Help Our Neighbors & Church in Haiti

You can donate to the relief effort right on our website. Just go to our Online Giving Page, where there’s a box you can check for Haiti Relief. You can also give by check at church. Please include “Haiti Relief” on check memo line.

We will be sending all donations directly to Bp. Duracin in Haiti. Hopefully, Bp. Salmon will be able to do so in person at the upcoming House of Bishops meeting on Friday, March 19.

Any contribution you make to Haiti relief from January 12, 2010 to February 28, 2010, can be claimed as an itemized deduction on 2009 Individual or Joint/Family federal tax returns.

The Haitian diocese has suffered greatly from the quake. A number of the diocese's 254 schools, ranging from pre-schools to a university and a seminary, were destroyed or severely damaged, including the Holy Trinity complex of primary, music and trade schools adjacent to the demolished diocesan Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince.

As many as 3,000 quake survivors, including many members of the diocese, have congregated on a rocky field next to College Ste. Pierre, a diocesan primary school destroyed by the quake. Bishop Duracin, who was left homeless by the quake, has led the effort to organise and maintain the camp, where conditions are described as grim.

Episcopal Relief and Development's efforts include coordinating shipments of medical supplies and food to affected rural Haitian communities and parishes, organising air drops to isolated rural areas and the provision of satellite phones and solar power chargers. The latter will enable coordination of efforts between dioceses and increase the organisation's ability to communicate with Duracin and his colleagues as they serve thousands of survivors both in Port au Prince and in other areas served by the Episcopal Church of Haiti.

The agency said on January 21 that its work is also helping to establish a response mechanism that can continue to operate efficiently as the recovery process gets underway in the coming weeks and months.