MWR : Making MCC blankets for Haiti helps students deal with grief

Last updated November 24.

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March 8, 2010 issue

Making MCC blankets for Haiti helps students deal with grief

By Gladys Terichow Mennonite Central Committee

WINNIPEG, Man. — Each knot is tied with love and compassion as three 12th-grade students from College Louis-Riel put the final touches on blankets that will be shipped by Mennonite Central Committee to Haiti.

From left, Myrka Petiote, Angelique Dauriac and Jane Paul knot blankets in the MCC warehouse in Winnipeg. — Photo by Gladys Terichow/MCC

“One of my cousins is still missing,” said Myrka Petiote, who moved to Winnipeg from Haiti in 2001.

She is grieving the loss of seven relatives and close friends in Haiti.

“I’ve cried for days and days — I don’t know what to do. I have not been sleeping well the last while. Every time the phone rings, everyone stops what they are doing and waits for the news.”

Working on the blankets in the MCC warehouse in Winnipeg is helping Petiote and her classmates Jane Paul and Angelique Dauriac support each other as they deal with the grief of what is happening in Haiti.

“Just knowing that we can do something here in Winnipeg to help people in Haiti makes me feel better,” said Paul, who moved to Winnipeg from Haiti in 1997. “My entire family lives in Haiti. I talk to my grandma every Sunday. I want to keep on helping Haiti as much as possible. Every little bit helps.”

In addition to donating time to knot blankets, Petiote and Paul are collecting supplies in their school for MCC relief kits. Their goal is to collect supplies for 100 relief kits.

The students heard about MCC’s appeal for blankets and relief kits from Dauriac’s mother, Marie-Christine Dauriac, a teacher at College Louis-Riel.

“I can’t go to Haiti right now, but I can help people in Haiti, and I can also help my friends who are from Haiti,” Dauriac said. She and other students are supporting a variety of activities that raise funds for Haiti.

“People from every country in the world are helping Haiti,” Petiote said. “Everybody wants to help Haiti. Maybe something positive will come out of this. It is bringing people together.”

MCC is working with Haitian partner organizations in a multiyear response to the earthquake.

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