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February 3, 2010

• Work in Haiti continues.  Reports say that most people are having their basic needs—food and water—met.  Temporary shelter is being distributed-but only around 70,000 or the 200,000 to 300,000 families displaced have received tents or tarps.
• More than 480,000 people have left Port-au-Prince for locations outside the city.  More than 90 percent of these people have sought shelter with relatives or friends.  These households—many already teetering on the edge of food insecurity—are at high risk in the coming days and weeks.  The need to target these homes—as well as respond to the needs in Port-au-Prince and other quake affected areas—is significant.
• The plight of Haitian children continues to be a major media focus.  UNICEF estimates there are 375 orphanages hosting 230,000 children in need of support.  It continues to be important to note that because of extreme poverty many face in Haiti, orphanages often house children who have living parents.  After the quake, the United States government is still requiring that all appropriate steps be taken to ensure children do not have living parents or close relatives in Haiti before adoption is considered. The Department of Homeland Security has said, at least until proper legal mechanisms are in place, only adoptions in process before the earthquake can continue. The long term goal is to strengthen and reunite families and enable them to care for their own children.  Continue to pray for the safety and protection of children as well as the reunification of families who have been separated.
• On February 1, schools not affected by the earthquake reopened.  Between 2,500 and 4,600 schools were not able to reopen.  The international community is working quickly to provide school materials, shelter and other necessary goods to benefit more than 720,000 students as soon as possible.
• World Relief’s food distributions are shifting.  The World Food Program is centralizing their distributions through 7 organizations each established to serve the 17 districts in the city.  World Relief is working to ensure those churches and organizations we have been providing food for are transitioned into the new distribution system.  This week, we will continue to provide food at King’s Hospital and a church in Mais Gate. World Relief plans to continue to participate in feeding centers and distributions as we move forward, but the method is likely to change as the situation on the grounds shifts into longer term recovery.  Pray for continued cooperation of organizations on the ground.
• World Relief is distributing water as well as planning for long-term water sources in communities. World Relief’s team has delivered 20 truck loads of water, a total of 64,000 gallons, to displaced quake survivors.   Our long-term plans include partnering with a local Christian organization to drill six boreholes—each around 100 feet deep—in  targeted communities.  These, costing about $7000 to drill, will be equipped with submersible pumps and provide a sustainable water supply in each community.  To read more about churches and communities involved in water distribution, click here.
• World Relief secured the donation of 2,000 tarps—which will be distributed to vulnerable families this week.  We will continue to access additional tarps in the coming weeks.
• In the United States, World Relief’s local offices are mobilizing to provide support for Haitians seeking Temporary Protective Status enabling them to work and travel in the United States.  World Relief’s Stephan Bauman, Amy Tenney and Jenny Hwang will join other organizations tomorrow in a briefing on Capitol Hill.

Stories/Quotes from Haiti
“This will make a very big difference,” says Pastor Pierre Alexis, head of the orphanage that is home to nearly 60 children that is receiving a borehole.  “We are planning to invite people from the community to come and get water here.  It is important to show people the real Jesus – the One who cares not only for their body, but also for their soul.  If you follow Jesus, you must show it through your actions, not just say it.”

Read the story of Rene, a patient at King’s Hospital

Coming Soon

• A brief video, with footage primarily from the hospital will be posted tomorrow.  Thanks to our friends at Medical Teams International for their partnership and for sharing the footage with us.
• Additional stories and photos from the field.

Haiti Jobs

Communications Officer
We are continuing to recruit for a Communications Officer.  Joanna Mayhew has agreed to step in for much of the month of February while we continue our search.  Joanna speaks French, has worked with our Haiti staff extensively, and is a great communicator.  We are grateful to Debbie and the team for allowed her to be deployed for a few weeks.  The job description for the Communications Officer is available at www.worldrelief.org/jobs.  Please be praying for her as she prepares to go, wraps up a number of other projects, then plans to jump right back into her HIV/AIDS and MYFL roles when she returns.  

Haiti Country Director
We are also continuing to recruit for our Haiti country director.  For the job description, visit www.worldrelief.org/jobs.

Future Communication
We are transitioning to weekly updates from the Communications team.  As you have seen, things on the ground are not changing as quickly as they were in the initial days and even weeks immediately following the earthquake.  We are still working hard to compile and make information available to you—both in terms of our programmatic response and complementary metrics as well as stories and photos of churches and individuals who are partnering with us and serving their communities.

Staff Transition
Paul Rebman, Warren Wright and Francesco Paganini will all travel out of Haiti by Monday.  Lawren Sinnema and Jeff Demers will arrive in Haiti on Sunday, February 6th.  Please be in prayer for the transition, their travel and their work.  Pray for rest for the team returning to Baltimore and for strength and perseverance for Jeff and Lawren—both of who have been working tirelessly on the response from the United States since the earthquake hit.

January 27, 2010

• A teenage girl was rescued from the rubble of her school on Wednesday—15 days after the earthquake struck.
• Across sectors—health care, food, sanitation, etc., aid workers are expressing signs of transition from meeting the most basic emergency needs.  While continuing to provide food, shelter and water, responders are moving into primary care support, nutrition and other rehabilitation and recovery activities.
• Unaccompanied children continue to be a huge concern.  Child protection groups are working hard to ensure children are well-cared for and that every avenue to reunite them with their families is taken.  There are considerable dangers of children being trafficked intentionally or accidentally separated from their families.  Local and international authorities are scaling up efforts to ensure children do not become victims of trafficking. In Haiti, even before the earthquake, extreme poverty led some parents to take their children to orphanages for care.  After the quake, the United States government is still requiring that all appropriate steps be taken to ensure children do not have living parents or close relatives in Haiti before adoption is considered.  The long term goal is to strengthen and reunite families and enable them to care for their own children.  Pray for children—incredibly vulnerable as people are displaced.  Pray for their protection from abuse or negligence.  Pray for reunification with their families who have been separated.  (More Details and the U.S. government press release attached as OPC Public Statement 100127.doc)
• World Relief received 60 tons of food—beans, rice, oil and salt—from the World Food Program on Wednesday.  This will allow local churches and organizations to serve more than 110,000 meals in the next few days.
• Even before the earthquake, roughly only half of Haitians had access to clean water.  World Relief is working on a number of water projects as well as distributing packaged water.  Water remains a significant need—including long term, sustainable access to water in communities.  World Relief is working with partners to drill bore holes and insert submersible pumps.  The hope is to establish five water points each serving around 500 people from the surrounding community in the coming weeks.
• World Relief plans to provide shelter in the coming weeks—initially working to get 5,000 temporary housing tarps or tents to distribute in communities.
• In the coming days, we are hoping to begin providing emotional and psychosocial support to our staff in Haiti.  Psychosocial support will continue to be a significant need in the coming months. Please pray for the people grieving for lost loved ones and who are experiencing the effects of trauma.

Resources

• Stories from the field on the web(attached here as well)
• Blog/Updates from Ray and Julian in Haiti

Communications Team

The team has been in Haiti since Tuesday.  They are gathering stories and photos featured on our homepage.  Matt Smith is keeping a blog at www.worldreliefnext/blog.   We encourage you to follow their progress on twitter.  They are posting pictures and updates as they go. 

Julian:www.twitter.com/kookielukie

Ray: www.twitter.com/pixelpooch

Matt: www.twitter.com/worldreliefNEXT

January 21 Haiti Update

• Search and rescue teams continue to rescue people from the rubble, include a 5-year-old boy found 8 days after the earthquake happened.    More than 140 people—an unprecendented number in a relief effort—have been rescued.  Praise the Lord for these lives spared.  Continue to pray that people will be found.
• In partnership with the Global Relief Alliance (GRA), World Relief submitted a concept note to begin the process to secure OFDA funding. 
• A pregnant woman named Thamar whose legs were crushed when a building fell on her during the quake.  But she survived, found her way to a hospital where her leg was casted, and gave birth to a baby boy in the aftermath of the earthquake.  She named him Jesula, “Jesus is here”.   (photo on website) 
• The team was in Leogan yesterday, assessing the situation and building on existing church relationships, with plans to expand our response efforts into the area soon.
• One church in Carrefour has become a spontaneous IDP camp.  The pastor, Jean Bathard Anthony, a World Relief partner, had begun feeding and serving the community inside even with very limited resources.  World Relief has come alongside them and offered them food and water to continue to serve both their congregation and the surrounding community—nearly 6,000 people in all—that has taken refuge within their walls.
• We have expanded our feeding program to serve 8,700 people hot meals two times a day in four churches.  We will be expand further to reach 9,500 over the weekend.
• Our first submersible water pumps arrived today.  These should be up and running soon.
• More than 40 aftershocks, including on with a 5.9 magnitude yesterday, have occurred since the quake.  For people already on edge, this aftershock caused many to flee their homes and even the city of Port-au-Prince. Experts say these are likely to continue for weeks. Pray that people living in fear and still sleeping outside would find peace.
• Thanks to pipelines outside of the larger systems, we are able to get supplies, including medical supplies, fuel and food when other pipelines are jammed. Praise the Lord for our partnership with Medical Teams International and connections in the Dominican Republic.
• Stephan also expressed that he felt the response had turned a corner in the past 24 hours, gaining more traction and coordination. Continue to pray for those who are not being reached by aid yet, that food, water and shelter would soon be available to everyone.
• Thanks to a local electrician and fuel from the Dominican Republic, we have a generator up and running at King’s Hospital and our temporary office, which increases the doctor’s ability to provide care and our staff’s ability to get work done.

Friday, January 15, 2010 – Email sent from Dr. Morquette, Director of World Relief’s office in Haiti

Hello,

We made it back home this morning and our internet service is finally functional.

As you may have seen on television, Port‐au‐Prince is in total despair. The major government institutions have crumbled the Presidential Palace, the Internal Revenue Service, College Bird’s primary School, etc.

Many, yes many have indeed died, cabinet members, evangelical preachers as well as those of the Catholic faith have perished, to include the Archbishop of Port‐au‐Prince. It is a major catastrophe. We have been spared from the devastation as our house remained strong. The hospital has suffered a few cracks, but we believe that it is structurally sound as the cement foundation and pillars remained intact. However, our clinic in Nazon was not as fortunate and collapsed.

We opened the hospital since Wednesday morning. We have treated hundreds of injuries as well as countless open and closed fractures. We work all day and late into the night as patients continue to flock our facility. There is a lot of suffering and we go above and beyond trying to save lives, but at times they still succumb to their injuries.

We bless the Lord’s name for the medical supplies that we have received over the past couple of months which have enabled us to render care to our numerous patients.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as our patients experience both physical and psychological trauma. My fellow countrymen and women now live on the streets and/or their respective yards, me included, as we all fear that subsequent aftershocks may destroy our homes. We pray that this fear quickly dissipates. We desperately need Surgeons, Orthopedics, anesthesiologists and Nurses; we are in dire need of antibiotics and analgesics.

We pray that we have sufficient fuel to operate our vehicles and generators.

We are extremely delighted to have been able to help so many people, to have been able to talk to them, to alleviate their pain and to give them the comfort.

Forward this message to our other friends.

Friday, January 15, 2010

This just in from Lawren Sinnema, Disaster Response Team Member:

I (Lawren Sinnema) was able to talk with Stephan Bauman, SVP of Programs, World Relief and Warren Wright, Disaster Response Team Member, World Relief on our satellite phone. Here is how World Relief is currently responding to the disaster:

1. World Relief is providing urgent medical care to hundreds of patients each day at Kings Hospital, Port‐au‐Prince, Haiti
2. World Relief has set up a feeding center with a local church ‐we are provided hot meals to hundreds of people every day.
3. Both the medical and feeding center services will be scaled up in the coming days, and World Relief will be coordinating our efforts with partner organizations.
4. World Relief is working with our local church partners to set up additional centers to provide food and other non‐food items.

Stephan Bauman, SVP of Programs, World Relief described the situation in Port‐au‐Prince, Haiti as secure. There are some UN police on duty providing security. This is good news. There were several violent tremors last night. People are still sleeping outside. Please pass this info on to others who are not copied here.

Friday, January 15, 2010

A lot has happened today.

• Francesco and Esther arrived with food, water and basic supplies for our team.
• The team procured water and food locally to begin distribution from King’s Hospital and local churches.
• Dr. Morquette and Dr. Gwan provided their medical expertise at King’s Hospital—treating hundreds of patients suffering cuts, bruises and broken bones.
• A Global Relief Alliance call happened. World Relief will be coordinating with our GRA partners. More details on that will come in time.
• Paul Rebman returned from Darfur for the weekend, he will head to Haiti on Monday.
• The FAA announced that commercial flights into Haiti will not start up again for up to 30 days.

Friday, January 15, 2010

We received a bit more information from Francesco that I know many of you wanted in hand as soon as possible regarding the cost breakdown of the food we are distributing.

We had one feeding center up and running today, two more will hopefully begin serving tomorrow (Saturday). Volunteers from local churches are doing the cooking and the serving. We are prioritizing women, children and the injured patients at the hospital—the most vulnerable.

Feeding a person two meals a day—lunch and dinner—costs less than $2.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Francesco and Esther left on an 8:10 AM flight this morning to Puerto Rico, then Santa Domingo. Once they arrive, plans are still up in the air whether they will go over land or try to get on a charter flight. There are some reports of people being waylaid at the border, something to be praying for.

Warren and Stephan are on a charter flight as we speak (to the best of our knowledge) to Port‐au‐Prince. They hope to be on the ground by mid‐day. They will try the satellite phone then, and hopefully we’ll by up and running communication‐wise soon after. Please pray this flight does go through and lands in Port au Prince. Pray for safety as they travel.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Stephan and Warren have landed in Port au Prince. Thanks for praying. We are still channeling all communication through Lawren at this point, and we’ll keep you posted as things develop.

Stephan says the situation on the ground is pretty dire. There is not much relief coming in, they managed to get on a smaller charter plane which was given clearance to land. Some of the larger planes are now being allowed to land. There is no fuel in the city, but traffic is still pretty horrible. There is also no food or water in the city. All Americans are clamoring outside the airport trying to get out. He said, “The situation is pretty desperate and chaotic.”

Their goal today is to connect with staff, and they’re heading to the office then to Hubert’s house to do that.

Please keep praying for them, that they would get in touch with our staff very soon and begin to assess what our response could be. Pray also for Francesco and Esther, trying to get in over land. You can track his progress via twitter.

Follow Francesco on Twitter

http://twitter.com/Fpaganini1

Thursday, January 14, 2010 – Text sent from Stephan Bauman, SVP of Programs, who is on the ground in Port‐au‐Prince, Haiti

“Back. Dire. Scores perhaps hundreds of bodies strewn on sides of roads. No business open. Some places more than half of buildings down. Other sections less. WR Office severely damaged not habitable. No staff there. Heading to Morquettes [Dr. Morquette, Haiti Country Director] house now. Whoever comes should bring water and food for team.”

Thursday, January 14, 2010

It has been a pretty busy day both for the staff getting into Haiti as well as for the staff here at HQ.

The situation on the ground, if you are following Stephan’s twitter updates (see info below) seems heartbreaking. Our office has collapsed, the second floor fallen onto the first. 38 out of 40 of our staff are accounted for. Continue to pray for the additional two, Dr. Nicholas and Luma, who hadn’t been heard from yet.

Francesco and Esther are on their way with supplies for our staff, at least. There will be more specific plans in the next couple of days in terms of our assessment and plan moving forward. The latest news that I saw was that no additional planes are being allowed to land in Port‐au‐Prince.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

We are responding. The staff we are aware of are fine, but we have not accounted for all our staff. Continue to pray that our staff will be safe and for freedom from fear in the midst of additional aftershocks.

The office does not have electricity or all services. Most phone services are down, so getting in touch with our staff on the ground is difficult at best.

Commercial flights are cancelled, airports are closed. Missionary Flight International, out of Florida, is hoping to continue to fly. Warren Wright has plans to go down as soon as possible. Pray that he is able to find a way into the country and the best mechanism for ensuring emergency goods are delivered to those in need.

We are assuming that this is a major deal requiring a major response. More than 3 million affected, according to the Red Cross. Pray for the people in Haiti.

Dr. Morquette [the director of World Relief’s office in Haiti] is planning to go into work in the hospital, responding to emergency needs. He will not likely be the primary point person for information.

Stephan [Stephan Bauman, World Relief’s SVP of Programs] will send out a list of roles and responsibilities by mid‐day today, outlining who the media contact people are and outlining additional responsibilities in our response in Haiti. Pray for Stephan and the DR Team, for perseverance and wisdom and rest.

Likely immediate interventions: Food, water, blankets, emergency packets, medicines (working with partners like MAP, MTI)

Long term work: Rehabilitation: Water/sanitation, housing, etc.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Warren Wright, Francesco Paginini, Stephan Bauman and Esther Gwan will be heading to Haiti either this evening or first thing tomorrow morning.

Strategic Giving Opportunities for Haiti Relief Efforts
Compiled by Excellence in Giving’s Senior Research Analyst Dr. Paul Penley
WORLD RELIEF (http://www.worldrelief.org/)

Rationale: The day after the earthquake WR’s country director Dr. Hubert Morquette was performing surgeries at King’s Hospital in PAP as WR staff began organizing themselves. Within 72 hours WR added relief experts to their 40-person Haiti staff, set up the first of many feeding centers, and shipped in clean water and additional supplies from the DR. World Relief has years of experience in disaster relief, an indigenous staff that has been living in Haiti, strategic partnerships (with MAP Intl, World Concern, HOPE Intl, Tearfund, Medical Teams Intl, etc.), and a stable functioning office inside Port au Prince to direct the relief efforts. They have been designated as the lead organization for this disaster on behalf of the Integral Alliance of relief organizations (http://www.integralalliance.org/). Their work will maximize the compassionate outreach of Haitian churches, and they are committed to ongoing community development in Haiti in partnership with churches for years to come. Due to their partnerships with other organizations and community members, their initial funding needs are lower than other pure disaster response efforts, but they will continue to invest millions in ongoing relief and recovery efforts if funding is available.

Read the Entire Article Here