Reiser Relief

On behalf of Reiser Relief Inc., I extend our warmest greetings to you and your families this autumn season. We are so grateful for the support that we have received from our donors. Thank You!

I remember the days when there were not freezers in the home and preserving the harvest for the winter months by canning was quite a challenge. Canning was always a great undertaking in late summer and fall, when hundreds and hundreds of jars were filled with the wonderful produce of the summer.

Reiser Relief needs to plan for its upcoming winter season as well by filling its stores, and you have the opportunity to make a huge difference for the poor in Haiti. With your help we can continue to provide essential services to many Haitian families in their day-to-day efforts for survival. These services include providing fresh water, stocking food centers, and funding education and eldercare facilities.

Cholera has sickened more than 450,000 people in Haiti. One of the leading causes of cholera is inadequate access to clean drinking water? What if you could make a difference in changing that by keeping our water delivery truck rolling to bring drinking water to many Haitian families

Our water truck is filling a endless line of buckets with water for the Haitian crowds of people are desperate for free water and then wathcing them placed heavy buckets of water on thier head as they through the narrow path of tin shacks is eye-opening. And shareing packets of food to schools and seeing the children is eye-opening and heartwarming.

In 1996 I went to Haiti with Brother DePaul. It was one of the most emotional trips I have ever experienced. I had seen slums in major cities of China, in Cairo, Egypt, and those in Mexico City. None of them would compare to the tragic realities of Cite Soleil, the slum of Port au Prince in Haiti, populated by 300,000 people. The poverty and desperate situations I witnessed tore my heart.

Their homes were one room shacks made of scrap lumber and corrugated steel. The interiors with dirt floors were furnished with a couple of old chairs, cooking space in the corner, and a worn rug on which 3 or 4 occupants slept. Piled in front of the dwellings were mounds of garbage, nearly 6 feet high. Sewage ran in open cement troughs along the dirt streets. A ditch with stagnant water and garbage ran through part of the city. In the distance was a huge garbage dump with people climbing about looking for food and most anything.

I visited schools after a night's rain. The dirt floors were a sea of ankle-deep mud. I visited one hospital, cared for by Americans doctors, in which there was one ward the size of a gym floor that had at least 80 beds, a dramatic contrast to our hospitals in America.

It would take many pages to speak of all I saw in 7 days. As I left the island, there was a burning in my heart and soul that I needed to do something to make a change in as many of these peoples' lives as possible.

Throughout my years as a priest, I have had the opportunity to travel to all parts of the world, witnessing first hand the suffering of those who aren’t blessed with the freedom we Americans too often take for granted. My trip to Haiti in the early 1990s impacted me far more than all my other journeys for in Haiti, I came face to face with the poorest of the poor, the “least” among us. Long before the 2010 earthquake devastated Haiti, I have been actively supporting the poor in Haiti.

Please know that these people are all God’s sons and daughters, as we are, each loved in an Infinite manner.

God Bless - Fr. Reiser

Reiser Relief Inc. is a volunteer run non-profit founded by Father Bernard Reiser, who has been involved with Haiti outreach programs for over 13 years; Bringing Hope To Haiti. Reiser Relief is based in Coon Rapids, MN and its mission is to help the impoverished people of the Caribbean country of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Reiser's Ramblings Book - by Fr. Bernard Reiser "From farm living to an eternity in Heaven" Click for more information All profits from the sale of Reiser’s Ramblings go to Haitian relief efforts