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Pastors Mission Is To Help Haitian Children In The Dominican Republic
BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer
Since the 2010 earthquake devastated Haiti, hundreds of thousands of residents remain homeless or living in tents, young girls are still being forced to prostitute to take care of themselves and their families, and violent crimes are on the rise.
Another after effect of the earthquake was hundreds of Haitians fleeing to the Do- minican Republic. That may have been a good idea at the time, but two ministers are saying that act only created more problems.
“I’m a missionary from the Dominican Republic whose been living in St. Petersburg
PASTOR JAMES DIEMS DUVERLUS
the past 20 years, but in 2010, I found myself returning to the island of Hispaniola to deal with problems on both sides of
the border,” said Pastor Leonel Charles.
“I’m working with the Haitian community and we’re trying to set up a school.”
Pastor Charles and Pas- tor James Diems Duver- lus said they have discovered groups of Haitians now living in the Dominican Republic (DR) are enduring great hard- ships, mostly due to politics.
“The problem has come from all of the children being born in the DR from Haitians that fled there after the earth- quake,” said Pastor Duver- lus.
“Those children aren’t con- sidered citizens of the DR, so they are denied everything, in- cluding the right to go to school. We’ve lobbied to get the policy changed, and we were met with great resist- ance. The Haitian children
PASTOR LEONEL CHARLES
born in the DR have no rights.”
Both pastors agree that under the current circum- stances the children have no future as long as the policy in the DR exists.
“Myself, along with Pas-
tor Charles and other pas- tors, each have a group of chil- dren we deal with. One of the groups has more than 130 chil- dren, and more than that are in need of school, clothing, and other necessities. Some are with family members in the DR, and others are or- phans.”
The Pastors said since little or nothing has been done to help the poor people devas- tated by the earthquake, they have vowed to work tirelessly and ask their congregations to do the same.
“We’d love to get the Hait- ian churches in the area united, but their congregations are very small,” said Pastor Charles.
On Sunday, January 10th at 5:30 p. m., the Pastors will make a presentation, “A Night With Haiti,” to bring more at- tention to the problem and where help is needed the most.
For more information, call (727)453-9054.
PAGE 10-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016