Sr. Anne with Genese and friends
In 2004, IHM sister Anne Wisda applied for one of the IHM Ministry grants to help support a young woman, Genese Sauntilus, at the University of Fondwa, just being founded as the only university in the mountains of Haiti. Last week five years later she returned to Fondwa to celebrate the first graduating class, and especially Genese. Graduation day was hot and humid with four hundred people in attendance. Graduation began with a lengthy Mass and lasted six hours. Father Joseph Philippe, founder and principal of the school called each student up individually to share some positive traits and something humorous about the student. He then invited individuals who had been supportive of the student to come up to give him/her the diploma. In the name of the IHM community Sister Anne was called to present Genese with her diploma. Her family was so proud. After graduation the Sauntilus family with Sr. Anne and also Therese Terns IHM Associate and Kim Redigan, who are very strong supporters of the Fondwa project enjoyed a typical Haitian meal of rice, beans, chicken, goat and soft drinks. Genese invited her IHM supporters to see her sustainable development project in her home town of Carefour Dufort. So the next day before they left Genese gave her friends a tour of her wholesale store supplied with 50 pound bags of rice, 100 pound bags of flour, 100 pund bags of sugar, large boxes of detergent and bottles of vegetable oil. Peasants will purchase these products and transport them by donkey to places in the mountains where they can be re-sold for a little profit.
The IHM community is so proud and happy to have helped one Haitian woman to follow her dream. Genese has become an educated leader for her own community.
Sister Laura (Laura Mary) Hardage, IHM, is a full-time chaplain at St. Joseph Healthcare, which includes two hospitals and nearly 700 beds in the Diocese of Lexington, Ky. Sister Laura works in the largest critical care unit in the hospital, primarily with patients who have undergone cardiac or pulmonary surgeries. “We’re a regional heart institute, and many of our patients are in critical condition,” she says. “A crisis can happen very quickly, so we have a chaplain available on-site 24/7. There is a great emphasis on being with people when they are at their most vulnerable, including as they prepare for death. Being with them is a privilege.”
