A woman takes shelter in a makeshift camp during the passing of Tropical Storm Grace in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. “Many friends from the Springfield Diocese have already reached out to express their solidarity with the people of Haiti and to indicate that they hold the earthquake victims in their prayers,” Dumay said. He expected that at the very least Elms College’s School of Nursing “will adjust schedules to accommodate our students in Haiti during these extremely difficult times.” Our partners in Haiti are compiling an updated report on students and we will determine whether and how we can be of any help.” “As a result, some of our students are in the areas affected by the earthquake. The continuing education program in nursing “draws students from all geographical areas in Haiti by design,” he said. The Episcopalian University of Haiti’s School of Nursing is not located near the epicenter of the earthquake and “did not sustain any damage,” Dumay said, adding that the university “will most likely participate in relief efforts.” In 2020, just prior to the start of the pandemic, the college partnered with the Episcopalian University of Haiti to set up a Haiti Nursing Continuing Education program.Įlms nursing faculty teach Haitian educators in nursing from various parts of Haiti, via Zoom, “so that they can better prepare - and educate - their students,” he said.įollowing the earthquake, the college has been in contact with its Haiti program partners to see how they fared. It was upgraded to a hurricane as it passed near the Cayman Islands on its way to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center.ĭumay said the College of Our Lady of the Elms, or Elms College for short, has students in Haiti. Tropical Storm Grace dumped heavy rain on Haiti Aug. 16, Haiti’s civil protection agency raised the death toll from the earthquake to 1,419 and the number of injured to 6,000. The cities of Jérémie and Les Cayes were most affected. Some tens of thousands of residents of southern Haiti are living out in the open following the quake, centered about 80 miles west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Writing ahead of the major tropical storm that hit Haiti a couple of days after the quake, he said the people there also were “bracing for the hurricane season, which has already started to hamper the rescue and recovery efforts and will undoubtedly make things more difficult in the days ahead.” (Photo: CNS/Fred LeBlanc, courtesy Diocese of Springfield) Harry Dumay, president of the College of Our Lady of the Elms in Chicopee, Mass., is seen in this 2017 photo. “I have been in touch with my family and friends they are all safe, away from the south where much of the effect of the earthquake was felt,” he said in a statement sent to iObserve, the media outlet of the Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts. (CNS) - Harry Dumay, president of the College of Our Lady of the Elms in Chicopee and a native of Haiti, said everyone throughout his homeland is “devastated by what happened to their brothers and sisters in the south of Haiti,” hit Aug.

Iobserve diocese of springfield