Magnus MacFarlane Barrow
On a little patch of concrete that has been cleared of rubble, Fr Tom Hagan is celebrating Mass with a group of young seminarians. They sit on plastic garden chairs in a semi-circle under a small tree. An old bus in which they sleep every night is parked nearby and beside it is Fr Tom's tent.
They are not the only people in Port-au-Prince still living in makeshift accommodation six months after the earthquake in which around 15 per cent of the city's population died. Tents fill nearly every available space.
Three miles away, is the sprawling slum of Cite Soleil. Built on a rubbish dump and home to 500 000 people. It is here that Mary's Meals works with Fr Tom and his organisation 'Hands Together' to provide daily meals to 6,000 children in the schools he has built.
When I arrive I see that temporary wooden classrooms have been erected in the play grounds. Thousands of children are once again coming to school and receiving the vital daily meal we provide. I watch a class being taught English by a volunteer in far away New York using 'Skype' and a laptop powered by a generator.
Jimmy, one of the older pupils, tells us how he grew up in the worst part of Cite Soleil with his five brothers and sisters.
''I thank God for the food and education that I have received in school. I know this food is given to us because of Mary the mother of Jesus and I am thankful.''
Since the earthquake we have also been providing daily meals for around 2,000 elderly people in the school canteens. They stand clapping and dancing and singing songs of praise when the meals are served.
Later we visit another school in nearby Carrefour in order to talk to the teachers about the possibility of beginning Mary's Meals here. The hungry children, who currently receive no school meals, are learning outside under a tarpaulin. They explain that teachers and pupils are still too fearful to be inside the classrooms. I peek inside and see that the lesson on the blackboard is still dated January 12 - the day the disaster happened.
For the same reason Fr Tom celebrates his main Sunday Mass outside his undamaged church in Cite Soleil - the people are not willing to come inside the church. It is not just the buildings here that need mending.
On the little tree, under which he celebrates Mass, hangs a very broken crucifix. The plaster figure of Jesus has been smashed and has lost its legs. Wires protrude from limbs where the plaster has fallen away. This was Fr Tom's family crucifix which hung in his house in Philadelphia as he grew up. After he became a priest he always had it in his home and so he was delighted when it was salvaged from the rubble of his fallen house here.
''I won't ever repair it. I will keep it just like this,'' he says.
''It reminds us that Jesus is broken too, with us.''
Magnus MacFarlane Barrow is founder and CEO of Mary's Meals.
