'They’re working for the devil': Irish woman Gena Heraty speaks out on Haitian kidnapping

When Gena Heraty was abducted from her bed last month, a gang member told her he'd blow her up. 

Mayo woman Gena Heraty was held captive for 27 days in Haiti alongside six others, from the early hours of August 3. 

The woman - who runs an orphanage for children and adults with special needs in Haiti - spoke to Midwest Radio’s Tommy Marren in her first interview following her release ten days ago. 

The woman immediately said: “I truly am very well all things considered.”

When Heraty and her fellow staff and a four year old were taken by a gang in the night, they were in bed, wearing pyjamas. Heraty said: “They didn’t know who they would find.” 

“They were asking, ‘take us to the nuns’ house’”. 

Read More: 'Put up to intimidate and harass people' Intent behind Irish flags under scrutiny

They told her that they would blow her up, but she knew that they would not, as she was valuable to them. 

Gena Heraty was angry - and still is - that her “little child” was taken, as well as key staff at the orphanage. 

Heraty said: “The youngest in our house … our little baby, as we call him. I thought, "Oh my God.”

 “Why would you kidnap a little child? How would we keep things normal for him.”

The child referenced is four years old, but “developmentally, he wouldn’t be four”. 

Heraty said she was guarded by guns and was given scarce food rations and little drinking water.

The orphanage director begged the men who abducted her for clean water on a daily basis. The abducted women rationed their food and drink to ensure that the infant boy would have extra provisions. When the infant had diarrhoea, they had no nappies. 

The room that they were held in was small, dark and dirty. Heraty and those kidnapped “were squished like sardines”. 

She said that she was “guessing the time” and that “the nights were terrifying”. 

A kidnapper told her: “The innocent have to pay for the guilty.”

Heraty detailed that “I knew that a lot of these gangs, they will tell you themselves, they’re working for the devil” and that they have “voodoo ceremonies”. 

“I was petrified that any one of us could be used in a sacrifice. That some witch doctor would say to them, ‘If you want to have all your strength and your powers, you need to do this to these people’.”

“There was no guarantee that we were going to get out.”

Read More: 'Really tore into him!'- Gardai slate disqualified driver in 'hilarious' Facebook post

The woman said everyone in Haiti is aware of kidnappings and “We knew of people who hadn’t come out of it alive”. A good friend of hers had previously died in captivity. 

Heraty was "walloped" by the kidnappers. She believes the orphans from the home that became angels took the pain of the blows from her. 

The woman resisted crying out while being beaten, as she knew that is what the kidnappers wanted. 

Heraty prayed for peace in Gaza while she was in captivity. She thought of the hunger strikers like Bobby Sands and Irish ancestors while she was starving. Her prayers “put meaning to our suffering”. 

“Every single thing that we suffered, we turned it into a prayer for people that were worse off than us, and I think that’s what kept us going.”

The kidnappers had ransacked everywhere in the location's proximity for food. 

The day Heraty and the six others were recovered, they were “taken to a meeting point where our own team picked us up”. 

Upon being reunited with the orphanage, there was “lots of emotion and tears”. 

Yvonne, one of the oldest residents of the orphanage, died while Gena was away. Gena said she will never forgive the kidnappers for this. 

“I’m convinced she wouldn’t have died, if it wasn’t for that trauma.”

“To see the kids, and to see how vulnerable they were, and to leave them without any staff member…really angers me”. 

Heraty is determined to keep doing good, despite the ordeal she went through. Her orphanage has been displaced since the kidnapping. 

The Mayo woman said she is dying to see her family, but will continue her work in Haiti. 

Heraty said she wanted to use the opportunity on the radio to encourage everyone to pray for peace: “That’s the only thing that will make the world a better place.”

When Tommy Marren called the woman incredible, she said if she is incredible it is because of the presence of God within her. She also attributed her strength to the following: “This is what Irish people do. We don’t sit back and feel sorry for ourselves. We get on with it. I said to my sisters, we’re Heratys, you would all have done the same thing. Because this is what we do.”

“We come from good stock.”

While remaining positive, Heraty was realistic about living with the aftermath of what happened to her, and detailed how she has lost weight, her skin is very dry and her strength needs to be rebuilt.

Heraty said she hopes to come back to Mayo to see her family before Christmas. “I really want to go home, and reassure them that I’m fine, you know … Milk them for all the softness that I can get out of them.”

The woman concluded in her interview that she is the face of a broader problem: “People are kidnapped in Haiti everyday.”

Her advice to listeners was to “keep praying” and she thanked the public in Mayo and Ireland for their prayers.  

Donations to Gena Heraty’s residential home for Haitian orphans with special needs can be made here.