Friends in the Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston areas may cross paths with some of the FWCC reps from Latin America who will be traveling among Friends before and after the Annual Meeting: Jesús Huarachi, presiding clerk of the National Friends Church of Peru, Jorge Luis Peña Reyes from Cuba and Bernabé Sánchez from Honduras.  These Friends will worship both at area unprogrammed English-speaking Friends Meetings and with Hispanic Evangelical Friends. Two of them will be at Philadelphia Yearly Meeting annual sessions. Loida Fernández, FWCC's Executive Secretary for the Committee of Latin American Friends, will also take part in some visits.

photo: Jesús Huarachi, second from right, with Nancy Irving and Peruvian Friends, January 2010

The start of the rainy season is likely to bring the danger of disease and a fresh wave of misery to those made homeless by the earthquake in Haiti. Several groups of Friends have sent shipments of tents in containers and the American Friends Service Committee has funded enough plastic sheeting to provide emergency shelter for at least 1,300 families and for those involved in the feeding programs implemented by Swiss Interchurch Aid, AFSC's main partner in this particular crisis. Seven organized temporary settlements, housing 42,000 people, have been established by the Haitian government and NGOs. But it is estimated that a further 460,000 are in spontaneous makeshift settlements throughout Port-au-Prince. In addition, World Relief reports that almost 598,000 people have left Port-au-Prince for other parts of the country.
 
AFSC senior staff Geri Sicola and Jorge Lafitte made an assessment visit to Haiti soon after the earthquake, as did Evangelical Friends Church-Eastern Region Area Superintendent Wayne Evans and Anthony Bruno of the pastoral staff of Morningside Friends Church, Florida (a Haitian congregation.) Wayne and Regina Evans were due to leave for Haiti today, and plan to spend a day with the (Haitian) Friends Pastors in the Dominican Republic, also. EFC-ER has sent further donations to Samaritan's Purse and World Relief, and is encouraging those who want to volunteer in practical ways to register via CauseUp. Those with masonry and medical skills are particularly needed.
 
In addition to death, disability and destruction, the country of Haiti has experienced a catastrophic loss in its civil society. There are estimates (still to be confirmed) that close to 80% of the adult deaths were among those holding professional and managerial positions -  those who lived, or worked, in concrete buildings in the country's political and commercial capital. The particular contribution that Friends in the rest of the world might make to Haiti's educational needs in the face of this loss is a topic to which we will return in the future.