Little miracles

A terrifying scenario like that in Haiti can hardly be conveyed through the (few) reports in the media, no matter how serious and accurate they are. Day after day, year after year, life is suffocated, extinguished… Yet even here, despite everything, there are still oases where peace and a little life are produced for the people who live there. Love makes the difference: these are miracles, day after day, year after year.

We know one such oasis well and want to continue to “nurture” it alongside the great friend Father Massimo Miraglio, a Camillian. In his 19 years in Haiti, he has “invented” everything possible to actively support the poor. While waiting to complete the new hospital in Jérémie – 300 km west of Port-au-Prince – he dedicates himself to the people of the region, in the mountains. Over these years, he has taken on a new parish, Notre Dame du Perpétuel Secours, in the village of Pourcine – Pic Makaya. Four thousand people live in 17 hamlets, today slightly less isolated despite the hours of walking through the forest needed to reach them.

A missionary never has an easy life. He suffers from the same hardships as the people he serves and must overcome continuous obstacles: when this is not humanly possible, he seeks to open new paths toward dignity, to bear witness to hope in accomplishing something new despite everything and everyone. In a relatively short time in Pourcine, many things have come to life, and others are still waiting.

First of all, the aqueduct has been completed, providing 8,000 liters per hour at fountains in the village center: a moving collective effort that brought sand, cement, stones, pipes, and tanks up from the valley floor, over many kilometers and hundreds of meters of elevation, by sheer human effort. It will be extended by another 1,300 meters to serve communities further downstream, tackling the leading cause of disease and supporting small-scale agriculture. The paths to the valley floor, destroyed by recent hurricanes, have been largely restored—harsh but essential links to the coast.

Wood, corrugated sheets, and tents—awaiting something better—house the elementary and kindergarten school, with 250 enrolled children, alongside evening literacy classes for adults: open for two years thanks to young teachers, while schools across the country sadly close. The structure is as humble as the church where Mass is celebrated and all spiritual and communal life moments occur, including meetings with new mothers, the elderly, and everyone else.

There has long been a huge need to build and manage a small clinic for those who fall ill, suffer injuries, or face chronic malnutrition and disease… rescuing them from abandonment.

Meanwhile, new initiatives are underway to support families: in particular, they are trying to revive the tradition of coffee, preparing new seedbeds together with students, and beginning to plant seedlings.

Like water, life seeks its path… the faces of the people—women and men, young and old—show new expressions. They live with a kind of sacredness the gestures of arduous daily life, which become the building of the community as a place of fraternity, solidarity, and sharing.

There is a lot needed, and fairly urgently, to complete actions already started and to begin addressing the most serious emergencies. Facing many difficulties, but always with determination. May ours never fail either!

NP June/July 2025
Mauro Palombo