e-Newsletter

• Sister Carmelle Voltaire of Fondwa in Pittsburgh
• Becky Newlin Returns Home
• Pitt Grad Students
• PIP Delegations
• Makaya Water Project

PIP Welcomes Sr. Carmelle Voltaire of Fondwa, Haiti to Pittsburgh, PA

Those of you who have visited Fondwa, Haiti will surely remember the warm smiles and hospitality you received from all the staff at the APF (Association of Peasants of Fondwa)  Visitors’ Center but especially from Sister Marie Carmelle Voltaire.  In May, Partners in Progress was pleased to return a little of this hospitality and welcome Sister Carmelle to the Pittsburgh area for the first time!

Sister Carmelle is a foundress of the Sisters of Sen Antwan (St. Anthony), a native community of religious sisters in Fondwa, Haiti. She serves as Director of the Fondwa medical clinic and directs the APF visitors’ program. She came to the US primarily to see first hand how a modern medical laboratory functions with the intention to share her new knowledge with her co-workers back in Haiti but also to share with medical personnel in the US her experience and insights as a nurse with 20 years of experience in Haiti.

As the guest of PIP board member Rosemary Edwards, MD/MPH, Sister Carmelle spent several days observing laboratory processes and procedures at Butler Memorial Hospital and speaking with infectious disease specialists about HIV/AIDS. This exchange will help enhance the ongoing efforts in Fondwa to establish a Community HIV/AIDS Program.

Sister Barbara Finch, CSJ also hosted Sister Carmelle for a day. In addition to learning more about the Oakland-based Jubilee Association Ministries including the clinic and child care sevices, Sister was able to enjoy a dose of Pittsburgh’s pleasant spring weather and panoramic view from top of Mount Washington.

Sister Carmelle also spent a day with PIP executive director Rich Gosser visiting with representatives of the Humility of Mary Sisters at Villa Maria, PA, where she shared her community’s vision for ministry and growth and explored possible ways in which her community could benefit from the long tradition and experience of the Humility of Mary Sisters in health-care and education.

Sr. Carmelle’s week in Pittsburgh concluded with her attendance at a reception hosted by the Pittsburgh Regional Haiti Solidarity Committee for board members of FONKOZE, Haiti’s “alternative bank for the organized poor”.  Fonkoze was founded by PIP board member and APF coordinator, Fr. Joseph Philippe, C.S.Sp. and provides a range of financial services (including “microfinance” loans) mainly to groups of “ti machann”, women who sell in Haiti’s informal economy.  Western Pennsylvania Friends of Haiti, PIP supporters and Fonkoze Board Members gathered at Epiphany Church to learn more about the important work of Fonkoze in Haiti and to honor Anne Hastings, Fonkoze’s program director, who received an honorary doctorate at Duquesne University’s commencement.

Pittsburgh Native Returns Home from Volunteer Experience in Haiti

After a sometimes challenging but greatly rewarding nine months as a volunteer teacher in the St. Antoine School in Fondwa, Haiti, Becky Newlin returned to Pittsburgh where she will share her experience of Haiti with students in her religious studies classes at Oakland Catholic High School.  Becky taught English to scores of students in Fondwa and declares her love for all the children she met there!  Thanks to Becky some students at Oakland Catholic have become pen-pals with some of the Fondwa students resulting in an ongoing exchange of perspectives and experiences.  Becky’s presence in Fondwa will be missed by many!

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Pitt Grad Students in International Development Doing Research in Fondwa, Haiti

At the invitation of PIP and the Association of Peasants of Fondwa (APF), Michael Hatch and Erin Smith, students at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of International and Public Affairs (GSPIA), are spending the summer in Fondwa, Haiti where they will work with members of APF to better understand the social, environmental and economic impact of some of the APF grassroots development projects that PIP supports there.  With collaboration from GSPIA professor Michelle Garrity, PhD, Mike and Erin will collect base-line data by direct observation and through personal interviews.  Their work will benefit both APF and PIP and form the basis for some real-life “case studies” at GSPIA.  “Byenvini nan Fondwa”, Mike and Erin! (“Welcome to Fondwa!)

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PIP Delegations Give Broad Experience of Haiti’s Richness

Many people know Haiti only as “the poorest country in the Western hemisphere”, but PIP executive director, Rich  Gosser, who’s been leading delegations to Haiti since 1992, wants people to know the hospitality of Haitians and the richness of Haiti’s culture.  Gosser coordinated a 9 member delegation in March and accompanied 7 visitors in May.  Participants generally spend part of their time in Port au Prince, where they taste life in Haiti’s capital and only urban center.  For balance and contrast PIP delegations also spend time in
rural Fondwa and visit a selection of towns in Haiti’s “provinces”.   Visitors to Fondwa can participate in the APF “edu-tourism” program.  (Visit the PIP website www.PIPHaiti.org  or send an email to info@PIPHaiti.org for information.)

PIP Sponsored Makaya Water Project Continues Slow but Steady Progress

Proving all too well the adage “nothing is easy in Haiti”, progress on the PIP-sponsored Makaya Water Project in Fondwa has been painfully slow!  Nonetheless, the project has advanced steadily and is expected to be completed by the end of the year or early in 2008.  Steel reinforced concrete supports (accompanying photo) for the part of the pipeline that will run above ground are in place.  The diesel power-supply is ready to be shipped from the manufacturer in Tennessee.  Construction of the underground part of the pipeline will begin as soon as the  growing season ends and local laborers become available for hire.  Pwoje Makaya, as it is called in Kreyol, will provide much needed water to residents of the Tom Gato neighborhood of Fondwa and supply APF’s commercial center and university students with potable water.

PIP invites YOU to become a “dollar-a-day”, sustaining partner!

PIP’s donors are both very loyal and very generous! A simple “mesi anpil” (“thank you VERY much”) never seems adequate as a response to the continuing support PIP receives from its donors. Your support is essential if PIP is to have the resources needed to carry out its mission of promoting and supporting the Fondwa community-based model of integral sustainable development in rural Haiti. We know that the great majority of Haitians living in the rural provinces subsist on incomes of less than US $1 a day and PIP invites you to become a sustaining partner by contributing just a “dollar-a-day”. Just click here to make a tax-deductible, secure, online pledge of $30 or more a month! Sustaining partners will each receive a copy of the 20 minute DVD “Road to Fondwa” edited by Justin Brandon and produced by Fondwa long-term volunteer Brian McElroy. Don’t delay -- make YOUR gift today!

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