04 Mar $120,000 Donated for Haiti Relief So Far

To date, Global Ministries has received $120,000 for relief in Haiti. Of that money:

• $57,000 has been forwarded to Samaritan’s Purse.
• $40,000 has been forwarded to CH Global.
• The remainder is being set aside to assist in reconstruction efforts among our UB churches and members when the opportunity avails itself.

In addition, contributions have been given directly to our superintendent, Rev. Oliam Richard, by our national conferences in Jamaica, Honduras, and Canada.

Please pray for Rev. Richard. He is experiencing some health problems, a result of existing leg problems plus being seriously run-down by the overwhelming demands he has faced since the earthquake.

Here is a recent update from Jose Nunez, regional director for CH Global, whose work is conducted in Haiti exclusively in partnership with our UB churches.

Though devastation, anarchy and suffering rule the land at this moment, the presence of God is evident within the spirit of the Haitian people. There are stories upon stories of survival and of spiritual re-birth within the broken area of Port-au-Prince.

Now more than ever, the children are longing for a sense of normalcy in their lives, and this program will certainly alleviate the physiological trauma that they and their parents have been undergoing. Working along with the Sybert United Brethren Church, a school program will be initiated on March 1.

As for the daycare program we intended to initiate prior to the earthquake, we along with Pastor Oliam Richard and Elsa (program director and member of the Delmas United Brethren Church), concluded the best and most beneficial option would be to implement it in Delmas. It would be the same idea as what was previously proposed for Cite Soliel, except that it will no longer be executed as a afterschool tutoring program, but rather as a primary daycare school program benefiting the children of Delmas, which was one of the areas most heavily affected by the earthquake.

The church in Delmas did not collapse–unlike the church in Cite Soleil, where we were hoping to implement the program. This unfortunate event, along with the lack of security, was essential to our decision to geographically move the program to the UB church in Delmas.

The sponsored children have been receiving, and will continue to receive, their sponsorship aid. Food and relief supplies have been distributed among these families from funds supplied from UB churches in Canada and the United States. Haitian UB pastors have played an important role in the distribution and administration of relief supplies.

Currently I am working in partnership with a US-based organization that will be sending a team of physicians to Port-au-Prince by the end of March. They have assured me that upon arriving in Haiti, they will schedule to meet all the children in our programs at a specific site and on a specific day. The purpose is  to diagnosed, treat, and further refer any ill children to other medical organizations in Port-au-Prince.