Father Desinord Jean, director of Radio Soleil, broadcasts
from a van Feb. 5 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The building that housed the
popular Catholic radio station was destroyed in the Jan. 12 earthquake.
CNS PHOTO/BOB ROLLER
Catholic
radio station in Haiti
returns after studio destroyed
By Dennis Sadowski
Catholic News Service
PETIONVILLE, Haiti (CNS) — Radio Soleil, Catholic
radio in Haiti, is on the air — broadcasting from the back of an
immobilized van.
Except when staffers enter the crowded compact studio in the van, all
work is conducted outdoors.
The van is parked in a courtyard of an office building in a quiet part
of suburban Petionville, located in the hills above Port-au-Prince. Its
tires are flattened so that no one can drive off with the van and its
recycled radio equipment.
The popular Catholic radio station, knocked off the air by the Jan. 12
earthquake, resumed broadcasting Jan. 24. It beams programming from 6
a.m. to 6 p.m. daily — half its pre-earthquake schedule —
to greater Port-au-Prince and to about a dozen stations spread across
the country.
Father Desinord Jean, station director and general manager, said getting
back on the air was a priority for staffers even as they mourned the loss
of two colleagues who died when the station collapsed during the quake.
Nearly all 38 staff members, including Father Jean, lost their homes.
Not all staff members have returned to work yet, but most continue on
the job, even if sporadically, to keep the station on the air.
The radio station recovered quickly because its engineer, Adonis Mendez,
was in the Dominican Republic at the time of the quake and was able to
find enough basic equipment to bring to Haiti. Outside of the equipment
in the van, the station has nothing, Father Jean said.
“We tried to save some equipment but the looters came and took everything,”
he said.
Father Jean said the station has continued popular programs that offer
words of inspiration and consolation at a time of especially great need.
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