CALCUTTA, India – The Missionaries of Charity have expressed relief that their nuns working in Haiti are safe.
Sister Christie, the congregation’s spokeswoman, told the Asian church news agency UCA News Jan. 15 that the sisters had learned from various sources that all their nuns in the quake-hit Caribbean nation were accounted for, although the congregation in India had no direct contact with them. She could not provide a figure for the number of nuns working there, but said they manage nine houses and work with the destitute, handicapped and orphaned children. They also work with adult patients, the elderly and the dying.
Meanwhile, staffers of Caritas India, the social action arm of the Indian Catholic bishops, were meeting Jan. 15 to decide how to get aid to quake survivors, Father Varghese Mattamana told UCA News.
The Indian government has already promised $1 million in cash for immediate emergency relief.
The magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Jan. 12 has affected approximately 3 million Haitians, primarily in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and south and west of the city. The Red Cross estimates up to 50,000 people have died. Damage to the nation’s infrastructure has made it hard for some aid agencies to get relief to victims.