wfn.org | Newsline: Haiti earthquake update from the Church of the Brethren

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline Special: Haiti earthquake update -- Jan. 15, 2010

Newsline is the Church of the Brethren e-mail news service

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble"

>(Psalm 46:1).

>HAITI EARTHQUAKE UPDATES

1) Leaders from Brethren Disaster Ministries and mission leaders

to go to Haiti, first contacts are received from Haitian Brethren.

2) IMA World Health team and United Methodist staff are rescued.

3) Emergency Disaster Fund grants go to Haiti relief effort.

4) Member of Lititz Church of the Brethren is still in Haiti with

>mission group.

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

The Church of the Brethren website is offering a number of ways

to help support the relief efforts in Haiti following Tuesday's

massive earthquake: The Emergency Disaster Fund is now receiving

online donations at www.brethren.org/HaitiDonations. Or mail a

donation by check made out to Emergency Disaster Fund, Church of

the Brethren, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120. A special web page

"Prayers for Haiti" has been created for church members, congregations,

and others concerned about the people of Haiti to express their prayers,

go to www.brethren.org/HaitiPrayers. The page www.brethren.org/HaitiEarthqu ake has been set up to offer regular updates on the Church of the Brethren  earthquake relief effort.

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

For those concerned to locate family and friends affected by the

earthquake in Haiti, two helps are being recommended by the Volunteer

Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD), in which Brethren Disaster

Ministries participates: The International Committee of the Red Cross

has opened a family/friends unification website allowing both those in

Haiti and those outside Haiti to list their contact information in hopes

of being reunited with friends or family affected by the earthquake. Go

to www.familylinks.icrc.org/WFL_HTI.NSF/DocIndex/locate_eng?opendocument. I n addition, the US State Department has help line for family reunification,  call the State Department

>Operations Center Helpline at 888-407-4747.

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

1) Brethren disaster and mission leaders to go to Haiti, first contacts

>are received from Haitian Brethren.

A group representing the Church of the Brethren has scheduled a flight

to Haiti with Mission Flights International. The group will include Ludovic

St. Fleur, coordinator of the Church of the Brethren mission in Haiti and

pastor of Eglise des Freres Haitiens in Miami, Fla.; Roy Winter, executive

director of Brethren Disaster Ministries; Jeff Boshart, coordinator of the

church's disaster rebuilding project in Haiti; and Klebert Exceus,

>consultant for the Haiti rebuilding program.

The group will travel to Haiti on Monday, Jan. 18, barring unforeseen

>circumstances.

"We will further assess the situation of the Brethren members and likely se t

up a base camp at the new church built in the mountains about 40 miles

north of Port-au-Prince," reported Winter. He added that Brethren Disaster

Ministries and the church's Material Resources program also may work

with Mission Flights International to get supplies to Haiti in the short-te rm,

>until containers can be transported.

A report has been received from one of the three Port-au-Prince congregatio ns

of Eglise des Freres Haitiens (Church of the Brethren in Haiti). "Good news

from Sister Marie in Croix des Bouquets," reports Boshart. "Her house is fi ne

and so is the immediate neighborhood and the church members are well also."

The denominational staff is still waiting for confirmation of the wellbeing  of

the congregation's pastor, Jean Bily, who also serves as general secretary  of

>the Haitian Church of the Brethren.

In other news from Brethren in the Dominican Republic, the amount of $5,000

from the Emergency Disaster Fund grants for Haiti relief efforts (see story  below)

has been delivered to Servicios Sociales de Las Iglesias Dominicanas (SSID)

to assist in local relief efforts coming from the Dominican Republic. SSID  also

is a partner organization of Church World Service.

The money was delivered by Irvin Heishman, a Church of the Brethren mission

coordinator in the Dominican Republic along with his wife, Nancy.

"Lorenzo Mota King, SSID executive director, expressed profound gratitude,"

reported Heishman, "and said the funds will help support the following goal s for

the first two weeks of response: continued support for a team of rescue wor kers

in Port-au-Prince; mobilizing a network of Haitian partners and churches fo r

distribution of humanitarian aid; establishing medical and food services in  the

border towns of Jimini and Ford Parisien, where many of the wounded are

congregating--this includes putting in place a mobile kitchen for preparati on of

food and opening a temporary medical clinic in a school; finalizing arrange ments

with the Dominican customs department for the efficient movement of contain ers

of relief supplies through the Dominican Republic to Haiti."

The Heishmans are working on other response activities with the Dominican

Brethren, reporting that Brethren there want to do what they can to help ou t. An

additional amount of $2,000 has been sent to the Dominican Church of the

Brethren to support the effort. Heishman reported that the board of the DR  church

>is meeting today and tomorrow.

2) IMA World Health team and United Methodist staff are rescued.

IMA World Health reports that three of its staff--including president Rick  Santos--

who were missing in Haiti are safe and not seriously hurt after having been  rescued

from the rubble of the Montana Hotel. The hotel collapsed in the earthquake .

Also rescued from the same hotel were a United Methodist group including Sa m

Dixon, head of UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief); Clinton Rabb,

head of the United Methodist denomination's Mission Volunteers; and James

>Gulley, an UMCOR consultant .

IMA World Health had requested prayer when it was unable to contact the thr ee

staff who had been visiting Haiti from its headquarters at the Brethren Ser vice

Center in New Windsor, Md. The three included Rick Santos, president of IMA

World Health, along with Sarla Chand and Ann Varghese. IMA also had request ed

prayer for its five national staff in Haiti: Abdel Direny, Giannie Jean Bap tiste,

Execkiel Milar, Ambroise Sylvain, and Franck Monestime.

"I am happy to pass on the good news...that Rick, Sarla, Ann, and Sam Dixon

(executive director of UMCOR--the United Methodist Committee on Relief--

who also was missing since the earthquake) are safe and not seriously hurt, "

said an e-mail note this morning from Don Parker, chair of the board of IMA

>World Health.

"We have much to give God grateful thanksgiving for," his note continued.

"Yet we still need to keep all our Haitian staff and many thousands of Hait ian

people, who continue to grieve and suffer, in our prayers."

A follow-up announcement from Gary Lavan, vice president of Human Resources

for IMA, added, "This great news is tempered by our still needing to find o ut the

status of our Port-au-Prince staff members. We have had some encouraging ne ws

but not on all staff as of yet, please keep all in your prayers."

IMA received word late yesterday evening that its country director for Hait i,

Dr. Abdel Direny, is with staff from the University of Notre Dame who were  in

earlier meetings at the Montana Hotel on that Tuesday afternoon but had lef t the

hotel before its collapse. However the organization is still trying to loca te the

following IMA staff: Dr. Franck Monestime and Mr. Execkiel Milar.

News about the rescue of the three IMA headquarters staff has appeared on

Good Morning America, go to http://abcnews.go.com/GMA, see the video

"Alive Under Haiti's Rubble"; on MSNBC at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34880918/ns/ world_news-haiti_earthquake/from/ET; and in the "Baltimore Sun," go to

www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/carroll/bal-ima-workers-rescued0115,0,64 4214.story.

The three are to be evacuated to the Dominican Republic today.

3) Emergency Disaster Fund grants go to Haiti relief effort.

Two grants have been given from the Church of the Brethren's Emergency Disa ster

Fund (EDF) for the Haiti earthquake relief effort. The grants total $50,000 , and had

been bolstered by the more than $16,500 that already has been given through  the

Haiti donations page at the denominational website as of yesterday evening.

An EDF grant of $25,000 has been given for Brethren Disaster Ministries and  Church

of the Brethren work in Haiti following the earthquake. The grant will prov ide for

travel and support of assessment teams from the US working in Haiti; suppo rt

for the Haitian Church of the Brethren members impacted in Port-au-Prince;

initial response activities developed by the response team; and a grant to  partner

with SSID through the Dominican Church of the Brethren.

An EDF grant of $25,000 has been given to the Church World Service earthqua ke

appeal. The money will support cooperative efforts with CWS, and will help  in the

provision of immediate relief assistance that may include material resource s,

temporary shelter, food assistance, and health services.

Church World Service released a situation report on the earthquake yesterda y,

saying that "the global humanitarian effort...faces enormous challenges, gi ven

difficult logistics, collapsed infrastructure, and rising tensions." The si tuation

report cited statements from authorities that looting has been reported in  parts

of Port-au-Prince, and as of yesterday power remained out, food supplies we re

dwindling, telecommunications were rarely functioning, and most medical

facilities in the city had been severely damaged. The report cited a tentat ive

casualty estimate from the Haitian Red Cross of about 45,000 to 50,000.

Today a report from the ACT Alliance global network of churches and related

agencies said Haiti's capital "looks like a war zone," and that one million  people

are without shelter. The ACT statement appeared in Ecumenical News Internat ional,

the news service of the World Council of Churches. "Thousands of people in

Port-au-Prince--injured, hungry, and desperate--have spent days outdoors... without

food or shelter," ACT said. "Desperate Haitians have blocked streets with c orpses

in anger. Food is stocking up at the airport, but has not yet been distribu ted."

CWS has issued an appeal for $200,000 for its relief effort; the Church of  the

Brethren has given $25,000 toward that total from its Emergency Disaster Fu nd.

CWS is sending funds to local partners in Haiti as it continues to assess t he

situation. CWS-supported efforts will include the construction of temporary

water systems, providing water purification materials, tents, and food pack ages.

Additional efforts will be announced once assessments are completed.

SSID, which also partners with CWS in the Dominican Republic, is sending

pre-positioned CWS Kits and Blankets from its warehouse in Santo Domingo,

>the capital city of the DR.

Don Tatlock, CWS Latin America and Caribbean program manager, is

coordinating the CWS efforts in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Tatlock

also has a relationship with the Church of the Brethren, having been at the

center of food assistance projects that the church's Global Food Crisis Fun d

has sponsored in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and the DR.

CWS is pressing the US government to grant "Temporary Protected Status"

to Haitians, allowing them to remain in the United States for at least 18

months as part of a comprehensive response to the current humanitarian

crisis. CWS noted that Haiti's current circumstances fall well within the

criteria for granting the status, since it may be granted when requested by

a foreign state that temporarily cannot handle the return of nationals due

to an environmental disaster. The special status has been granted in simila r

situations to nationals of Honduras and Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch in

1998 and to Salvadorans after an earthquake in 2001.

4) Member of Lititz Church of the Brethren is still in Haiti with mission

>group.

A group of youth adults in Haiti on a mission trip with the Feed My Sheep

Ministry includes Lititz (Pa.) Church of the Brethren member Mark Risser.

He is with a group of three other young men from the Lititz area, including

>Trevor Sell, Ty Getz, and Ben Wingard.

Betsy and Bill Longenecker, also of Lititz Church of the Brethren, and thei r

son Billy helped coordinate the mission trip. The Longeneckers for 13 years

have been taking annual mission trips to Haiti through Feed My Sheep. The

family was in Haiti just last week as part of a Feed My Sheep mission group

that also included several others from the Lititz congregation. Their group

returned to the US on Saturday, Jan. 9, before the earthquake struck.

The group of young adults currently in Haiti are scheduled to return to the

US next Wednesday, Jan. 20, through Port-au-Prince on Delta Airlines.

Yesterday, while the Longeneckers were meeting with the parents of the

group, Billy Longenecker "was finally able to directly connect with the

Delta airlines to reschedule reserved seats for his friends," Betsy Longene cker

>said in a report today.

The group hopes that waiting until Wednesday will give time for humanitaria n

aid distribution to begin and for "the current airport chaos to settle dow n,

and security forces to be better strategically placed throughout this devas tated

city. In addition, it was agreed that the displaced, who lived in Port-au-P rince,

>should be evacuated first," she said.

The group is safe and staying at the Feed My Sheep Ministry Base in Montrou is,

a town of about 40,000 people in a "very poor" area 70 miles up the norther n

coastline of Haiti. "These young men are choosing to continue the tree plan ting/

drip irrigation project that they had originally planned to do in addition  to

helping with local clean-up efforts," Longenecker's report said. Other Amer icans

at the Feed My Sheep Ministry Base include directors Bev and Richard Felmey

and a young adult longterm volunteer Leah Bomberger.

Since Montrouis was spared major damage from the earthquake, life there is

going forward somewhat normally, Longenecker said. "However...there is

incredible sadness as people learn more about the extensive damage and loss

of life just 70 miles away. In the midst of this sadness, many churches in

Montrouis are having 24-hour prayer services."

She also expressed concern that the crisis in Port-au-Prince will make gett ing

essential supplies for Montrouis an even larger task and more expensive.

"We were also just informed that many people are coming up the coast from

Port-au-Prince to be with their families or to just get away from the situa tion.

The needs in Montrouis for basic supplies will be an issue as the week goes

>forward."

She asked for prayers "for Haitians and missions throughout the country.

Thank you for praying for the safe return of Trevor, Mark, Ty, and Ben.

Continue to pray too for Haiti, a country filled with wonderful people

>who are again experiencing tragedy."

>--------------------------

Newsline is produced by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, director of news services

for the Church of the Brethren, cobnews@brethren.org or 800-323-8039 ext. 2 60.

Jeff Boshart, Irvin Heishman, Carol A. Hulver, Howard Royer, Roy Winter

contributed to this report. Newsline stories may be reprinted if Newsline i s

>cited as the source.