Many of the homes and buildings around St. Jeanne de Lestonnac School in Pereira, Columbia were reduced to rubble by the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck the country on Aug. 10.
By comparison, the modest school founded by the Order of the Company of Mary Our Lady received only minimal damage. The Company of Mary Sisters have houses and schools throughout Columbia, including at least three residential homes, a retirement home, another school and a children’s center in Pereira. All survived the quake intact.
“Nothing happened to our houses. It’s a blessing,” says Sister Leticia Salazar, ODN, Chancellor of the Diocese and a Company of Mary Sister. “We like to think in faith that God wants us to be free to help other people.”
And that is exactly what the Sisters are doing with the school, opening it as a shelter for those in the community who have been injured and displaced by the earthquake. It has become a center for local relief efforts.
“Many volunteers report that the young people [in Pereira] have come out of themselves to cook and find food for other people, those who are most in need,” Sr. Leticia says. “These are centers where people can find hope.”
Sr. Leticia is a member of her Order’s Provincial Team and had visited Pereira just weeks before the earthquake. At press time more than 330 people had died in the earthquake with another 240 reported missing. While mourning the loss of life from the disaster, Sr. Leticia noted that because the earthquake occurred on a Monday morning, many of the homes in Pereira that were destroyed were unoccupied. “The parents were already at work.”
Meanwhile, at St. Jeanne de Lestonnac School in Pereira, “the children were there and nothing happened to them,” Sr. Leticia added.
The Company of Mary Sisters will now continue to be part of a long relief and recovery effort for the country, which is both a popular tourist destination but also beset with poverty and unstable social conditions in some areas. That will include fundraising and prayer services at the Order’s schools in Temecula and Tustin.
“The people have no place to live and no work. How do you find hope in the midst of nothing, in the midst of suffering?” Sr. Leticia poses before answering, “the temple.”
The Diocesan Office of Mission continues to invite those who are able to support the relief effort to contribute to a Catholic Relief Services fund at www.crs.org/donate/columbia-earthquake