[LCMSNews] Wanted: medical volunteers for Haiti

["LCMS e-News" <LCMSENEWS@lcms.org>]

>

>8.13.2010
>       LCMS News

>THE LUTHERAN CHURCH Missouri Synod

August 13, 2010 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 73

Wanted: Mercy Medical Team volunteers for Haiti

>By Kim Plummer Krull

LCMS World Relief and Human Care  (WR-HC) is organizing a Mercy Medical
Team (MMT) to serve in October at the first of four new medical clinics
preparing to open in Haiti. The clinic is located in Poto, next to a
Lutheran Church of Haiti (LCH) congregation in a rural area where
medical care is especially scarce.

"The pastor at the Lutheran church is very excited to have medical care
to serve people at this rural location," said Maggie Karner, director of
Life and Health Ministries with WR-HC. "This is an area that has
suffered two major disasters in the last two years and is drawing many
people displaced by the earthquake."

The Poto clinic, located in the Gonaives region, is being opened by
WR-HC in partnership with the LCH and is expected to begin seeing
patients in late August. Plans are in the works to open three more
clinics, in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and the Central Plateau, in
conjunction with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti.

A Haitian physician and nurse will be based at each clinic. WR-HC plans
to send MMTs to provide additional care. The first MMT will serve Oct.
17-26 in Poto, an area where Karner said Haitians have been hit hard in
recent years by massive flooding and the Jan. 12 quake. "While there is
some medical care in the cities, this is a rural area that has been
largely neglected," she said.

Earlier this summer, Karner and WR-HC's Jacob Fiene and Charlottesville,
Va., physician Dr. William Maloney scouted potential clinic locations.
All had served with MMTs as part of WR-HC's earthquake response in
Haiti. "Even before the earthquake, there were always people who were
underserved in terms of medical care," Fiene said. "Each clinic will be
in close proximity to people who were displaced."

The clinics are transformed shipping containers, retrofitted to include
an office, an examination room and a pharmacy. Through the work of Rev.
Glenn Merritt, director of Disaster Response, WR-HC acquired the fully
supplied and equipped clinics from Christian Alliance of Houston, Texas.
Orphan Grain Train, of Norfolk, Neb., helped ship the clinics with
assistance from the World Harvest Mission offices in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti.

Several medical professionals already have signed up for the October
MMT, but WR-HC is still accepting volunteers. To learn more, visit
http://www.lcms.org/?14341 or contact Fiene at jacob.fiene@lcms.org
<mailto:jacob.fiene@lcms.org>  or 800-248-1930, ext. 1278.

Kim Plummer Krull is a freelance writer and a member of St. Paul's
Lutheran Church, Des Peres, Mo.

>****************************************

If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release, contact
Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org
<mailto:joe.isenhower@lcms.org>  or (314) 996-1231, or Paula Schlueter
Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org <mailto:paula.ross@lcms.org>  or (314)
996-1230.

>****************************************

This Edition of "LCMS News" e-News is provided
by:

Board for Communication Services, Division of News and Information

Contact Editor

<http://www.lcms.org/enews/contact_editor.asp?title=LCMS%20News&editorid
=6>

This LCMS e-News message comes from a "Send Only" mailbox that
does not recognize replies. To reply to this message, please click on
"Contact Editor" above.

>_____

To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter and many others,
please visit LCMS e-News <http://www.lcms.org/enews> .
Share this Newsletter <http://www.lcms.org/enews/forward.asp?m=8981
with a Friend.
MessageId=8981 UserId=10073

>_____

© 2002 - 2008 The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod <http://www.lcms.org/
.
No reproduction without consent. All rights reserved.