Barefoot Christian Church is excited to get their Hard Goods palette set up today and to prepare for our Rice & Bean Fast this Sunday. We're going to make a short video of our RB Fast to show how easy this is to replicate in your church or family, as well as share testimony about how God is using this to moves our hearts closer to the people of Haiti.
Haiti Update—March 6, 2010 · Heavy rains are dramatically impacting the population in and around Port-au-Prince, as flooding and landslides are occurring in places where displaced people are living. The need for shelter and protection from the rains remain a significant need. Pray for protection from the rains. · Risk of disease is continuing to grow as the rains come and people continue to live in unprotected areas, with concerns about malaria in particular growing. · Geologists are predicting that Haiti could face another severe earthquake as soon as 20 years from now, making earthquake resistant buildings an absolutely necessarily commodity as they rebuild. · Many people in the rural areas have taken in family members and friends who fled Port-au-Prince after the earthquake. This has caused significant food security issues in a group of people already teetering on the edge of hunger. Many have dug into their planting supply of seeds to feed themselves and their growing households. · Presidents Rene Preval and Obama are scheduled to meet next Wednesday. The United States has played a significant role in recovery—with the likelihood that military aid will continue for at least another month alongside aid provided through other foreign assistance mechanisms. World Relief Update General · John O’Kelley, World Relief’s incoming Haiti country director, Stephan Bauman and Paul Rebman will travel to Haiti next week. Pray for their travels and the transition for the staff and the O’Kelley family. · World Relief staff moved into a new office this week. The grounds include office space, a house for the country director, and guest house. Praise the Lord for his provision. Continue to pray as they are working on getting the living spaces ready to be occupied. Water · 23 water truck delivers last week provided 21,000 families with water in Cite Soleil, Delmas and Mais Gate. Each family unit receives five gallons of water. · To date, we have distributed an estimated 316,800 gallons of water. We plan to continue to distribute water until permanent water sources are available. Wells · Six well sites have been identified, including churches, orphanages and schools. These wells will provide ongoing potable water to the community. We are helping to facilitate the formation of community water committees to manage wells on a long-term basis and create ownership. · Four wells have been drilled to date. Two wells are already fully-functional with hand pumps, allowing churches and hospitals to meet tangible needs of patients, congregants, vulnerable children and others in their community. · Hand pumps yield about 175 gallons per hour and submersible pumps give approximately 10 gallons per minute or 600 gallons per hour. Hygiene Kits · World Relief plans to distribute thousands of hygiene kits to people in five camps in the coming weeks. · Already, 1,700 have been purchased and are being packaged in Atlanta to be shipped to Haiti this week. Included in the kits are: soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, toilet paper, detergent, towels, clotheslines, and safety pins. Food · After distributing food in Mais Gate, Delmas and Carrefour to approximately 10,000 individuals per day for the initial weeks after the disaster, we linked our church and community partners into 16 fixed distribution sites run by other international organizations around the capital. · This week, we have purchased 500 bags of rice for distribution to the most vulnerable in communities that are under-served. This is expected to feed 2,500 people for twelve days. Shelter · We distributed 8,000 tarps to ensure protection for 2,000 families primarily in Cite Soleil. We are working in partnership with 66 pastors to register neediest in their communities. Thousands people are currently living on the streets with inadequate shelter. Each family receives 2 high quality overhead tarps and two ground tarps. · To date, we have provided approximately 15,000 individuals with temporary shelter. Agriculture: Partnership with Plant with a Purpose · World Relief is forging a partnership with Plant with a Purpose, a local NGO working in agriculture, to assist in the upcoming planting season in Leogane. We will provide thousands of farmers with high quality seed to replenish supplies diminished by food insecurity. New seeds will ensure they are able to plant during the current planting season and harvest what they need long-term. · Jobs will also be provided for a reforestation program—with plans to plant 350,000 trees in an area largely stripped of vegetation. · This partnership aims to both provide short term jobs as well as promote sustainable agriculture and development in Leogane. Media Resources/Articles Chalmers Center--Haiti: When Helping Hurts Webinar Series World Relief--Haiti Earthquake Center New York Times--“What the Earthquake Did Not Bring Down, the Rains Will” World Relief Haiti— Prayer requests World Relief NEXT--blog updates World Relief Photos Available on Q Drive (for internal World Relief staff use) and on an FTP site Haiti Jobs Communications Officer We are still hiring for a 3 to 6 month post for Communications Officer in Haiti. The position is posted onwww.worldrelief.org/jobs. Thanks for your partnership. I apologize for the delay in getting this update out this week. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with questions. Thanks, Andrea Add Comment |
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