Dear Friends and Benefactors of the Kizito Family,
The month of June began with the celebration of our patron saints St. Charles, St. Kizito, and companions. The celebrations were spread out over several days, as our children are too many to be gathered in one place. The war in Haiti also prevents the children from moving easily from one place to another, so we held 5 different celebrations masses.
Then on June 3rd, the true feast day, there was a very heavy rain and floods followed. In some parts of the country, many houses were completely covered. In Port-au-Prince, particularly in the slum of Cité Soleil, the water rose in some places to the waist. Even after several days, many houses remained filled with mud and trash. Some houses were lost, impossible to clean. These rains also brought a resurgence of the cholera epidemic.
At the same time, the month of June had a lot of shooting ongoing throughout the month. Thanks be to God, it was not as bad as the month of April and fewer attacks (rapes and beatings) than in May. But there was still shooting and deaths, many injuries. Then suddenly, on June 27th, it was rumored that the gang leaders made peace. This was very strange and even until today no one knows why, how, or who arranged this. But the fact remains that there has been no shooting for the last 3 days and people are able to cross in places they haven’t dared walk in 3 years. Many people have told me they feel they are dreaming, walking over invisible lines safely. There is hope this peace will permit the cleaning of drains and reduce flooding in many areas. There is hope this will last.
The peace happened on the eve of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, national patroness of Haiti. There have been everywhere novenas to Our Lady, large crowds attending processions and masses. It appears that Our Lady has heard the cry of the poor
During the month of June, we had the joy of taking groups of children from Cité Soleil away from the shooting to a nice peaceful place on the hills, belonging to the Brothers of the Christian Instruction. They allowed us to use space on their property for a 3-day retreat with groups of children preparing for baptism. Young people joined us, organizing times of prayer, teaching, and playing also. The children were so excited, saying to one another as we drove up, “look at the hills!” Many of them have never left Cité Soleil, which is a flat region next to the sea. The children were so happy and will never forget this experience.
We also had football teams from all the different schools playing together, with today as the final match. The school St. Martin de Porres is the winner, which was very exciting for the children.
