Dear Editor: For a long time on my “bucket list” has been the opportunity to visit Haiti – the homeland of many families I have grown to love these many years in ministry. Of course “My Kids,” my teen group, some now with teens of their own, are high among them. From March 13-20, I will be part of an immersion experience in Haiti with some members of the Federation of Sisters of Saint Joseph. I am so grateful for this opportunity and am most certain it will expand a sense and need for care, compassion and unity with every “dear neighbor.”

Following the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the Sisters of St. Joseph in the U.S. and Canada pledged to help rebuild the country through a commitment to the education of girls. Each Community in the U.S. Canadian Federations of Sisters of St. Joseph has been invited to participate in some way.

In keeping with the Christian Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, a calendar has been created and I want to invite you to journey with and support our “dear neighbors” in Haiti.

In its fourth printing, the Sisters of St. Joseph Lenten Calendar is designed to not only create public awareness of the critical need to educate girls in Haiti, but also to offer our friends an opportunity to support our collaborative Haiti Project to raise more than $325,000 over 10 years.

In this Year of Non-violence, we are particularly mindful of extending God’s compassion and peace to the young girls and teachers at Annunciation School in Haiti. Some of the students and teachers live in houses made of plywood, cook over charcoal outdoors, and walk to a well for water. Despite their dire circumstances, the girls love reading, dancing, and taking computer classes. They dream of becoming nurses, teachers, and Sisters, like Sister Edna, who runs the school. This is where I will be visiting in March.

SISTER KAREN CAVANAGH, C.S.J.

Jamaica