NEWBURYPORT — Long before the Rev. Paul Bérubé traveled to Haiti for a visit a year ago, the desire to help the impoverished country began to take root.
While he was growing up in Salem, Bérubé's church was visited each summer by a bishop from Haiti. He would share stories of the poverty, the dire need and the lives of the people.
"That always stuck there in the back of my mind," said Bérubé, a senior priest in residence at Immaculate Conception Church.
So when Bérubé, 75, retired five years ago, he began forming plans to visit Haiti and help those people. He joined with the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation and joined a trip to Fond des Blanc, a village 40 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince.
Returning to Newburyport, Bérubé shared his experience with parishioners at the Catholic church on Green Street. Stories of people making cookies out of dirt and children unable to go to school. Malnutrition, a lack of roads, housing and schools. A village with no electricity and people living in simple huts.
The words struck a cord.
And so, IC-Haiti was formed in August. The non-profit group of community members is affiliated with Immaculate Conception parish and St. Boniface Haiti Foundation. They are committed to raising funds to help the poor in Haiti and support projects for the improvement of health care, nutrition, education and living conditions in the rural Fond des Blanc, which spans 107 square miles with a population of more than 250,000.
Already, they've seen success.
With more than $40,000 in donations collected so far, the group has been able to fund construction of two deep wells to allow for a sanitary water supply, as well as fund the materials to construct a permanent home for a needy family, parishioner Miriam McNabb said. They have secured enough funding to pay for a full-time dentist for a year at the area's hospital.
"The community has just been fantastic," McNabb said, adding that the group has gotten most donations through word of mouth and collections at Immaculate Conception.
Its first major fundraiser is set for Saturday, a benefit concert featuring the gospel group, the Boston Community Choir. The choir, also known as the Boston Pops Community Gospel Choir, consists of all volunteers from church, temple, community and university choirs in Greater Boston. It formed in 1993 to hold a "Gospel Night at the Pops," and it grew from there.
Despite the deep poverty and conditions in which they live, the Haitians are full of great joy, Bérubé said.
"They are really a hopeful people," he said.
McNabb traveled with other parishioners to Haiti last year, witnessing for herself the experiences she had heard from others. There are no roads, no running water and no electricity, she said. Raw sewage can be found in the streets, and people live in stick huts. Families of eight share one hut and take turns sleeping on the floor, in shifts.
When it rains, you don't stay dry inside, McNabb said. Trees are cut to make charcoal, and roads have been wiped out by hurricanes that hit hard last year.
As people starve from the lack of food, relief groups have left, due to security concerns, McNabb said, making IC-Haiti all that more crucial.
The non-profit group would like to raise enough funds to help build a school.
"It's really unbelievable," McNabb said
While an avid traveler, having visited Africa, South America and Central America, among other locations, she said her Haiti experience was eye-opening.
"I've never seen anything like Haiti," McNabb said. "It is truly the poorest of the poor. The food situation is incredibly dire."
IF YOU GO:
What: Boston Community Choir benefit concert
When: Saturday, April 18, 6 p.m.
Where: Immaculate Conception Church sanctuary, Green Street
Why: All proceeds will benefit IC-Haiti
Fee: $10, tickets will be sold at the door
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