April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
CATHOLIC VOLUNTEERS
Solar foundation shares sun in Haiti
But when Cherie Williams and two of her daughters, parishioners of St. James Church in Chatham, visited there, they only saw one child cry.
Haitian children shared their food, no matter how hungry they were. And simple gifts from the Americans - or even holding a Haitian woman's babies - elicited profound gratitude.
The Williamses and other volunteers from the Capital Region were part of a five-day family mission trip this summer with the Let's Share the Sun Foundation, a Troy-based non-profit that installs sustainable solar power in poor countries.
Nancy Brennan-Jordan and her husband, Bill Jordan, parishioners of St. Mary's Church in Clinton Heights, founded the organization in 2009, after Mr. Jordan opened a commercial solar energy company that dedicates 10 percent of its profits to the foundation.
The Jordans are alumni of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana who served as Catholic lay missioners in Chile for seven years. They started their solar panel installations in Haiti because of their connection with the decades-old Notre Dame Haiti Program, which aims to eliminate lymphatic filariasis, a tropical disease prevalent in the Caribbean country.
The 2010 earthquake in Haiti compounded the problems of a country already known as the poorest in the western hemisphere, with 8.9 million residents lacking food and shelter. The village of Leogane was at the epicenter.
Let's Share the Sun added solar panels to the Notre Dame program's facility in Haiti, which became a community center after the earthquake. The panels generate enough power to shut down the center's diesel generator during the day to save money.
Volunteers from the foundation have also worked at an orphanage and medical facility in Honduras; a medical clinic in St. Rock, Haiti; and a rural school in Leogane damaged by the earthquake. Having electricity there for the first time extended the school day and doubled enrollment.
Volunteers returned to the school this summer to distribute 50 solar-powered lanterns to children, who charge the devices at school during the day and bring them home to use at night.
Let's Share the Sun has partnered with St. Pius X and Christ Our Light parishes in Loudonville to help Siena College alumni Esperandieu Cenat and Pierre Louis Joizil power a Haitian orphanage and school (see previous story at http://www.evangelist.org/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=23396&SectionID=16&SubSectionID=69&S=1).
Volunteers say such connections have been the work of the Holy Spirit. They note that the sun is a symbol of life and abundance, while the Son of God brings hope. Mr. Jordan said the people of Haiti are "sharing the sun with us as much as we are with them."
Mrs. Brennan-Jordan, a nurse practitioner, said the Haitians have taught the volunteers to rely on God. Poverty "removes that control we seek," she said. "That's how people discover the joy: because they depend on God."
July was the second trip to Haiti for Bernadette Jordan, who recently graduated from the Academy of the Holy Names in Albany. She said she was inspired by the Haitians' devotion to their Catholic faith; they came to Mass at the former church, now a group of tents, well-dressed and eager to worship for three hours. That excitement is "something that's lost here" in the U.S., she said.
Other young volunteers were also changed by the experience. Riley Williams, a freshman at the Albany Academy for Girls and a graduate of Holy Spirit School in East Greenbush, described rubble from the quake littering the streets: "It was a lot to take in."
Before the trip, Riley raised money for lanterns and collected 100 pounds of school supplies at her alma mater. She also recorded a song her mother wrote, "Let's Share the Sun," and played it for the children in Haiti.
"They were just so happy," said the teen, who wants to work as a nurse in a mobile clinic in Haiti after college. "It just makes me realize that I don't need anything. If I just have God, that's all I need to go forward."
Mrs. Williams and Riley also wrote a children's book on the project, illustrated by students from Holy Spirit School. The book was translated into Creole and will be sold as a fundraiser.
Mrs. Williams said the trip taught her children lessons they never would have learned in the U.S.
"The biggest thing that's been instilled in them is doing something that's bigger than yourself," she said. "Together, now they realize, one person can change the world."[[In-content Ad]]
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