Samaritans Purse

Samaritan’s Purse teams are working with local churches to deliver emergency relief supplies to earthquake victims.

Samaritan’s Purse teams are working with a network of pastors to distribute critically-needed relief supplies for victims of the massive earthquake that rocked Haiti last week.

We have set up a network of pastors to distribute supplies such as hygiene kits, plastic for shelters, blankets, and solar flashlights to beneficiaries located in and around Port-au-Prince. This distribution network is expected to provide aid to at least 300 families per day.

A 6.1-magnitude aftershock rocked Haiti on Wednesday morning, frightening people still struggling to recover from the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated the impoverished country January 12

The aftershock isn’t expected to interfere with the relief work, as our teams continue to focus on providing temporary shelter, non-food items such as blankets and hygiene kits, medical, and clean water.

We set up a community water filter at a university west of the town of Carrefour on the southern peninsula on Monday, where there are 20,000 displaced people. The team plans to set up an additional two or three community water filters in the area and to follow up with distributions of hygiene kits and other non-food items.

We also purchased 10 tons of staple foods such as beans and rice to distribute to orphanages.

Doctors and nurses with Samaritan’s Purse and from HCJB Global, our ministry partner, continue to alleviate suffering from survivors of the quake. We have 17 medical personnel at the Baptist Haiti Mission hospital, including Dr. Bill Frist, former Majority Leader of the United States Senate, and Dr. Dick Furman, co-founder of World Medical Mission.

“The medical need in Haiti is desperate—in particular for surgeons,” Dr. Frist said. “Having responded in this capacity just after the tsunami in Sri Lanka and four days after the levees broke following Katrina, I decided to join fellow physicians from Samaritan’s Purse in Haiti.”

Among the patients being treated was Joeanne, a 9-year-old girl who had a bed on the floor in one of the hospital corridors. Her right hand was heavily bandaged, but her face was filled with smiles even though she had lost a finger. Sadly, Joanne’s mother, Agathe, broke down in tears. Two of her four children died in the earthquake.

A chaplain from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association shared the Gospel with Joeanne and her mother, and shed tears of his own when both of them prayed to receive Christ.

Medical staff arriving Wednesday will begin working at a hospital run by Double Harvest ministry approximately half an hour east of Port-au-Prince, near the town of Croix des Bouquets.

On Sunday, Samaritan’s Purse workers installed a high-capacity water filtration unit at the Baptist Haiti Mission. The community filter will provide safe, clean water for patients and staff at the 100-bed hospital and the mission. The filter and the installation came just in time, as the water supply was running very low in the aftermath of the devastating quake.

“With so many people in the hospital it is critical that we have water,” said Deborah Baker, a staff member at the mission. “Samaritan’s Purse was able to bring in a large water filter. We have a large fish pond and they are going to start filtering the water out of it to be used for drinking water. Praise God for SP for sending this water filter and for sending people to set it up, and oversee it. This is going to be a huge blessing to have more clean drinking water.”

Samaritan’s Purse also is sending in a barge that will transport heavy equipment, large trucks for transporting equipment and fuel, 5,000 rolls of plastic, and other emergency items.

Conditions remain dire in Haiti one week after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the country.

“The destruction is complete,” said Dr. David Gettle, medical advisor. “People are afraid to go back into their homes that may be standing because of fear of aftershocks. These people do not have shelter. Pray for the people in Haiti. Pray for the response. Pray for those who are here, and those who are coming.”

Samaritan’s Purse deployed a disaster response team just hours after one of the strongest earthquakes to hit the Caribbean in decades to help with water, shelter, medical care, and other emergency needs.

“The damage is staggering in a nation where three out of four people live on less than $2 a day,” Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham said. “The people of Haiti need our help like never before. It is desperate. We pray for the people of Haiti, that God would comfort those that have lost so much.”

The massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake was the strongest to hit the country in 200 years and was felt as far away as Cuba. The tremor sparked widespread panic as it brought down buildings including the presidential palace, hotels, a hospital, and the UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince.

As many as 200,000 are thought to have been killed, 1.5 left homeless, and three million affected overall.

“This is a historic disaster,” UN spokesman Elisabeth Byrs said. “We have never been confronted with such a disaster in the UN memory. It is like no other.”

Security concerns and the scope of the disaster make this a challenging response.

“It’s going to take a miracle, but God is in the miracle business,” Graham said.

WAYS YOU CAN HELP

PRAY:

• That people would get the help they need as quickly as possible.
• For our team’s physical, mental, and emotional welfare as they face many challenges through the days.
• For wisdom in determining the most effective response to this disaster.

Posted with tags: good samaritan , haiti , samaritan's purse on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 9:14 pm and is filed under Emergency Relief. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.