Four faculty and staff members associated with the University of Notre Dame’s Haiti Program are accounted for and safe after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the island nation Jan. 12 (Tuesday).
“We are thankful that these dedicated members of the Notre Dame family are safe,” said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., the University’s president. “Our prayers are with them and all of those in Haiti in the wake of this disaster.”
Notre Dame’s Haiti Program is based in Léogâne, about 30 kilometers west of Port-au-Prince. The four faculty and staff members were in Port-au-Prince at the time of the quake. No information is currently available on damage to University facilities in Léogâne.
The Haiti Program works in conjunction with Hôpital Sainte Croixe on a major initiative to eradicate lymphatic filariasis, a debilitating mosquito-borne disease that affects some 120 million people around the world and manifests itself as elephantiasis.