The Time for Compassion

Abundant Empathy. Respectful Partnership. Compassionate Love.
The Pillars of a Decades Long Mission.

During a year that slammed the globe with unwelcomed changes, dire challenges and unconscionable grief, the staunch pillars of our Judeo/Christian faith and institutional founding kept us upright and steady. Life beyond the horizon remains mysterious and unknown. Yet, like many of you, we have seen, during these testing times, remarkable and even awe-inspiring acts of kindness, compassion, and love — often directed to strangers.

Whatever the future holds, if the seeds planted by these humans, guided by their better angels, take hold, the future will indeed flourish in an increase of long-overdue peace, justice, and dignity for all: the guiding principles of Hôpital Sacré Coeur, CRUDEM, and its sustaining, guiding angel, Holy Name Medical Center.

Created in Love for Love

When the Brothers of the Sacred Heart started this healing ministry in 1968, they did so out of an abundance of empathy for the people in the northern reaches of Haiti. When the CRUDEM Foundation assumed oversight of the nascent jungle hospital in 1995, empathy expanded into a respectful ever-blossoming partnership with the Haitians. In 2012, Holy Name Medical Center, founded by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, took CRUDEM under their divisional wing and Hôpital Sacré Coeur catapulted from a small local hospital into the national standard bearer of healthcare excellence. The moral compass of compassionate love was set in stone.

As novelist and essayist, Jonathan Franzen noted, “Love is about bottomless empathy, born out of the heart’s revelation that another person is every bit as real as you are.”

The bottomless empathy, at the root of Hôpital Sacré Coeur’s Haitian and American collaboration, comes from seeing the Haitian people as our neighbors, our sisters, and our brothers. Without question, we embrace the sanctity and uniqueness of every Haitians’ God given life and wait in expectant wonder to witness their unique contributions to a world in need of betterment. Out of respect for the dignity and sovereignty of each person, CRUDEM never dictates, but routinely asks Hôpital Sacré Coeur staff and patients, “How can we help you?” Their experiences, observations and visions matter greatly to CRUDEM and heeding them has borne positive lasting results.

Respectful partnering with our Haitian community has seeded self-empowerment not dependency and created a constancy of hope. Haitian visions and ideas have birthed successful medical programs, thriving departments and a bevy of new and modernized facilities all geared to improve and save lives.

St. Mother Teresa observed, “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”

Over the decades, American volunteers, staff, and the donor community, have expressed their love well beyond the boundaries of their individual zip codes. In Haiti, another hungry — and now often starving child – always appears. Another person with a life-threatening illness always comes through the door. Another natural disaster invariably sets down on the landscape. Another political crisis predictably engulfs reason. The Haitians declare, “Se la vi an Ayiti”; that’s life. And Haiti brims with life.

Each person in pain, every life ended short, every child orphaned, every grief carried for generations by a family tugs at the hearts of the CRUDEM community. Through it all, without fail, Hôpital Sacré Coeur’s staff, patients, volunteers, donors and Milot residents have joined together to give of their love, their time, their talents, and their treasures to help one another. Daily, the Divine calling to love and cherish each other comes to life in Milot.

Putting our walk into our talk

Now, during a year regrettably dominated by global fears, uncertainty, and unacceptable division, CRUDEM has answered the nudging of the Divine Spirit and taken an evolutionary step.

In January 2021, CRUDEM will change its name to Haiti Health Promise of Holy Name to concretize, emphasize and celebrate our pledge and promise to the Haitian people we honor and respect. For decades CRUDEM has quietly done the work that announces to our Haitian sisters and brothers: Your lives matter greatly. Our decades long walk will now be up front and center in our talk — in our name. To our Haitian partners we pledge: We will continue to listen to you, learn, dream, and create with you — for generations to come. By God’s grace and in God’s service, we promise.

You, of abundant empathy: Please, stand and pledge with us

During this traditional season of rebirth, hope and love, we thank you — again and again. Through your prayers, gifts, and donations you have shown the world the beauty and joy of knowing we are all interconnected and one. Truly, by your actions, you have helped heal the broken. You have shattered the barriers that divide. You have turned sorrows into joys. You have answered the call to honor all of life, and you have increased the amount of love, justice, and peace in our shared world. What better year to have done this in than 2020?

 
 

Please, continue your legacy of love, peace, and justice.

Send a generous donation today to continue the life-giving work of Hôpital Sacré Coeur.

May you discover, “only more Love.”

With our deepest gratitude for YOU!


Harold Prévil, M.D.
CEO, Hôpital Sacré Coeur

Sister Ann Crawley, C.S.J.P.
Hôpital Sacré Coeur Outreach

David G. Butler, M.D.
Chairman and Medical Volunteer


Please, send your tax-deductible donation by December 31st. Remember: 100% of your donation goes directly to patient care programs.