When Sr Rose Kelly arrived at the airport in Haiti in 2005, a man who was collecting his luggage, struck up a conversation with her.
"He asked me was I visiting?", said the Mayo nun who previously taught religious education at Salerno Secondary School in Salthill. "I replied: 'For a year'."
He nodded knowingly, instantly recognising why she had come to this Caribbean country, one of the poorest in the western world where, according to UNICEF, almost three out of five people live below the poverty line. "Thank you for coming to help my people," he said.
Sr Rose originally planned to spend a year working in Haiti, which has a population of about 12 million, with the humanitarian and educational outreach programme run by her order, the Sisters of Jesus and Mary.
However, today, 21 years later, she is still living there and is responsible, with the support of her Sisters, for significantly expanding the order's educational, medical, and community services.
She lives in a small remote town called Jean-Rabel, in the north-west of Haiti. Known as the "Hungry Town", it has a population of 30,000 and is located about eight hours by car or bus from the capital, Port-au-Prince (the roads are bad so it takes a long time to get from place to place ).
What were her first impressions when she arrived in Haiti? "Shock," says the nun from Castlebar in an interview with this newspaper while on a short visit to Galway. "I was very shocked when I came here first by the deplorable living conditions. You wouldn't have animals living in some of houses that people are living in.
"I remember seeing a mother, father, and eight children in a one roomed shack. He had TB and I remember going to see him in the TB section of the hospital and getting all the children tested to see if they could go to school. Then, we built a house for them."
Wonderful people
She was tremendously impressed by the local people. "Two other nuns from our order, one an American, and the other, a Spanish sister, helped me to get oriented when I first came here. The people speak Creole, it's like pigeon French. They are wonderful people, they are survivors, they originally came on boats from Africa.
"After every crisis, they get up and start all over again. There are earthquakes, hurricanes, and storms and, very often, if the rain doesn't come on time, their harvest is destroyed. Yet they never give up, they keep going. They are an inspiration. Even those with disabilities, get on with life. I remember after I arrived here, I said to myself that I would never complain again.
"If they are sick, most won't go to hospital as they wouldn't have the money. They are only just surviving. You have to pay for the gloves, the injection, everything in hospital. There is a mobile clinic with a doctor and a nurse that goes round to various areas. At most, they can see 25 patients so they see the most urgent and give them medicine. A lot of people would have high blood pressure and many would have strokes.
"Funerals are big occasions and people go into a lot of debt for that. They have a night like our wake, a little celebration nearly, and there would be priests and pastors. That would be followed by a burial."
Her order's Haiti mission, which she co-ordinates and which has primarily been based in the disadvantaged rural communities of Jean-Rabel, was set up in 1997. It targets poverty, education, and lack of basic resources through several key initiatives. The ultimate aim of the Sisters, who are responsible for pre-school education in the area, supporting primary schools, and teacher training, is for people to be self-sufficient.
Sr Rose's religious community is also instrumental in raising essential funds for local construction projects - providing homes for families living in poverty. She co-ordinates the distribution of aid and is involved in running crucial food programmes, ensuring vulnerable children receive meals. Many come to school hungry, she says. Her order also set up a small farm to give local people an income.
"In the beginning, we (the nuns and volunteers ) started the project but now the Haitians run it. What is needed here are people on the ground, volunteers to help with various projects. We are looking for people who will come here for a year or longer."
Haiti, which is located about 48 miles south-east of Cuba, is still recovering from a major earthquake which struck near its capital, Port-au-Prince, on January 12, 2010, causing widespread devastation. About 3.5 million people were affected with 220,000 estimated to have died and more than 300,000 injured. Over 188,000 houses were badly damaged (1.5 million people became homeless ) and 4,000 schools were destroyed or damaged, according to reports.
Aid distribution
A huge influx of people, many of whom were injured, returned to their hometown, Jean-Rebel, after the earthquake. Sr Rose and her fellow sisters played a vital role in co-ordinating emergency aid distribution, managing resources, and offering shelter and assistance to displaced families.
Early years education is the key to addressing child poverty, according to the nun who has led a life marked by service and who previously worked with the Travelling Community at Hillside Halting Site in Ballybane before its closure in 2001.
Families must pay for their children's education in Haiti. Many are unable to do so and the children depend on sponsorship from charities or they are unable to attend primary school. Keeping the children off the streets is not only important from an educational perspective, it also helps prevent them getting involved with gangs.
"The main project of our charity is education," says Sr Rose. "You have to focus on the children, they are our future. We set up pre-schools, often in isolated rural areas that hadn't anything. These initiatives were not solely aimed at education but also to ensure the children were fed.
"Our order also funds an afternoon school for children aged five to six and upwards. Some of the children would walk an hour to get to school or sometimes, their parents would bring them on a donkey. We also started a computer project in the schools. After sixth class, children are usually finished school but, in a few areas, they go to primary and semi-secondary schools which add three years to primary school. In the last few years, we have been funding teacher training, also."
Sr Rose, whose selfless work was recognised when she received the William Jefferson Clinton Goodwill for Haiti Award, (with her fellow missionary, Sr Nazareth Ybarra ) - a special honour presented by the Irish humanitarian charity, Haven, for empowering the people of Haiti - is hugely grateful for the support she receives from Galway. Her fellow Sister, Angela Maughan, of the Sisters of Jesus and Mary Order in the city, co-ordinates fundraising locally and a significant amount of money has been raised to help finance Sr Rose's work.
Volunteers who go to Haiti are enriched by the experience, she says. "The Haitian people are wonderful. People who go out there are changed - they receive so much. You get an appreciation for all the opportunities that we have," says this nun who has stayed true to her "green and red" roots, even many, many miles from home. A Mayo flag proudly adorns the balcony outside her home in Jean-Rabel, a striking reminder of the power of self-belief, teamwork, and resilience.
• Anyone interested in making a donation to help fund Sr Rose's work in Haiti can do so by contacting Sr Angela Maughan at Salerno Secondary School, Salthill.
