Local Haitians will pray and spend time with families today, reflecting quietly and privately on the 35 seconds that changed their worlds five years ago Monday.

That day a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, killing 300,000 and leaving 1.5 million people homeless. About 85,000 people remain homeless today.

Many Haitians in the Norwich community lost family and friends and spent frantic hours that day praying and trying to reach their loved ones. Later they worked with local agencies to send aid to their homeland.

No formal memorial services are planned to mark the anniversary in the Norwich area, although members of the First Haitian Baptist Church of Norwich in Greeneville will pray during today's service and will hold normal Monday prayer sessions.

"We always pray on the anniversary," said the Rev. Estime Jozil, pastor of the church. "Nothing really special on that day. That date really reminds my people of that tragedy, but we always think about it."

The Peniel Church on Boswell Avenue, where 50 of the 200 parishioners are Haitian, will hold "quiet prayer" at today's service, Pastor Adam Bowles said.

Bowles and Jozil teamed up after the earthquake to form 35 Seconds for Haiti - named for the duration of the quake. The group raised $8,000 to build a house in Petit Goave for one displaced family and donate $5,000 to a safe drinking water project.

A cholera epidemic, allegedly carried to Haiti by United Nations aid workers, has killed 8,500 people and sickened 700,000, the Associated Press recently reported.

Many families in southeastern Connecticut tried to bring relatives here, but Haitian leaders and Norwich city officials said the process has been slow and difficult.

Separated from brother

Robenson Charlotin, 28, took a circuitous route out of Haiti, eventually to Norwich.

Charlotin was watching TV in his third-floor apartment in Miragoane when his couch moved and the TV shook. He jumped up and raced out of the building.

"Everybody was screaming," he said.

His sister, then 21, suffered a broken leg when debris from her school fell on her. A brother who lived in Mexico told Charlotin the Mexican government would allow families to bring in relatives. Charlotin, his sister and brother made the trip.

But Charlotin was uncomfortable in Mexico, and he and his brother, Reginald Jean Baptiste, traveled to the U.S. border. There, they took a risky gamble. They crossed into California, went to U.S. immigration officials and got arrested on purpose.

"I knew they wouldn't send me back to Haiti," he said.

But he didn't know what the U.S. authorities would do with illegal immigrants who spoke no English. He and his brother were separated at their arrest, and he didn't know until later that Jean Baptiste ended up in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Authorities told Charlotin if he had a friend or relative who would sponsor him, he could stay.

Charlotin called his deceased mother's friend in New London. The woman paid for Charlotin's five-day bus trip to New London.

Charlotin quickly adjusted. He got a job at Foxwoods Resort Casino, enrolled in English classes at New London Adult Education and later Norwich Adult Education. He joined the First Haitian Baptist Church of Norwich, where he played drums and sang.

He switched to the Peniel Church, where he now thrives in the music program. He met his wife, Katia, a Haitian-American citizen, and they have a 2-year-old boy, Robby, Jr. Last summer, Charlotin became a licensed tractor- trailer truck driver. He drives trucks for Frito Lay in Killingly through Kelly Services, an employment agency.

Charlotin smiles easily and says he feels blessed. He hopes to resume his education and become a U.S. citizen, and buy a house.

Charlotin has two half-sisters in Haiti and calls them occasionally. He shook his head at the inept, corrupt government that he said wants to keep Haiti poor and "down."

Norwich public schools and Norwich Free Academy have dozens of students who survived the earthquake, some with harrowing stories they are just now learning to tell.

NFA will invite Haitian students to share their experiences and feelings Monday in a students-only, after-school gathering, NFA Diversity Director Leo Butler said. At the time of the earthquake, NFA had nearly 100 Haitian students, and today it has about 150.

Enock Petit-Homme, a family liaison at Norwich public schools, who lost about 40 family members in Haiti, said older children in Norwich schools have vivid memories and lingering mental if not physical scars of that day.

"Sometimes I don't push them to talk about it," Petit-Homme said. "I just keep an open ear. I try to help them feel better about the whole thing."

Sheila Osko, director of language and translation services for Norwich public schools, said the number of Haitian Creole speakers in the school system did rise after the earthquake. In 2009, the school system had 142 Haitian Creole speakers in English language classes, 156 in 2011 and 165 in 2012, before dropping slightly to 159 this year.

Osko said some Haitian families moved from the area for jobs at Pennsylvania casinos. Jobs more than the earthquake now drive Haitian enrollment, she said.

Local ties to Haiti

The Haitian Health Foundation, founded by Norwich orthodontist Dr. Jeremiah Lowney, opened its health clinic in Jeremie - 100 miles west of Port au Prince - in 1987. His daughter, Marilyn Lowney, now serves as executive director.

At the start of 2010, the health clinic served 200,000 people in Jeremie and 104 rural villages. After the earthquake 130,000 displaced Haitians trudged to Jeremie.

A flood of donations also followed, $1.5 million for earthquake relief alone, Marilyn Lowney said. Those donations are "way down now," Jeremiah Lowney said, but HHF annually receives $3.5 million for programs that still serve many earthquake victims.

Marilyn Lowney said HHF immediately provided health care to the new arrivals and gave extra food to hundreds of families who opened homes to displaced people.

"I was very proud in Jeremie that no one ended up in a tent," Jeremiah Lowney said. "The poor have great empathy."

HHF has built 500 so-called "Happy Houses," small 20-by-15 block houses to replace houses destroyed in the Jeremie region.

The influx overwhelmed the foundation's St. Pierre School. Already overcrowded with 774 students for the 500-capacity building, enrollment jumped to 1,200. The school went to double sessions and still has about 1,000 students, Marilyn Lowney said.

The agency also launched a program to set up 700 displaced women in small businesses, selling soap and household items, to get them back on their feet.

"Many women had business experience in Port au Prince, so they knew how to run a business," Marilyn Lowney said.

Marilyn Lowney vividly recalled the scene in Jeremie in the days and weeks after the earthquake. People arrived dirty, bleeding, carrying injured relatives. One man got off the ferry after the slow, 24-hour ride wearing just shorts and carrying his baby. Another arrived with a bloodied, dirty rag over a stump at his shin. His brother had to cut off the foot with a hammer, because he couldn't free it from the rubble.

Then cholera reached Jeremie. The agency's health care workers were experienced with diarrhea care, and soon brought the spreading epidemic under control, Marilyn Lowney said. But not before the first victims "died fast."

All but two of HHF's 180 staff in Jeremie are Haitians, plus temporary construction workers and teachers. About 15 volunteers - medical professionals, skilled workers and teachers - travel to Jeremie for a week four times a year. The next trip is in March.

Rebuilding effort continues

The Catholic Diocese of Norwich's Haitian Ministries has had a long presence in Port au Prince. During the earthquake, the ministries' mission house collapsed, trapping acting director Jillian Thorp of Old Saybrook, volunteer Chuck Dietsch of Southbury and Haitian staff member Lanitte Belledente. All three were rescued, but Belledente's legs were crushed.

Afterward, Haitian Ministries merged with Hospice St. Joseph, a nearby agency, to form Outreach to Haiti. Dan O'Sullivan, a retired insurance actuary from Killingworth, was hired by the diocese as executive director of Outreach to Haiti in October.

O'Sullivan said both programs' buildings were destroyed in the earthquake. The ministries' health clinic is in a temporary plywood building and rented guest house. The clinic serves the Christ Roi region of about 60,000 residents and provides 7,000 doctor visits per year, follow-up care and community outreach, O'Sullivan said.

To save money, officials decided to rebuild one two-story mission house, with a health clinic on the main floor and guest housing for 14 upstairs on the site of the former mission house in the Christ Roi section of Port au Prince.

Outreach to Haiti recently launched a $300,000 capital campaign for the project. Direct solicitations have brought in $140,000, O'Sullivan said. The campaign last week went public to diocese parishes and in a letter from The Most Rev. Michael Cote, bishop of Norwich published in "Four County Catholic," the diocesan newspaper.

"We would like to be building by the middle of the year," O'Sullivan said. "We're doing some of the ground work now. The loose rubble was cleaned out after the earthquake, and now we're excavating broken foundations."

Mission House Chaplain Father Frank Rouleau, flew to Haiti last week. About 10 volunteers from St. Matthew's Church in Tolland will leave Wednesday for a week-long stay. On Jan. 21, a group from St. Mary's Church in Coventry will make the trip.

O'Sullivan visited in October to meet staff and residents and assess the region's needs.

"The need is incredible," O'Sullivan said. "But the people, you develop a relationship with them very quickly. They are very warm and friendly. They're willing to work their way out of the poverty."

c.bessette@theday.com

Twitter: @Bessettetheday

To donate

Two long-standing organizations in southeastern Connecticut provide aid to Haiti and seek donations:

• Diocese of Norwich Outreach to Haiti is running a capital campaign to rebuild its clinic and guest house for volunteers in Port-au-Prince. Go to www.outreachtohaiti.org for information on ongoing operations and to donate online. Send checks made out to Outreach to Haiti Capital Campaign to Outreach to Haiti, 815 Boswell Ave., Norwich, CT 06360.

• Haitian Health Foundation runs several health, education, food and economic development programs in the Jeremie area of Haiti.

For information on programs and to donate online, go to www.haitianhealthfoundation.org. Send checks made out to Haitian Health Foundation to Haitian Health Foundation, 97 Sherman St., Norwich, CT 06360.