Camillian Task Force in Indonesia 

Human Beings in Banda Aceh

Banda Aceh is the Apocalypse. As far as you can see there is nothing but debris under the scorching sun of the Equator. The air smells of death, and the only sound is the buzzing of flies, packs of dogs and occasionally an individual searching in the rubble.

 Everywhere fires are burning producing thick smoke. It seems like the last day –better yet - the day after. Most people have left, and the few who remain are speechless. For them death is like a hand that crushes and forces them to the ground. But in my journey to this hell, I am being taken care of by a few good people: the only Catholic priest living in Aceh, a seventy year old Italian man; a young Camillian who has come to Banda Aceh from Milwaukee, WI and is wearing a black cassock with a large red cross; three nuns, two from Indonesia and one from Biella, Italy. In the company of these good Samaritans, I venture through the city, the desolated and annihilated town of Banda Aceh.  

In the black mud that covers everything, among the debris that the bulldozers have not yet removed, there are signs of life emerging: a pot, a watch, a spoon, all absurdly intact in the midst of such great destruction. The end of the world is unbearable, as is the smell. Here, I say to myself, death has won and there is nothing else to do but to give up and leave this area to the dogs and the vultures. Look around… just death! As I watch the old priest, however, I see that there is no plan to leave. The Indonesian nuns who are small, silent and meek are determined to remain. The Italian nun painfully gazes to the paddy fields: she knows that for years to come no harvest will be yielded here. But she is not desperate. And the young Camillian who has come from so far, from Milwaukee, walks through the rubble, seriously and proudly. You can read his thoughts on his face: “I never saw anything like this, but I am here to help them start again”.

In the company of these people the Apocalypse, though painful, has no power to crush. Death is no longer the final word. Darkness will not win. I am led to hope when I look at the large red cross on the chest of the young priest who has come from Wisconsin, and an old priest who will remain.

By Corradi Marina

In Indonesia, small aid groups target victims big agencies might miss 

by Stephen Steele
Catholic News Service

MEDAN, Indonesia (CNS) -- Smaller Catholic nongovernmental organizations are among the larger and more established groups responding to the tsunami disaster in Indonesia's Aceh province. Some of the nongovernmental organizations -- such as the Franciscans' Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, an outspoken advocacy group that has lobbied for human rights in several Indonesian provinces -- were well-established in Indonesia.

Others were hastily organized in the aftermath of the Dec. 26 disaster. The Medan Archdiocese, which covers Aceh province, formed a relief agency, Jarkas, Jan. 5. The Archdiocese does not have its own Caritas organization.  Jarkas' director, Capuchin Father Benyamin Purba, said when organizers sat down at the first meeting, "we did not know where to start." "This was beyond our capacity. We were not prepared to respond to this massive relief effort because we have no experience," he said. 

In the meantime, donations of cash and supplies poured in from Indonesian Catholics and from other Catholics in neighboring countries, which enabled Jarkas to quickly begin operations. Father Purba said Jarkas workers decided to focus on Meulaboh, a hard-hit coastal city, and on Jan. 12 the agency sent two trucks loaded with food, tents and clothing to the city. Two additional trucks were sent to Meulaboh Jan. 21. Ten days later, Father Purba flew to Simeulue Island off Sumatra's coast to assess damage there. Caritas Germany provided Jarkas with funding to rebuild 100 houses and two schools.  Jarkas also dispatched a dozen or so seminarians to Meulaboh in late January to operate a soup kitchen on the grounds of a mosque. Several dozen bags of rice sat outside Father Purba's office in Medan in late January, awaiting transport to Meulaboh.  "We may not be as big as the others, but we can still help," he said.  The work of all of the smaller Catholic organizations overlap, and, on any particular day, sometimes the lines are blurred as to which organization the workers and network of volunteers are working for. Lacking the funding, manpower and clout of organizations like the U.S. bishops' Catholic Relief Services, these smaller agencies say they are filling a role by serving the victims that larger agencies sometimes miss and are solidifying the church's presence in Aceh in its response to the disaster. Among the smaller groups are a two-person medical team consisting of U.S. Camillian Father Scott Binet of Milwaukee, Wis., and Charity Sister Leonarda Perini, a registered nurse and Italian missionary who has worked in Indonesia for more than 30 years. Father Binet is the coordinator of the Camillian Task Force (www.CTFmercy.org/), a medical nongovernmental organization that aims to become a "Catholic Doctors Without Borders," he said.  

Working out of Banda Aceh's Sacred Heart Parish -- the only Catholic parish in Aceh province -- the pair have traveled throughout the province looking for pockets of refugees in need of medical care. They also are in the process of opening a medical clinic on the parish grounds. Father Binet said he hopes that, through the Camillian Task Force, he can recruit additional medical personnel to work in Aceh. In the aftermath of the tsunamis, a volunteer advance team from Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation preceded Father Binet and Sister Perini to find refugees who had not received any medical care since the disaster. Father Binet said the Indonesian volunteers "knew where to go and knew who to ask in order to find those most desperately in need of medical care."

On each village visit, Sister Perini makes a point to sit down and talk with refugees. She said their harrowing tales of survival and lost family members make it impossible for her to remain a detached observer. "We sit together, talk together and cry together. Yes, I am a nun; yes I am a medical professional. But I am a human being first. I cannot be the other two without being human," she told Catholic News Service in late January.

El Task Force Camiliano responde
a la crisis de Haití
 misión cumplida

El Task Force Camiliano (CTF) y sus colaboradores atendieron las necesidades médicas y pastorales de 10.000 personas en Gonaives, Haití, durante el mes de octubre, durante la terrible devastación causada por el huracán Jeanne. 

El CTF fue ayudado en sus esfuerzos por Cáritas Haití, Cáritas Gonaives, Food for the Poor y Médicos Sin Fronteras (MSF). Estos grupos operaron en las siete salas que componen la primera planta de la escuela K-12 de la comunidad de las Hermanas de Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia en Gonaives, que se encuentra a tres horas y media al norte de Puerto Príncipe. Debido a que el hospital principal de Gonaives fue destrozado e inutilizado por el huracán, las habitaciones de la escuela fueron transformadas en clínicas médicas, lugares para intervenciones quirúrgicas menores, áreas privadas para consolar a los afectados, espacios para almacenar medicamentos y habitaciones ocasionales para hospitalizar a pacientes.

Las necesidades pastorales de la gente fueron afrontadas con celebraciones regulares de la Eucaristía en la parroquia, aconsejando, realizando oraciones diarias con los pacientes antes del comienzo de las intervenciones, con la visita de los sacerdotes a los enfermos y la celebración de la Unción de los Enfermos cuando era necesario. Adicionalmente, los miembros del CTF ayudaban a las Hermanas y al pastor local, Fr. Gerard, buscando comida, agua, ropas para las víctimas del huracán, así como espacios donde cobijarles. La hermana Vincenzina y los miembros de su comunidad merecen ser elogiados por su hospitalidad y sus esfuerzos en servir a la gente de Gonaives.

Los esfuerzos del CTF fueron dirigidos por el P. Scout Binet, doctor en Medicina, y los miembros de la comunidad camiliana de Puerto Príncipe. Mención especial para el P. Crescenzo y Madda, que fueron los primeros en viajar a Gonaives para contactar con las Hermanas de Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia. La comunidad camiliana de Puerto Príncipe demostró ser una fuente fiable de medicamentos, ropas, suministros y personal para los esfuerzos en la ayuda en Gonaives. Cada semana Madda recorría un largo camino para llevar artículos y ayuda personalmente a la zona del desastre.

Entre quienes vinieron a ayudar había sacerdotes camilos y equipos de enfermeras de Foyer San Camilo en Puerto Príncipe. Estos equipos consistían en dos enfermeras que rotaban todas las semanas y trabajaban conjuntamente con las enfermeras locales de Gonaives y el doctor Binet, que se quedó en el lugar del desastre durante todo el mes de octubre. Gracias a los esfuerzos de muchos, el CTF atendió con éxito a las necesidades médicas y pastorales de numerosas personas en Gonaives: misión cumplida.   

Haiti: Hurricane Jeanne

 The situation in Gonaives is catastrophic.  Jeanne is considered the worst hurricane to hit the Caribbean in over a decade. The slow pace of relief is compounding the suffering of traumatized survivors. At least 1,500 were killed, some 200,000 are homeless and 1,056 are missing. The missing are presumed dead – washed out to sea or under the rubble of collapsed homes in areas still inaccessible. The situation in Gonaives remains critical.  The dead are being buried in mass graves around the town in an attempt to prevent the spread of epidemics. Many are suffering from diarrhea while others, many of them children are contracting gangrene. Amputations are being performed under horrendous conditions. Most injuries being treated are gashes from collapsing roofs or pieces of roof hidden by the mud that still covers the city, where most people walk barefooted.

 The floods inundated a clinic for AIDS patients, ending the lives of over 150 who drowned along with the German priest in charge of the clinic. The priest had been working in Haiti for almost 20 years.

 Relief agencies are working around the clock trying to get food to victims. Planeloads of aid have arrived in Port au Prince, the capital, but getting it to Gonaives is a nine-hour drive with the final part of the route covered by a 4 foot deep lake, littered with mired aid trucks.

 On Thurs. Sept. 30^th, Fr. Scott Binet, MD, OSCam, Animator and Coordinator of the CTF, left Port au Prince on a CTF mission with members of the Camillian Community located in Haiti, to Gonaive. They transported food, medicine, clothing and cleaning supplies. In this relief effort the CTF is working together with Catholic Relief Services, the Conference of Religious Superiors of Haiti and the bishop of the affected diocese.

Please pray for the suffering people of Haiti, for Father Scott and all who are ministering to the people affected by this natural disaster. This mission is expected to last several weeks.

Hurricane Charley

On Friday August 13^th, the Category 4 storm slammed into the Gulf Coast of Florida with winds reaching 145 mph. The hardest hit area is Punta Gorda located in the Diocese of Venice. The death toll as of August 17^th reached 19 with thousands of people left homeless.