wfn.org | UCC - Haiti update: Mission partners report, relief efforts continue

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Haiti update: Mission partners report, relief efforts continue

> Written by Gregg Brekke
> November 14, 2010
> IMA World Health photo

News has reached the UCC's Cleveland headquarters that mission
partners in Haiti are safe following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake
Tuesday that has left an estimated 50,000 persons dead and up to three
million displaced. Rescue efforts are currently underway to free those
trapped in destroyed buildings.

Global Ministries partners, Patrick and Kim Bentrott, had just
returned home with their infant son Solomon when the earthquake
struck. They were able to descend from their third floor apartment to
join others on the street who lived in the building. Though the
building's first floor, stairwell and balconies collapsed, no one was harmed.

Kim Bentrott, who oversees the clinic at the National Spiritual
Council of Churches of Haiti (CONASPEH), reported grim conditions at
the center. "The CONASPEH building has been flattened," she said. "All
my nursing students were inside. Yesterday we helped pull bodies out
of the wreckage and heard some voices within the rubble. Efforts
continued frantically all day to reach them."

The Bentrotts also relayed that CONASPEH director, Patrick and
Francoise Villier, are safe though one of their foster children was
lost when the center collapsed.

Communications have not been as reliable with ecumenical partners.

"One of our staff was found alive but wounded and two are still
missing," Dick Loendersloot of ACT Alliance member ICCO said in a
phone conference of ACT members this evening. "People still don't know
if their families are okay and are out looking for them," Nigel
Timmins of Christian Aid said.

ACT reports that slum areas have been as badly affected as built-up
residential areas. Looting has already started, with fears the
security situation will worsen. The city is ill-equipped to handle the
massive search and rescue operation required.

Also concerning ACT is the fate of people in outlying and remote areas
of Port-au-Prince. One ACT member feared that coverage of the disaster
in Port-au-Prince might divert attention from other pressing areas.

IMA World Health reports that its five Haitian staff and three
visiting U.S. headquarters staff - President and CEO, Rick Santos;
Vice President of International Programs, Sarla Chand and Program
Officer, Ann Varghese - are unaccounted for.

As relief efforts continue, Susan Sanders, minister and team leader
for the UCC's Wider Church Ministries Global Sharing of Resources,
encourages generosity from concerned members. "Our first task is to
pray, then to donate to relief efforts already underway," she says. In
response to the many who have inquired regarding volunteer
opportunities, she recommends a financial contribution to One Great
Hour of Sharing (OGHS) or volunteering in rebuilding efforts already
underway in New Orleans.

"The logistics of getting into Haiti and finding an effective relief
activity are very difficult," she said. "World governments,
humanitarian agencies and mission groups already stationed in Haiti
are responding to needs as quickly as possible - managing volunteers
would only add to the complexity of their efforts."

In terms of giving, UCC constituents have contributed a
record-breaking $135,000 in online donations to OGHS International
Disaster Relief in the first day of the Haitian relief request. Three
donations of $2,000, 14 of greater than $1,000 and 31 of greater than
$500 lead the list of giving.

Funds from these and previous donations are already flowing to mission
partners in Haiti including $20,000 to Church World Service for relief
kits and $5,000 to Interchurch Medical Assistance who will provide
medicine and supplies to area clinics. Additional distributions will
be made as relief and recovery efforts continue.

Please visit the UCC's Disaster Ministries and Global Ministries pages
for regular updates on relief efforts and reports from Haiti.