An interview with Jou Nouvo’s Program Director, Kerline Tofuri, about Jou Nouvo’s earthquake relief efforts was featured on Wickedlocal.com recently. See below to read it:
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Kerline & Family, Packing for her Upcoming Relief Trip
By Dana Forsythe, GateHouse News Service
View article here: WickedLocal.com – Hanover
In the wake of last week’s earthquake in Haiti, South Shore residents with ties to the country have been scrambling to get in touch with their loved ones and offer whatever aid they can to the ailing nation.
In Hanover, Kerline Tofuri and her family have started collecting medical supplies and donations to bring to the country in the coming weeks.
In 2008, Tofuri started an organization called Jou Nouvo (“New Day”), to offer an adult literacy class to 10 women in Bon Repos, Haiti, a community that’s 12 kilometers west of Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital. Last year, Jou Nouvo teamed up with Partners in Development Inc. to broaden her program while promoting literacy, offering small loans and addressing the demands for basic health care in Haiti.
Partners In Development has been serving the very poor in Haiti since 1990 and currently serves more than 3,000 people in Port au Prince.
When the earthquake hit last Tuesday (Jan. 12), Tofuri was already preparing to take suitcases, full of school supplies, reading glasses and toys, down to Bon Repos. Since that day, she’s been collecting medical supplies including gauze, bandages, antibiotics, and pain relief medications which she plans to bring down to the needy population in Haiti.
“On Sunday, before everything fell apart, a woman, Nadia Gay from Brockton, dropped off a bunch of toys,” Tofuri said. “Nadia is a resident of Brockton, very active at her church and her community at large. She was happy to collect the toys, and was excited to deliver them to me (with money for shipping) for Haiti.”
Before the quake, Tofuri had already been planning to leave for Haiti last Thursday (Jan. 14) to bring the supplies.
While Tofuri said her immediate family is safe – her father Jean Kensey August and brother Jean Armony August arrived in Bon Repos, Haiti just one day before the quake – communication lines have been strained and she is still waiting on word from her partners in Bon Repos and elsewhere in the country.
“I am planning to go down with Partners In Development’s medical team and a group of Haitian organizers in Somerville to assess the situation down there,” Tofuri said. She added that Partners In Development is working out the mission and the team could be leaving as soon as next week.
“It’s still very hard to get in touch with people down there,” she said. “Luckily, we heard from my brother and father on Wednesday after the quake.”
Tofuri said that through her family in Haiti she’s been receiving updates on the people in Bon Repos, and what assistance is needed.
“There are so many people waiting on medical care down there,” she said. “So, we’ll hopefully be traveling to Bon Repos and coordinating to get medical teams down in the area as soon as possible.”
Along with Partners In Development, Tofuri has been collecting medical supplies and looking for nurses and doctors for an upcoming assistance-based trip to Haiti.
As of Friday of last week, Partners In Development founder Gale Hull said many of the families the organization serves in the Haitian town of Blanchard, are okay and the medical clinic they work out of in Port Au Prince is still standing while people gather there for service.
Tofuri said the earthquake in Haiti comes at a very difficult time for the country’s people. When Tofuri came to the United States from Haiti in 1985, she left a country struggling with basic needs such as proper schooling for children and adults.
Up until the late 1970s, Bon-Repos was known for its vast open space and its rich soil which was ideal for agricultural production. Today, though, Tofuri said Bon-Repos is a poor suburb which is overpopulated with minimal land available for farming.
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