wfn.org | Newsline: DR Brethren begin aid effort, share concern for relatives in Haiti

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl

Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

DR BRETHREN BEGIN AID EFFORT, SHARE CONCERN FOR

>RELATIVES IN HAITI

(Jan. 29, 2010) Elgin, IL -- Many members of Iglesia de los Hermanos

(Church of the Brethren in the Dominican Republic) who are of Haitian

background have been seeking ways to get words of encouragement and

support to family affected by the earthquake in Port-au-Prince. The DR

Brethren also have begun working to support hospitals in their communities

that have been treating Haitians wounded in the earthquake.

With limited resources, many Haitian-Dominican Brethren are joining

together to send people to go to Port-au-Prince on their behalf. Those

chosen to go as representatives of the group are given a list of names of

relatives to contact and donations of food and clothing to share with them.

It has been reported in newspapers that over 15,000 wounded from Port-

au-Prince are receiving surgery and medical treatment in overwhelmed

hospitals in the DR. Brethren have begun offering assistance to these

patients and overwhelmed hospital staff, with the support of a grant from

the Church of the Brethren's Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF).

In San Juan de la Maguana, for example, Brethren are distributing hygiene

kits consisting of a towel, undergarments, and toothbrushes to Haitian

patients in their hospital. In Santo Domingo, Brethren are providing 50

>meals a day to patients.

Assistance was also given to a woman who had come from Haiti with her

husband for medical treatment. Her husband did not survive. Grief-stricken,

she didn't have the means to return to Haiti to be with her children, a dil emma

many are facing. She was very grateful for the bus ticket the Brethren

>purchased for her.

Brethren mission staff have been offering airport pick up and overnight

hospitality for several individuals and work teams headed to Haiti for resc ue

and medical work. The need for this will diminish once the Port-au-Prince

airport is opened for commercial traffic, allowing teams to fly directly to

Haiti. Until that is possible, mission staff have been glad to be able to h elp

facilitate land transportation through the DR to Haiti for a number of

>volunteers.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to

continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its

faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist

faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebr ated

its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 125,000 members across the

United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nige ria,

Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

(Irvin Heishman, co-coordinator of the Church of the Brethren mission in th e

>Dominican Republic, contributed this report.)

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

>Director of News Services

>Church of the Brethren

>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120

>800-323-8039 ext. 260

>cobnews@brethren.org