Fr. Meaux's mission busy feeding extra mouths in Haiti

By Jeff Nemetz

For the past three weeks, rescuers have been pulling either the living or the dead from the rubble of what used to be the capital city of Haiti.

Through all of the destruction caused by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, there really is a silver lining of hope, peace and stability in the country-side of this poverty-stricken island nation. Fr. Glenn Meaux of Abbeville, through the SOLT Society of Priests of the Roman Catholic Faith, have been able to extend some solace to the increasing numbers of refugees moving into the mountain region around the area he has been serving as a missionary priest for the past 20 years.

In a satellite telephone interview Wednesday, Fr. Meaux said that approximately 1,200 people have moved from the port city into his mission area of Kobonol, approximately 80 miles north of devastated Port au Prince in a mountainous region. “Virtually everyone of them (refugees) have broken collar bones and all of them are wearing casts,” said Fr. Meaux. “Most of the people that have made the trip up into the mountains have family members in our village already.”

One of the biggest problems facing the mission center is the ability to feed its normal residents. Now, add all of the extra mouths, and food is being stretched tight according to Fr. Meaux. Add to this the problem of simply being able to acquire food from the port city with all of its problems, and the situation doesn’t appear to have a simple solution any time soon.
“We’re giving the people food we have, including beans, rice, corn and oil to last at least 15 days of the next month to begin with,” said Fr. Meaux. Conversing with one of the workers at the mission in the native language similar to Cajun French, Fr. Meaux said that “the problem we have is that the cost of food has skyrocketed down here. A #25 bag of rice is now selling for about $37/American, and a #25 bag of beans is costing about $40/American. In addition to feeding the extra 1,200 people, we still have the 1,000 students in our schools that we need to feed every day.”

In the normal tradition of the mission, Fr. Meaux is beginning to train the new arrivals in a skill area so they have the dignity of working for their food instead of simply relying on handouts. Of the many skill areas the mission teaches, the new members of the community are being trained in cement masonry and as carpenters to help build the additionally needed homes for the new residents. Outside of the construction work, others are being trained to work in the kitchen to continue to have enough bread and other food products available for everyone to eat.

“The biggest problem we face at the moment,” commented Fr. Meaux , “is that all of our European donation money is being held up because of the lack of a Haitian government to write the checks out to us for what is sent in from those organizations. It is so bottled up down there (Port au Prince) that it is taking a long time just to sort out all of the donations coming into the country.”

Not wanting to directly ask for aid for his community, Fr. Meaux said he “wants to thank the people of Acadiana who have been so generous to the mission through this and all of the past 20 years.” Ultimately, the financial need is there with the sudden increase in the costs of basic food stuffs. He did say that donations made through the Abbeville office will be wire transferred to the mission to provide more immediate financial support so that foods may be purchased for the entire village.

The entire Haitian mission is operated out of a new headquarters office located out in the countryside of Vermilion Parish, just to the northwest of Abbeville. Rose Fontana is the office manager for the mission and can be reached at: Haiti 
Mission Office, P.O. Box 1400

 Abbeville, LA 70511. The office phone in Abbeville is  337-893-7900, 
or she can be reached by email at rosefontana@solthaitimission.org. 

Over the past 20 years, the inhabitants of Kobonal, Haiti, have entrusted Meaux with their children. Beginning the basics of a school with 18 students, the enrollment now exceeds 1,200 students up to grade six that, along with their education, are fed every day that they attend school. Many of the 40 teachers on staff are former students of the school who now earn approximately $80 per month (American money), and are earning above the nation’s average annual salary of $400. Ironically, farmers in Haiti have one of the higher incomes averaging almost $900 per year.

Meaux said one of the next goals for the school is to add more vocational classes to help train the students for potential work. “Sewing, baking and carpentry are all needed skills for the area,” commented Meaux. “We have a gentleman in our area that makes chairs and I would like to add that teaching skill to our school as well.”

The January earthquake was nothing new to the area residents. Meaux said that “they experienced a quake a few years ago where you could feel the earth shaking, but nothing along the lines of what happened this time. The people knew what was happening, so it wasn’t as if they didn’t know what was happening.”
To follow the activities of the mission, their website is http://www.solthaitimission.org/.