HISTORY

Notre Dame professor and Holy Cross priest Tom Streit, CSC, has been working in Léogâne, Haiti, regularly for the past nine years. He is currently working on a major project with the Hopital Ste. Croixe on a program to eradicate filariasis, a mosquito-borne disease that can severely affect major life functioning. This is a collaborative project with the Notre Dame Haiti Program, a part of the biology department of the University of Notre Dame. Hopital Ste. Croixe in Léogâne is a leader in the field, and is a part of the collaboration between the hospital, Notre Dame, and the Centers for Disease Control, with a grant from the Gates Foundation.

In the spring of 2002, Holy Cross Associates (HCA) was contacted and asked to orient a prospective volunteer that Fr. Streit, CSC had recruited to assist in his work in Haiti. So began Holy Cross Associates' affiliation with the Haiti Project. In December 2002, John Pinter, director of the HCA program, was invited to visit Haiti with the idea of looking at a more ‘permanent' and direct placement of volunteers for subsequent years. This new, formal, affiliation of Associates in Haiti begins with the 2003-2004 program year.

HOLY CROSS APOSTOLATES IN HAITI

There is a significant population of Holy Cross religious in Haiti, which very recently became its own Province (Notre-Dame du perpetual-secours of Haiti). There are sisters present in Haiti as well. While their are numerous aposulates in Haiti with which Holy Cross is engaged, there is in particular a seminary and a school sponsored by the Perpetual-Secours in Port au Prince.

LÉOGÂNE AND HOPITAL STE. CROIX

Léogâne is a city approximately 30 kilometers from central Port au Prince. It takes about 2 hours to get there due to overcrowded roads from the capital, but one does leave the capital and go through some rural area before getting to Léogâne. The central part of the city is estimated to be approximately 30,000 people, and the whole ‘commune' (akin to a county in the U.S.) is about 250,000.

Hopital Ste. Croix is an Episcopal sponsored hospital. It is a general hospital for the area, but also has become a leader in the effort to eradicate the filariasis, a mosquito-borne disease of the lymphatic system. A collaboration of Notre Dame, Emory University, U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and Hopital Ste. Croix is working on the project.

As a part of the grant received by the program, one of the efforts is the building of Maison Filariasis, a guest house for visiting medical professionals and a residence for some of the project staff. It is a large building, with the potential to house up to about 25 individuals. The volunteer(s) assist at the residence, located on the outskirts of the town of Léogâne.

VOLUNTEER EFFORTS AND POSSIBILITIES

The role of the volunteers will be quite varied. Among the possible duties are the following, generally described:

  1. Assisting with the public health awareness of the disease and its treatments in various parts of the country;
  2. Providing orientation and hospitality to medical and other visitors to the area who reside at Residence Filarios, the facility inLéogâne which hosts visiting professionals and volunteers (and which will also be the residence for the Associates);
  3. Assisting with scheduling and other duties for treatments and surgeries on behalf of individuals affected by the disease;
  4. Potential micro-enterprise development, with the carrying on of a project to sell mosquito netting;
  5. Assisting the HCA program to develop other potential involvements in Haiti, including establishing relationships with the new Holy Cross Province in Haiti, developing short-term volunteer opportunities, and finding other service apostolates in the region.

Haiti is a difficult place to live. It is hot, it is poor, it is politically unstable, and there are not a lot of amenities available for volunteers. On the other hand, it is a very friendly country, the work is extraordinarily interesting, and it can be extremely 'rewarding' to the participants.

The program in Haiti will follow the pillars of the Holy Cross Associates: Service, Community, Prayer and Spirituality, and Simplicity of Lifestyle. There will be very different ways these pillars are carried out, given the small nature of the community (around 2 to start), living arrangements (living within the Residence Filarios), and the limited number of Holy Cross religious in the area.

Those interested are strongly encouraged to contact the Holy Cross Associates home office, by phone (574-631-5521), email (hcahaiti@nd.edu), or through correspondence, Holy Cross Associates, P.O. Box 668, Notre Dame IN 46556-0668.

Benefits: Volunteers will receive room and board, personal stipends, travel to and from Haiti (at beginning and end of the term), language training, and health insurance. The program is designed to parallel the current HCA program, though there are some important differences.