Haiti Quake - Day 5
Mon, 2010-01-18 00:57 — jgoode
It is now late Sunday night, and after reading some of the many e-mail messages you have sent us (over 700 showed up in my Inbox after we started to get an Internet connection yesterday), I thought that it be best that I post a brief report on some of the relief operations that have been going on.
The large open air Assembly Hall located on the Branch property in Santo is serving as a base for our relief operations since the earthquake on Tuesday. A relief committee was immediately established after the event, and provides the coordination and direction for all relief operations. The disruption of communication services (telephone, mobile phone & Internet) for the first four days complicated the challenge of determining the needs and offering assistance for our brothers and sisters. Due to that, It was necessary to drive 1 ½ hours to the border town of Jimani twice a day to be able to establish contact to the outside during the critical hours after the earthquake.
Our worldwide brotherhood responded immediately, and aid to the victims was extended. To date, we have received 22 tons of relief supplies. Intense effort by 20 members of the Bethel family, Ministerial Training School students, and other volunteers was combined to prepare care packages for the needy. Today, food provisions for 620 persons were sent out to selected Kingdom Halls. This makes a total of 8,580 people fed to-date under the relief operations.
Dozens of volunteers are helping also to care for the injured victims in a section that serves as a clinic. Today, the clinic treated 48 patients, bringing the total to 170. We presently have 9 medical doctors and 12 nurses that are Jehovah's Witnesses that have traveled into Haiti to offer medical care. Several Branch Offices have offered additional assistance to care for the injured.
Seven more patients were evacuated today to the town of Jimani in the Dominican Republic, where hospital centers are treating the injured, making a total of 32 patients that we have sent there since Day 1. A group of brothers and sisters from different parts of that land have volunteered to come to this town to identify and assist any Jehovah's Witness patients that arrive from across the border, and ensure that they receive needed care.
On a sad note, the loss of life among our brothers has now risen to 117, with another 21 reported missing.
We thank you for your expressions of love and interest you show towards our dear brothers and sisters here in Haiti, and mostly we thank you for the prayers you offer to Jehovah on our behalf!
As time permits, we will give you more updates and share some interesting experiences and stories.
Love, John & Marie
Reported by http://a.thomazeau.org/node/49