Haiti Earthquake Response
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March 20 Update on OM's Haiti Involvement |
For the last two weeks, we have had an eight-member medical team ministering in a local clinic and assisting in mobile clinics, seeing hundreds of patients. Additionally, our team continues with regular food distributions to many orphanages.
We have also been working with a group of churches from the US to determineif there is the potential for a partnership with a church in a rural area outside of Port-au-Prince (PAP).
In recent days, a business contact from Jamaica, introduced by OM, has been meeting with government leaders in Haiti. They are discussing the possibility of helping establish poultry businesses through church communities and orphanages. This project has great potential if it can be launched.
A team of three women from OM's ship, Logos Hope, are scheduled to arrive in PAP on March 21 to provide training for teens in orphanages. The women will teach them how to develop and run ongoing children's programs. This will be a hands-on training program as the team visits various orphanages and conducts programs for the kids.
Logistics are coming together for a team of 33 Americans going to PAP to minister to children April 2-7, as well as another medical team scheduled for April 13-18.
OM's US office will ship a 40-foot container of supplies to Haiti during the week of March 22. Please pray with us for easy clearance through customs in Haiti.
Thank you for your prayers and support. |
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March 7 Update on OM’s Haiti Involvement |
During the first week of March, a couple sent by the OM office in the Netherlands helped our work in Haiti. He is a structural engineer and inspected several buildings including orphanages, churches and some houses. He provided reports with recommendations on each. The wife is a psychologist, and she met with hundreds of adults and children, helping them process their reactions to the earthquake and the pain of their losses.
At the end of the week, an eight-member medical team sent from OM's staff in Uruguay arrived to assist. They are helping to serve a volunteer medical clinic and also are visiting orphanages and doing clinics for the children.
Our team continues to deliver food to various locations. At OM’s office in the USA, staff are collecting some specific food and hygiene items and some shelter items to fill a shipping container. After this shipment, we will focus on obtaining food and supplies within Haiti to help stimulate the local economy.
OM's Caribbean team is grateful for the funds they continue to receive from various OM offices around the world. |
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February 19 Update on OM’s Haiti Involvement |
On February 16 we sent a team six people from the USA into Haiti to continue our work there. The team included a nurse, two women to work with children at an orphanage, and three people to work on distributing food, water and other supplies to orphanages and their surrounding communities. We were able to send 4,000 pounds of supplies into Haiti with the team.
The women who went to one orphanage spent time with the children and tried to help alleviate their fear of going back inside their building, which has been inspected by an engineer and deemed safe. One of the women stayed overnight, sleeping in the building to convince the children that it’s safe to sleep inside.
The nurse worked with a Christian medical clinic operating in the area. They are seeing approximately 500 to 600 people per day, praying with each one in addition to giving medical care. The rest of the team visited five orphanages where they distributed sheets, blankets and food. On that one day, they touched the lives of 751 children along with many adults the orphanages are helping.
On Monday, February 22, a structural engineer and a psychologist will arrive in Haiti to work with OM. We are also arranging the final details for an eight-member medical team to come from Uruguay on February 28 for two weeks of ministry. |
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February 10 Update on OM’s Haiti Involvement |
The needs in Haiti are no longer the top story in the daily news. However, they are just a real as they were in the first days after the earthquake. Daily survival is a challenge for tens of thousands of Haitians.
OM’s Caribbean staff continue to work at providing food and water to a growing number of orphanages and communities. We had a medical team and logistics team working in the country during the last week. Additionally, we had a structural engineer help us for a few days. We now have three nationals helping us in country, including one former OMer.
We are currently working on the logistics for another medical team--a team that specializes in trauma counseling and in training leaders in this area--and another structural engineer to come into Haiti to assist us.
The biggest issues continue to be finding sources of food and water for those in need, and finding appropriate vehicles.
We are grateful for the gifts we have received. Thank you for standing with us as we show the love of Christ to a hurting people. Please continue to keep the people of Haiti in your prayers. |
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January 29 Update on OM’s Haiti Involvement |
It has now been 17 days since the earthquake struck Haiti. We have been able to send staff into the country, and they helped get food to a number of orphanages and surrounding communities. They also helped injured people get medical care.
The focus of our ministry is taking shape. There is a network of orphanages concentrated in the southern areas of Port-au-Prince that we will focus on in our response. We have been able to help three of them at this point and have made contact with two others that are totally destroyed. We have a shipment of supplies scheduled to go in on Tuesday, February 2, as well as a few more people. We are putting systems in place for the receiving, storing and delivery of relief supplies.
Our immediate focus will be to provide shelter so that the children will no longer have to sleep on the ground, as Haiti’s rainy season will begin soon. We are looking for structural engineers to inspect remaining buildings and determine what will be needed to stabilize them for future use.
We appreciate your continuing prayers as we develop and implement plans for helping. |
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January 21 Update on OM’s Haiti Involvement |
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The emergency response team members in Haiti were unharmed by the strong aftershock on Wednesday morning. They made contact with the only one of the three orphanages which had not been visited up to that point. That orphanage has approximately 135 children, all of whom are safe but in need of food and shelter. They are living outside because of some damage to their buildings. The team was able to get some food for them, and we will begin working on getting tents and plastic to use as shelter. All of those we are helping were unharmed by the aftershock.
We are experiencing as much difficulty getting people out of Haiti as we had getting the team into the country. The team plans to leave on Saturday, and the US church we have partnered with in these efforts is working to send another team at that time.
We are currently working on obtaining a larger shipment of food, water and supplies for sending to Haiti at a later date. We hope to have a clearer plan for our ongoing response in the next week. |
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January 19 Update on OM's Involvement in Haiti |
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The emergency response team, sent to Haiti by OM USA, in partnership with a local US church, was diverted to the Dominican Republic. They have been traveling by land, have crossed the border into Haiti and are expected to reach their destination soon. Despite a registration procedure with the military controlling flights into Port-au-Prince, air travel into the country is still very difficult. The team had been given a confirmed landing time for Haiti, yet the air space was closed and they were sent to the Dominican Republic.
We have had contact with another of the three orphanages we are seeking to help. Their children are unharmed. The building sustained minor damage, but because of concerns about having the children living outside on the street, they continue to keep them inside. Please pray for their protection and that the building continues to stand safely. They have enough food to last through the weekend, but as with the first orphanage, food and water remain the most urgent needs.
In addition, the OM USA staff member who has been in the country since Saturday was able to complete the process for getting a 12-year-old girl out of Haiti for adoption by a family in the US. Her adoption had been in process prior to the earthquake. The governments involved have agreed to move quickly to speed up these adoptions, so the OMer was able to finalize her paperwork. She is now awaiting a flight out of the country to her new home. |
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January 18 Update on OM’s Haiti Involvement |
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A member of OM’s USA team arrived in Port-au-Prince on Saturday morning (Jan. 16) and made his way to an orphanage in Carrefour (just outside Port-au-Prince) which OM has helped in the past. He reports that the devastation in that area is perhaps worse than in the capital city, yet no help has arrived so far. He has been able to obtain enough food for the orphanage for a few days, and their water tank may have enough water to last through the week, as well. Today, we are sending a trained emergency response team from the US, led by a former OMer. They are scheduled to arrive tonight (Monday) and will join the staff member in Carrefour. In addition to any immediate search and rescue efforts, the team will work on providing water for the orphanage. Beyond the 119 children who live there, the orphanage is also sheltering approximately 300 people from the immediate area.
Please pray for the emergency response team, and pray that this small team will be able to bring help in an area of massive need. |
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January 15 Update on OM Involvement in Haiti Relief |
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International media are indicating there is increasing chaos plus safety and security issues in Haiti. OM’s Caribbean staff have explored various possibilities for bringing help, but so far at every turn there are obstacles. It appears that it may be several days before the aid situation in Haiti is settled enough for us to discern what we can do. In addition to difficulties of trying to work in a devastated area, the requirements for getting aid into the country are changing as the international response takes shape. We are eager to give help, particularly to those we have relationship with. We do not have the manpower or training to be part of the initial emergency response, but we will be involved in the ongoing relief and development. |
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