While much of the world feels for the people of Haiti in the wake of its recent natural disaster, for Greensburg’s Richard and Marjory Hollowell, the tragedy hit much closer to home.

The couple has traveled to the island nation during the fall of the past three years, assisting the non-governmental agency Family Health Ministries (FHM), which is based in North Carolina. On their previous trips, the Hollowells have arrived in Port-au-Prince before heading west to Leogane on their way to the Fondwa region in the mountains to the southwest, they explained.

They became involved in these service trips as a result of David and Jamalyn Williamson, Methodist ministers who graduated from Duke University’s School of Divinity and spent two years as missionaries in Haiti. While the Hollowells have been participating for three years, FHM has been involved in providing medical care and other services in Haiti for much longer. The organization runs an obstetrics/gynocology clinic in Leogane as well as assisting with funding for a school and orphanage in Fondwa.

The OB/GYN at the clinic, the Hollowells said, is a Haitian with dual citizenship who was educated in the United States. During one of the aftershocks, they reported, he was delivering a baby at the clinic as the rest of the staff fled the building. After the delivery, he left the clinic, found the father and attempted to send him in after the newborn. The father was too afraid to enter the building, so the doctor went back in and brought the child out himself, the Hollowells related. The man’s new home was completely destroyed and the second level being added to the clinic fell in - luckily the first floor remained intact.

Jamalyn Williamson was amongst a group who had traveled to Haiti just before the earthquake. The nine-member crew had to be transported on the back of motorcycles, the Hollowells explained, in order to be flown out on an aid flight. They arrived back stateside at Homestead before returning to Indianapolis.

She related to her friends and colleagues via e-mail that the “destruction was unbelievable.” While it was a blessing that the orphanage itself did not fall, everything else she had come to be familiar with in Fondwa was destroyed. She relayed the story of spending the night sleeping on the road with all her neighbors.

“Listening to their prayers that they would randomly cry out in the middle of the night,” she said in her e-mail “I realized that all this “stuff” is gone, but my relationships within the community were still strong.”

The events of the past two weeks have been especially difficult for the Hollowells to witness from afar, as the duo had just visited Haiti the week before Thanksgiving. Beyond the Leogane clinic, the couple feels for the community in Fondwa, where they have spent time taking school photographs in the rural area so that the students will have the picture identification necessary for their national exams.

For 22 years, Father Joseph has worked to create some manner of infrastructure for an area without any appreciable governmental structure. This work had included a school - St. Antonio’s - for 525 students, an orphanage for approximately 50 children and a guest house that serves as a lodging for volunteers who visit to assist. The earthquake has reduced the school and guest house to rubble. Still, a triage area was set up in the soccer fields the night of the quake, where meals were also served.

The Hollowells noted it was a blessing that the earthquake took place after school hours, as only four people remained in the building when it collapsed. The four were masons working on the walls as part of a renovation. The two on the upper level survived with injuries. The two on the lower level perished. In addition, two individuals passed away when the guest house fell.

This was especially tragic, as one of those two was Jude, whom the Hollowells had met as an infant. He arrived at the orphanage at four months of age, and was paired with Sister Oudel in the guest house until he was old enough to move into the orphanage itself. As a young baby, Jude had colic and wanted to be held. Marjory Hollowell spent a great deal of time in the fall of 2008 cradling the young boy in her arms. The following year, Jude didn’t recognize Hollowell and was afraid of her white skin she said, but eventually returned to her. A few days after the earthquake, when news became available from the rural area, the Hollowells received word that Jude and Sister Oudel perished together in the collapse.

For the local couple, it has been disturbing to hear such tragic news about people with whom they have shared meals and memories. Dick Hollowell is a Vietnam veteran, who noted that hearing news from afar has felt like hearing a battle over the radio and not being able to pitch in and help.

“There is just an enormous amount of uncertainty,” he said.

Still, the pain is even greater for Father Joseph, who has seen 22 years of effort reduced to rubble. The rural community had worked to have a micro bank - the largest in Haiti - as well as a university. They, Dick Hollowell explained, truly grasp the importance of education in improving their lives, and will now have to work to rebuild.

Marjory Hollowell noted that from her experience, the people of Haiti are resourceful and able to take care of themselves and others.

“Often, care is taken of others before themselves,” she noted. “They will make do with what remains and build from there.”

When the time comes that the Hollowells have an opportunity to help in Haiti once more, the two will return, they said. For now, though, FHM will be sending only specific medical personnel and supplies to meet immediate needs.