“We understand how desperate the situation is. We can not turn our backs on these people whom we have come to know and love over the years.” — Catherine Liberlesthe following was contributed by Ann Comber

For more than six years, members of the Global Outreach Committee at St. Agatha Parish in Milton have been traveling to St. Rock, Haiti, to provide medical and humanitarian assistance to the impoverished residents of this rural mountain village near Port Au Prince. On Sunday, November 14, ten parishioners will join a team of 26 doctors, dentists, nurses and engineers in a two week trip to St. Rock to provide medical treatment, housing assistance and improve access to clean water in an effort to stem the spread of cholera that is now threatening parts of the country.

Catherine Liberles, a registered nurse and board member of the St. Rock Haiti Foundation, will be making her 12th trip to Haiti this fall with members of St Agatha Parish and co-workers from Mass General Hospital. While she is inspired by what the foundation has been able to accomplish over the years, she says it is easy to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenges the people face every day. “Even before the earthquake, the conditions were deplorable,” Liberles says. “People were living in huts, but now they don’t even have that.”

One of the foundation’s primary goals has been to create a safe supply of drinking water for the village. They brought in engineers who worked with local Haitians to design

and build a cistern to hold clean water. Because the mountain had no electricity, one of the engineers donated a generator so that the water could be pumped up the mountain to the clinic. “The earthquake damaged the cistern, though,” Liberles says, “so we will be working on repairing the cistern and creating four access sites for families.” The work has taken on a new urgency with the outbreak of cholera in Haiti. “In most third world countries, clean water is the number one priority,” Liberles said.

Liberles and the medical team are stocking up on IVs and hydration packs in preparation for the trip. “Our hope is to send dehydration packs home with families, especially those with small children. If the children get sick, they can die within hours from dehydration.” The cholera vaccine is not available in the U.S., but Liberles says no one has backed out of the trip. “We understand how desperate the situation is. We can not turn our backs on these people whom we have come to know and love over the years.”

St. Agatha Parish will be hosting a reverse raffle fundraiser for the St. Rock Foundation in January to coincide with the first anniversary of the earthquake, but Liberles hopes people will donate money now to assist with their ongoing work in St. Rock. Donations can be made on the website www.saintrock.org.