Sewoz

Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, is a crowded city with a population of 73,000. Electricity is sporadic. There is no running water. Many people share outdoor latrines. Who would choose to work in a place like this rather than enjoy a comfortable life in Canada? Meet Sister Rosemary Fry, of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto (CSJ). A registered nurse, she has worked with the poor in Haiti for the past 15 years.

At first glance, Sister Rosemary seems unassuming: a petite, modestly dressed woman with neat, graying hair. But meet her penetrating gaze, and you will see the resolve in her eyes. When she speaks, her quiet voice conveys the kind of inner strength that makes people fall silent and listen. This ability to command attention and respect is vital to her work: running a nutrition program for severely malnourished children in Cap-Haïtien, and a commerce program to help provide their mothers with a livelihood.

Helping Women Help Themselves

The CSJ places a strong emphasis on helping people at the grassroots level. In keeping with their philosophy, the focus of Sister Rosemary's nutrition program is threefold: to provide food and medical treatment to children under the age of six; to teach their mothers about nutrition, health, and hygiene; and to teach women how to support themselves financially.

Parents bring their children to Sister Rosemary, or Sewoz – Creole for Sister Rose – as they affectionately call her. (In the years she has lived in Haiti, Sister Rosemary has learned to speak Creole, the language of the masses, rather than French, the language of the elite.) At any time, there are approximately 60 malnourished children in the program. Each child receives a glass of milk, a multivitamin, and two meals, six days a week. Sister Rosemary also teaches their parents, grandparents, and older siblings about nutrition and the resources available to manage health problems such as tuberculosis and AIDS (both widespread in Haiti) and, when necessary, provides medical care and medications to the children and their families.

But Sister Rosemary's aim is more extensive than meeting the immediate health needs associated with malnutrition. She wants to give these mothers control over their own lives. To help achieve this goal, she has established a Women's Commerce Program.

Why women, in particular? It is the mothers who bring the vast majority of children to the nutrition program. According to Sister Rosemary, fathers "seem to disappear about the third month of pregnancy." In Haiti, as in many areas of the world, women are primarily responsible for children's housing, healthcare, and education.

In the Women's Commerce Program, Sister Rosemary teaches women the basic skills needed to begin their own micro-businesses. She buys products such as soap, toothpaste, matches, and candles, in bulk and resells them in small amounts to the women. They, in turn, join the ranks of other female merchants in Haiti – known as ti marchandes (a derivation of the French petite marchandes or "little merchants") – who walk through the streets selling goods for a small profit.

In her soft-spoken way, Sister Rosemary insists that people take responsibility for their own futures. She will work only with families who are committed. The women must save 15% of their earnings in order to stay in the program. To help them save, she teaches them how to run their own accounting systems using cookie cans. And she encourages them to become actively engaged in their environments: "I really try to teach the women life skills and responsibilities and have them reflect on their lives. If it's a time of political turmoil in the country, or a time of election, I might encourage them to vote … I try to tell them if they don't make a choice, then somebody will make the choice for them."

To stay in, parents are required to accompany their children to the program each day and to meet with Sister Rosemary (individually and in groups) to learn about nutrition and health. These rules may seem strict to an outsider. But Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and Sister Rosemary's resources are limited. "I would be totally inundated if I didn't set boundaries," says Sister Rosemary.

When asked if it is hard to turn people away, she acknowledges, "It is. I'm always breaking my rules."

From Toronto to Haiti

The only daughter in her family, Rosemary was a strong, independent child. Growing up in post-war Toronto, Ontario, she dreamed of becoming a doctor, an uncommon occupation for a woman at that time.

But medical school was not in Rosemary's future. There were other things closer to her heart: her faith and her commitment to God. In 1960, she joined the Community of St. Joseph of Toronto. Shortly afterwards she decided to become a nurse, an occupation more in keeping with the traditions of her religious community at that time.

After graduating from nursing school, Sister Rosemary began her nursing career as a nightshift supervisor at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Ontario. During night shifts, she began thinking seriously about the need to develop more substantial patient, family, and staff support systems, and by 1986, she had contributed much to the delivery of healthcare locally. Among her achievements was establishing the first palliative care unit at Toronto's Providence Centre.

Despite a lifelong desire to travel, she had still not set foot outside the province of Ontario. When a colleague offered her the chance to work for three months in Haiti, although she was intrigued, the decision to go was not easy.

She remembers conversations with friends before she left. "People would say, 'well, you won't learn the language' and 'you're getting older' and 'you won't like the dirt' and 'you won't like the bugs' and 'you won't like the heat,' and all that, and I thought, I don't know any of those things about myself because I haven't tried."

Sister Rosemary admits that living in Haiti was not always easy. For one thing, her community and friends all resided in Toronto. But when she came back after the initial three months, she found that her mind wandered and she had trouble concentrating. She remembers feeling lost, and she realized she needed to make a decision. "I was being called to go back … so I went back."

Unconditional Love

When she returns to Canada on visits, Sister Rosemary finds that her exposure to abject poverty in Haiti has changed her perspective. In one sense, she says, "I see the Haitians as a suffering people, and certainly, in some ways, they see themselves that way. But in another sense, I see them as a very strong people – with all sorts of strengths and gifts that we don't have here – as a people with a kind of determination."

How does Sister Rosemary cope emotionally with witnessing such extreme poverty day after day? What is it that motivates her? Not surprisingly, her answer is rooted in her faith. It can be summarized in a simple statement that she wants to communicate to others: "Love – the knowledge that we will be loved no matter what we do."

Haiti Facts Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Area: 27,750 square kilometers (17,243 square miles) Population: 8,924,553 Below Poverty Line: 80% Unemployment Rate: widespread unemployment and underemployment; more than two-thirds of the labor force do not have formal jobs Literacy Rate: 52.9% of population over age 15 Life Expectancy: 57.56 years Source: CIA World Fact Book

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