What Gena does every day.....May 14,2025

Dear friends,

Our challenges continue to be major.

Many of you of you know Gena Heraty, from Ireland, who has been with NPH Haiti for almost as long as I have, creating family living for disabled children and adults. Gena lives in Kenscoff, at the NPH Home called Ste. Helene. gena gives us a glimpse of the terrible suffering at the hand of barbaric gangs in the mountains of Kenscoff. Gena wrote both reflections below:

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His name was Emmanuel

The name Emmanuel, both in its Hebrew form (Immanuel) and its English variant, means "God with us"

He worked as a security guard at our home, and he was very active in the local Catholic Church.

He lived up to his name- a kind word for everyone. 

A smile lived on his face, and he clothed himself with kindness every day.

Goodness was his essence.

When we started taking our young people to his church, he was extremely proud and told me several times the impact our Special Needs Residents were having on his community. He always greeted us at the door of the church with his beautiful happy smiling face.

That beautiful church - built only a few years ago with the help of the poor farmers and other donations-is now inhabited by the gangs that took his life.

By the gangs that beat him, shot him, and burned him in the house that he was guarding that Thursday night when the gang members went crazy in the rural community of Furcy.

That church is now a party house for the same gangs that kidnapped his only daughter- one of many they kidnapped. 

That church is now one of the bases for the gangs that have destroyed Emmanuel’s community.

That church -once called St. Michel and now called St. Paul- is where gangs play their party music and celebrate the terror they have spread all over the hills.

Where they rejoice in killing poor farmers and show no mercy on those running screaming into the dark while the bullets fall like rain all around them. 

Emmanuel-it was easy to see the goodness of God in you.

It was easy to see how a world is made better when people are kind and inclusive- when people care for each other and see each other as one.

Emmanuel you did not deserve this- no one does.

You were a strong young man with so much to live for.

You died standing up against evil.

You died a martyr’s death. 

You are not just another statistic, one number amongst the min 1617 people killed in Haiti so far this year(Relief Web),

One more death to add to the 5,600plus killed in 2024(UN figures).

Emmanuel- God with us.

You were God with us. 

Life is not fair- we learned this long ago and don’t expect it to be.

But we work hard to make it a little fairer.

Your presence touched many lives Emmanuel.

We give thanks for your life and your love and we believe you will soar with the angels and watch over your beautiful homeland.

You can enlist St. Paul and St. Michael cos as you know, your people pray nonstop to God and his Angels for protection.

Emmanuel your life was ended far too soon.

Your work on earth is done. 

There is a song called “Your work on earth is done” and these two lines come from it.

“The Lord of love will be my comfort when my work on earth is done.

He’ll safely lead me through the valley,

When my work on earth is done”.

Bon voyaj Emmanuel.

Nou pap janm bliye w.

Gena Heraty

May 14th 2025

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Dark Days

Death, violence and terror - the daily reality in Kenscoff. So many of our employees no longer sleep in their homes at night. Once it begins to get dark they go down deeper into the valley, in an attempt to avoid the raiding gangs. Last Friday- an employee rang me sometime before 4am- Gena, stay alert, there is a lot of shooting over the hill. We talked about another employee that lives in the area where the gangs were shooting. I hung up and called that employee- ‘ we are hiding in the fields- we ran because there was shooting everywhere. She told me later, that 12 of them crammed into a garden shack and when they couldn’t all sleep there, some slept outside. Imagine how traumatized her children are! Imagine how she feels!  

One of our night employees was frantically trying to reach her family. They live right beside the police station- and the police station was under attack. Her neighbor was killed and other family members were injured.

Another employee told me she and her kids literally slide and rolled down the hills as they ran for their lives. “We were not on any path Gena- we just ran. They shot people in front of me, they pulled and dragged my neighbour  - it was awful. They kidnapped people- made them carry the dead bodies of gang members that had been shot. Oh it was awful Gena”

Automatic gunfire keeps everyone awake at night and fear grows and swells throughout the valleys. The night seems endless when you are afraid. Schools are closed and countless families have left their homes. Tis more of the same in Haiti as the reign of terror continues and spreads from community to community.

These are dark days. 

There is a new Pope- he speaks of unity and love. 

Unity- what a nice word! Why oh why do humans always try to focus on how we might be different? Why can’t we look at how similar we all are? 

Why can’t we imagine what it must be like for those that are suffering! 

How many people do you know that were murdered this year? Hopefully none- in Haiti we are not so lucky as we know so many. 

Know as in know personally!

Do you know anyone that was kidnapped and tortured? Hopefully not! 

Sadly we know many.

I don’t have answers. 

Haiti doesn’t make the news.

I feel I had to write a few words.

Too much violence.

Too many senseless deaths.

Too many rapes.

Too much sadness.

I like the Pope’s plea for unity.

I like his call for peace and inclusion.

Let’s make it happen.

To have peace You and I must be peaceful.

To have a fair world You and I must be fair.

To have a safe world you and I must be safefty- be safety in our language, how many times do we read things written in language of violence? 

Be safety in our interactions!  

I could go on and on!

Please keep praying for peace.

Be Peaceful!

Please include Haiti in your prayers.

Gena Heraty, NPH Special Needs Programs, Haiti.

Tel: 50937245951