Search and Rescue teams the Cancun, Mexico Rescue Brigade and the South African Relief Team, working together under affiliation with Caritas Haiti, work to rescue a woman from a cathedral in the center of Port-au-Prince 6 days after the earthquake. Katie Orlinsky/Caritas 2010
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A second woman was rescued by the Caritas team from the ruins of Port-au-Prince’s Cathedral.
Earlier, a Caritas organized Search and Rescue team has pulled a woman out from the rubble of Haiti’s quake. It took two hours to pull Enu Zizi from the rubble. She was in pain but ok.
Cancun Mexico Rescue Brigade and the South African Relief Team have been working with Caritas for the past week.
“The rescue of Zizi has been the best thing in the team we have experienced. It is the first time we have saved somebody´s life after such a long time after the quake. The team has got an energy boost new and we are heading out to do more work as there is still hope,” said Ahmed Bham,leader of the South African Relief Team.
The identity of the second woman is not yet know. She was about 60 years old. Sadly, the team also found the body of the Vicar General Mons Charles Benoit. They found his body, with his hands around a reliquary with a wafer inside.
Mexican doctors with Caritas along with Cuban doctors are taking care of survivors at the Cathedral. People are arriving with serious wounds in advanced degrees of decomposition. The doctors have been carrying out amputations to save lives.
“The doctors, the Mexican and South African Search and Rescue teams, and the nuns who are working with Caritas deserve recognition for their bravery and generosity,” said Fr Antonio Sandoval, Regional Coordinator of Latin America, who is in Port-au-Prince. “The generosity continues and they show us how life can overcome death.”
Watch a slide show of the rescue.
The rescues have come as a huge morale boost for staff at Caritas as they work every hour in the day to meet the needs of the people in Haiti.
Solidarity and support from international members is flooding in. Caritas Congo, which works in one of the poorest countries in the world, sent $5000 for Haiti relief operations.
By P Antonio Sandoval
Hacia la media noche los rescatistas mexicanos continuaban trabajando en los entornos de la Catedral. Lograron el rescate de otra mujer de aproximadamente 60 años, cuyo nombre se desconoce y que fue trasladada inmediatamente al hospital. Tristemente tambien encontraron el cuerpo del que fuera Vicario General de la Arquidiócesis Mons. Benoit Charles. Al momento de su rescate Monseñor tenía en la mano un relicario con una hostia dentro. En todo momento el Señor lo acompañó en este camino hacía él.
Hoy continua la búsuqde de sobrevivientes y la atención en un pequeño hospitalito alrededor d la Catedral donde los médicos mexicanos de la misión de Caritas han venido atendiendo junto con medicos cubanos a los más pobres entre los pobres. La gente llega con heridas graves en grado avanzado de descomposición. Decenas de amputaciones de miembros han sido necesarias para salvarles la vida.
La disposición de los médicos, de los rescatistas sudafricanos y mexicanos y de las religiosas que acompañan esta msión de Caritas merece un reconocimiento a su generosidad y su valentía.
Los gestos de generosidad continuan, y nos demuestran que la vida es mas fuerte que la muerte,
