Posted August 20, 2013

Try to imagine what it would be like to be a member of one of 57 families living in shacks on a narrow, isolated beach, literally cut off from civilization.

Welcome to St. Mary Fishing Village, located on the Island of Gonave off the coast of Haiti. Gonave is relatively large, about 283 square miles, but the terrain is harsh.

  • A typical Haitian village of the type being replaced by Father Chuck’s Challenge. (Lou Baldwin)

  • Some of 50-kilo (110 pound) sacks of rice at Food for the Poor’s Port Au Prince warehouse. Most of the rice and other foodstuffs will be distributed to institutions and schools thoughout Haiti. At Food for Poor’s own nearby feeding station 35 sacks (3,850 pounds) of rice will be cooked daily to feed the hungry in the vicinity. (Lou Baldwin)

  • A typical classroom at the Orphanage. (Lou Baldwin)

  • Girls Dormitory in Damabiah Children’s Home in Petionville. It is temporary makeshift quarters. Their former building was destroyed by the 2011 earthquake. Food for the Poor regularly supplies food and other items to the orphanage. (Lou Baldwin)

  • An all-too typical street scene in Port Au Prince. (Lou Baldwin)

  • A little boy at Father Pfeffer’s Fishing Village in Baussan flies one of the kites presented by the Father Chuck’s Challenge visitors. (Lou Baldwin)

  • Father Chuck’s Challenge visitors and Food for the Poor team in a group picture at what was Sacre Coer Church destroyed by the 2010 earthquake. (Lou Baldwin)

  • Msgr. Schmidt with residents; new homes in the background. (Lou Baldwin)

  • Msgr. Schmidt and Connie Hunt with new homeowners. (Lou Baldwin)

  • Kathy and Rhys John of Epiphany Parish, Plymouth meeting with residents at a house they paid for. (Lou Baldwin)

  • Spartan interior of one of the new houses showing sleeping quarters and the bathroom. The toilet is flushed with buckets of seawater to conserve the precious rain water used for drinking and cooking. (Lou Baldwin)

  • Lorraine Williams of Sacred Heart, Havertown and Msgr. Schmidt with residents outside one of the houses funded by Williams. (Lou Baldwin)

  • Fishermen from St. Mary’s Fishing Village show their new boat, part of the gift to the village from Father Chuck’s Challenge. (Lou Baldwin)

  • Residents of St. Mary’s Fishing Village at Gonave Island gather on the beach to joyfully welcome Msgr. Francis X. Schmidt along with Father Chuck’s Challenge contributors and Food for the Poor staff as their boat nears the shore. Buildings house fishing gear and some older dwelling shacks not yet replaced by houses on safer high ground. (Lou Baldwin)

  • Father Charles Kennedy of Cathedral Parish celebrates Mass in a Port Au Prince hotel meeting room at the outset of the Father Chuck’s Challenge pilgrims August visit to Haiti. (Lou Baldwin)