Haiti Earthquake Relief Efforts

 

  

Dear friends of Healing Hands,

 

Over the past few days, we have been overwhelmed with the compassion of people like you who have called our offices inquiring how they can help with the incredible disaster in Haiti.  Although each of us has seen photographs and video of the devastation, it is really difficult to imagine the numbers of lives that have been lost and the severity of injuries sustained.   Healing Hands International is moving quickly to respond.

We have already wired money to areas of Haiti where food can be purchased and distributed to people who are in the worst areas of the earthquake, and we are in touch with brethren in Haiti who will assist us in distribution.  Our first assessment team arrived in Haiti this past Saturday.  They are taking additional funds and will be distributing water filters which will provide clean water for approximately 12,000 people.  The filters are capable of filtering 300 gallons of water daily, removing bacteria related to Cholera, Botulism, Typhoid, and Amoebic Dysentery.   More filters will be needed immediately.  Without help, contaminated water will cause more deaths in the long term than the earthquake.

 

Dr. David Vanderpool, a member of the Harpeth Hills church of Christ and a board member with Mission Lazarus in Honduras, has been treating Haitian patients for the past week.  Through Mission Lazarus, Healing Hands International has secured $300,000 in medicines being shipped to Haiti.

 

Our immediate plans are to approach this disaster in four phases:

 

Phase One: Through the help of several brethren around the world, we now have contacts within
Haiti who will help with distribution of food, water, water filters, tents, and medical supplies.   Our assessment team on the ground will be able to discover the greatest needs and how  these needs can be filled once shipments begin.

 

Phase Two: We are collecting medicine and medical supplies to be shipped to areas of greatest need.  Volunteer medical teams will be sent when possible.

 

Phase Three: Through past experience, we know that building materials will be scarce and prices will be high.  Healing Hands will attempt to acquire selected building materials to be shipped   at a later date.  Clinics, schools, and orphanages will have first priority.

 

Phase Four: Micro business and sustainable food workshops will be conducted. 

 

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Update on Roberta Edwards Roberta Edwards, missionary to Haiti and administrator of the Son Light Children's Home in Port au Prince, was featured in the January / February 2010 issue of Christian Woman magazine (see below). Roberta is sponsored by the Estes Church of Christ in Henderson, Tenn. Please see their website for regular updates on Roberta, her family and the children's home in light of the recent earthquake in Haiti (www.estes.tn.org). Roberta was not in Haiti when the earthquake struck. But as of Monday, Jan. 18, 2010, she had returned to Port au Prince and had been reunited with her children. Their house appears intact, and they have a supply of water from their well