,” Fr. Meaux says. “You see
them improving entirely — materially, socially and spiritually.”
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FOOD FOR THE DESTITUTE ELDERLY
PROJECT 0113
Help Now!
A month’s worth of cornmeal, beans and oil may not seem like much, but to an elderly person in Kobonal,
Haiti, it could mean the difference between life and death. Without family or a job to produce income, the
elderly poor find themselves, lost, alone and neglected. If it wasn’t for Kobonal Haiti Mission’s monthly food
rations, many of the community’s aged would go days without eating a proper meal.
Thankfully, the help of Cross Catholic Outreach and our supporters allows Fr. Meaux to minister
to the community in his care.
“Stewardship is mentioned over 80 times in the New Testament,” he says. “All we have is a gift from
God. It’s how we utilize those gifts and use the resources we are given by God for the poor.”
Will you prayerfully consider joining Cross Catholic and Fr. Meaux to help feed the elderly in
Kobonal, Haiti? Together we can use our God-given resources to bless the poorest of the poor!
Monthly Food Staples
Your support would provide Kobonal’s destitute elderly with:
• Cornmeal
• Cooking oil
• Beans
• Soap
Proceeds from this campaign will be used to cover any expenditures for the Kobonal Emergency Survival
Project incurred during the current calendar year. In the event that more funds are raised than needed to fully
fund the project, the excess funds, if any, will be used to meet the most urgent needs at the Kobonal Haiti
Mission
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2700 N. Military Trail, Suite 240 • PO Box 273908 • Boca Raton, Florida 33427-3908 • 1-800-914-2420
© Cross Catholic Outreach. Cost effectively written, designed and printed in-house.