MEET THE JEAN RABEL TEAM – Haiti
This year we are six members! Three Irish, three Spanish.
You already know Sr. Nazareth Ybarra, RJM (seated) from Spain and Sr. Rose Kelly, RJM (far right) from Ireland, but here are the other volunteers as they appear in the photo:
- Sr. Bridget O’Driscoll, OP, came November 2017 and is here until June. She spent 22 years in a mission in Brazil. Sr. Bridget came for a visit and was asked to stay to implement the program, “Pastoral Timoun Piti e Fanm Ansent”. The program accompanies women who are pregnant and children from 0 to 6 years old. It helps to reduce infant mortality, improve health, works on education, and builds community.
- Breda Sammon came in June from Ireland, for a year of computer training. She is on a year’s contract with “Viatores Christi” and is setting up two computer rooms in the schools of Acadien and Colette.
- Claudia Portillo Sánchez, from Almeria, Spain came through ONG Entreculturas, after receiving a year’s VOLPA (Volunteer Pedro Arrupe) formation in Spain. She just arrived one month ago and is getting to know Haiti. Claudia is working in the workshop with Nazareth in the mornings. In the afternoon she takes Creole class and two days per week is going with the clinic mobil to different areas.
- Paloma Peñas Dendariena, from Spain, is a VOLPA (Volunteer Pedro Arrupe) with ONG Entreculturas also, and has opted to stay for a second year. She gives pedagogical support at the schools of Foi et Joie, is a volunteer with “Pastoral Timoun Piti” and works in the afternoon school for children that are restaveks (a sort of child slavery that still exists here).
Our community is a source of diverse encounter – the work of the others enriches us, and gives us light on different realities around us. Together, we continue the mission to walk side-by-side with the community of Jean Rabel, and with the Haitian people who share with us so much and with whom we continue to grow.
– Claudia Portillo Sánchez
