Kobonal Haiti Mission - Cross Catholic Outreach
Transcription
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. 1 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. 2 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.” 3 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.” 4 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 5 [aw1205][Utn1304][Utn1401][Utn1505] 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.