January 17, 2010 – Port-au-Prince, Haiti…[Libna Stevens/IAD]
As the world takes action in the aftermath of the destructive earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is also moving into action to bring relief to surviving church members and to find thousands more who are missing.
“We know that many of our church members have perished from this tragedy,” said Dr. Elie Henry, vice president of the church in Inter-America, during a brief telephone conversation to top administrators of the Inter-American Division (IAD) headquartered in Miami, Florida. “We just don’t have the number of the deceased yet.”
Dr. Henry, who was in Haiti when the 7.0 magnitude quake struck, has been coordinating efforts with church leaders to search for its missing members in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city, and the hardest hit area of the country.
Money and help began pouring in almost immediately.
“The IAD already began an initial assistance fund of US$100,000 for our brethren [in Haiti] through a plan which works automatically, where the division and unions participate,” said Filiberto Verduzco, treasurer for the church in Inter-America.
According to Verduzco, other Adventist divisions around the world have contributed US$500,000.
So far, the Adventist University campus in Port-au-Prince has opened its gates to the community and has now over 15,000 people taking refuge on its grounds.
“We have ordered 1,000 tents initially to attend to the needs of those taking refuge on our university’s campus,” explained Verduzco.
In addition, a giant tent has been purchased to be set up on the grounds of the Adventist University in Port-au-Prince to aid in medical operations there. The medical staff was forced to move operations outdoors, as the hospital building was damaged by the earthquake.
A Loma Linda University medical team, as well as physicians from Martinique, are scheduled to arrive early this week to aid the understaffed and overworked doctors,” said Elie Honore, MD, health ministries director for the church in Inter-America coordinating medical teams into Haiti.
“The LLU team will be also be transporting medical supplies and medical equipment, including a large autoclave, which has been an ongoing need at the hospital as they must sterilize instrument and surgical linen rapidly for extensive use,” added Honore.
Dr. Honore, who will travel to Haiti this week, said that the medical team will remain in Haiti for two weeks while other medical teams are coordinated to replace them as needed.
In addition, medical doctors from Adventist-operated Montemorelos University medical center in Mexico, flew in today to assist at the hospital.
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International, together with ADRA Inter-America’s assessment team, have already set up a communications center and established water distribution systems in Port-au-Prince.
“The GlobalMedic Team has established a water purification system on the university grounds to service the thousands of refugees camped there,” reported Matt Herzel, technical assistant for Marketing and Development Bureau, ADRA International. The purification is estimated to service 40,000 refugees per day at maximum capacity.
In addition, water purification tablets were distributed through ADRA volunteers to thousands of survivors.
GlobalMedic is also setting up a water purification system at the Adventist Hospital for refugees and patients at its makeshift tent.
Dr. Lesly Archer of the Adventist Hospital in Port-au-Prince said that the hospital is in dire need of IVs, IV fluid, antibiotics, antiseptics, suture kits, gauze and medical tape.
With church members still unaccounted for and extensive damage caused to dozens of Adventist churches throughout the city, top IAD church leaders have canceled any church business trips and focus on the relief efforts.
“We plan to coordinate and establish a way to help our church members and try to evaluate damage to our denominational properties while there,” said Verduzco, who will travel to Haiti with IAD President Pastor Israel Leito.
Verduzco is also coordinating a fund at the Division level with all the unions to help during the rebuilding of churches in Haiti. It’s a pressing concern as church leaders realize that their church members will need the kind of spiritual support churches can offer.
“The church membership in Haiti is one of the most generous in the world,” said Verduzco. “The relation of missionary offering to tithe is 9.5 percent. They are very generous with the world church, so it is time for the world church to be generous with them.”
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America has set up a special fund account specifically to assist church members. Donations may be sent by check to the Inter-American Division, Re: Haiti Catastrophe Fund, 8100 S.W. 117th Avenue, Miami, Florida, 33183.
Donors can contact catastrophefund@interamerica.org and/or send wire transfers click here.
For updated news on Haiti, visit us at https://recursing-golick.147-182-135-0.plesk.page/
