Gena Heraty, the Irish aid worker who was kidnapped in Haiti, is probably “trying to negotiate her way out” and will be “putting on a brave face”, according to the organisation that employs her.
Ms Heraty, a missionary who is director of the Sainte-Hélène orphanage run by Nos Petits Frères et Soeurs (NPFS, Our Little Brothers and Sisters) in Kenscoff, was taken with seven others, including a three-year-old child, on Sunday, about 10km outside the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The Co Mayo woman, who has lived in Haiti since 1993, oversees the running of the orphanage and is the co-ordinator of its special needs programme.
The Irish Times learned on Tuesday that two people representing NPFS had spoken to the gang leader holding Ms Heraty via intermediaries and were awaiting further contact.
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Jessica Mullins, chairwoman of the board of trustees for NPH Ireland, the charity’s Irish branch, said while Ms Heraty had great resilience, there’s “no doubt there’s also an element of fear there”.
She said Ms Heraty would be “putting on a brave face”, not just for herself, but for everybody else and would probably be “trying to negotiate her way out”.
“It would be a tough environment to work in and to grow up in,” Ms Mullins told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland. “It’s rife with poverty, civil unrest. It just shows her resilience. She has showed up every day regardless of how volatile or how tough things get on the ground over in Haiti.”
Work in Haiti “isn’t a job” for Ms Heraty, “it’s a vocation”, she said. “It’s her true mission in life and she really is an amazing person and just serves with love and compassion and dignity. She’s probably one of the most selfless people I’ve ever met.”
Executive director of the centre for global health, Dr Louise Ivers, agreed with this character assessment of Ms Heraty, saying she was “completely committed” to the children and young people who she takes care of in Haiti.
“She’s committed to that place and to the community and to especially the children with disabilities in her house that she cares for, she’s a mother to them. She’s not naive. She knows the situation.
“Everybody there knows the situation and it takes a tremendous amount of resolve and commitment to doing the right thing and doing a good thing,” infectious diseases expert Dr Ivers told Newstalk Breakfast.
“Gena has been there for over 30 years. She’s part of the community, she’s fluent in Haitian Creole, she’s a well-known entity around, she is really part of the fabric of the organisation and the area where she’s living.”
Haiti is a “relentlessly challenging” and “very, very dangerous place”, said Dr Ivers, adding there had been 350 reported kidnappings in the country so far this year. “There’s been thousands of people killed by gangs, by the police, by security forces and by vigilante groups who have taken to just trying to defend their own communities themselves.”
On Tuesday, Tánaiste Simon Harris raised Ms Heraty’s case with the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Kaja Kallas. Arising from the conversation, an EU diplomat in Haiti will be the point of contact in the case.
Mr Harris added he had been in constant contact with the Heraty family and would continue to provide them with supports. Furthermore, “different avenues at both political and diplomat level continue to be exhausted” in a bid to free the hostages.
The abduction has come during a period of deep crisis for Haiti, where law and order has collapsed and crime gangs, rather than the government, have control of vast parts of the country. It is believed the gang who led the kidnapping are associates – and come under the control and protection of – the Viv Ansanm group in the town of Kenscoff.
Viv Ansanm, which means Live Together, was one of two major crime syndicates in Haiti sanctioned by the United Nations last month, with the EU having since amended its Haiti sanctions list to include the two groups.
Viv Ansanm, a coalition of multiple gangs, is intent on taking control of Haiti, with the US declaring them a terrorist group and a threat to US national security.
