New Hampshire nurse, reportedly kidnapped in Haiti, had praised country for its resilience

A New Hampshire nurse, who has reportedly been kidnapped in Haiti, has described Haitians as “resilient people” in a video about her work for a nonprofit Christian ministry in the country.

“They’re full of joy, and life and love. I’m so blessed to know so many amazing Haitians,” Alix Dorsainil says in a video on the website of the ministry she works for, El Roi Haiti.

Dorsainvil and her daughter were kidnapped Thursday, the organization said in a statement over the weekend. El Roi Haiti, which runs a school and ministry in Port au Prince, said the two were taken from campus. Dorsainvil is the wife of the program’s director, Sandro Dorsainvil.

That happened the same day that the U.S. State Department issued a “do not travel advisory” in the country and ordered nonemergency personnel to leave there amid growing security concerns.

“Alix is a deeply compassionate and loving person who considers Haiti her home and the Haitian people her friends and family,” El Roi president and co-founder Jason Brown said in the statement. “Alix has worked tirelessly as our school and community nurse to bring relief to those who are suffering as she loves and serves the people of Haiti in the name of Jesus.”

A State Department spokesperson said in a statement Saturday is it “aware of reports of the kidnapping of two U.S. citizens in Haiti,” adding, “We are in regular contact with Haitian authorities and will continue to work with them and our U.S. government interagency partners.”

The department has not issued any updates since then. Alix Dorainvil’s father, Steven Comeau, reached in New Hampshire, said he could not talk.

Dorsainvil graduated from Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, which has a program to support nursing education in Haiti. Before that, she went to Cornerstone Christian Academy in Ossipee, New Hampshire.

“Pray that God would keep her safe, be with her through this trial, and deliver her from her captors,” the school posted on its Facebook page.

In its advisory Thursday, the State Department said that “kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include U.S. citizens.”

It said kidnappings often involve ransom negotiations and U.S. citizen victims have been physically harmed.

Earlier this month, the National Human Rights Defense Network issued a report warning about an upsurge in killings and kidnappings and the U.N. Security Council met to discuss Haiti’s worsening situation.

In December 2021, an unidentified person paid a ransom that freed three missionaries kidnapped by a gang in Haiti under an agreement that was supposed to have led to the release of all 15 remaining captives, t heir Ohio-based organization confirmed.

The person who made the payment was not affiliated with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, and the workers say they don’t know who the individual is or how much was paid to the gang, which initially demanded $1 million per person. Internal conflicts in the gang, they say, led it to renege on a pledge to release all the hostages, freeing just three of them instead on Dec. 5.

The accounts from former hostages and other Christian Aid Ministries staffers, in recent recorded talks to church groups and others, were the first public acknowledgement from the organization that ransom was paid at any point following the Oct. 16 kidnapping of 16 Americans and a Canadian affiliated with CAM.