Baptist Global Response

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Despite roadblocks in Haiti – both figurative and physical – the Baptist Global Response assessment team has gathered valuable information to shape a strategic response to the Jan. 12 earthquake and has already provided help for some of the island’s struggling people.

On Jan. 22, the five-member team began their work by trying to gain access to the Port-au-Prince airport in order to meet with other non-government organizational leaders.  But the location is in high demand and access was limited.  After waiting for more than an hour, team member Jim Brown, U.S. director for Baptist Global Response, sent out a prayer request about conditions at the airport.

“God literally sent us an angel,” Brown said.

 Read the rest here.

Do you want your church, Sunday school class, or small group to know how they can help with response to the Haiti earthquake crisis?

Baptist Global Response has a handy full-color flyer you can download for distribution. Reproduce it as a bulletin insert, hand it out as people come in the door, or tack them to bulletin boards all over town!

You can get the PDF document simply by clicking here.

We’re grateful for everything you are doing to help spread the word about the need in Haiti and how God’s people are responding with the love of Christ. The people of Haiti are in desperate straits. We must not miss the opportunity to help them experience God’s love firsthand.

A media team has just returned from Haiti. Very soon we expect to be releasing new feature stories, photos and video fresh from the scene of the disaster. Watch your inbox for an AlertNet e-mail notifying you about the new media or monitor http://gobgr.org. You also can keep up with us on Facebook.

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To donate to BGR’s Haiti disaster response fund, click here.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Conditions on the ground in Haiti are very difficult, a member of Southern Baptists’ joint assessment team reported from Port-au-Prince Jan. 20. A U.S. military commander, however, said important progress has been made on enlarging the conduit for relief shipments into the quake-ravaged island nation.

“We’ve seen quite a bit of damage – more so toward the center of the city,” reported Jim Brown, U. S. director for Baptist Global Response, in a terse e-mail sent from his cell phone. “We’ve helped with a couple of deliveries. Helicopters everywhere. People still being found alive!”

In another report, relayed to a meeting of the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Network, team member Bruce Poss indicated that traffic in Port-au-Prince is terrible and milling crowds are making travel and security serious concerns. He reported seeing 5,000 or more people lined up outside the US Embassy in the capital.

The five-member team delivered relief supplies – water, plastic sheeting, bottled gas, beans, rice, eggs, diesel fuel, canned goods – to a couple of churches and orphanages, Brown said. They were planning to connect with a Florida Baptist assessment team later in the day.

A U.S. military commander said the flow of relief supplies into Haiti would be helped by the opening of three new airfields and the country’s seaport, news services reported. Gen. Douglas Fraser, who heads the U.S. Southern Command, told the Miami Herald newspaper the capital’s seaport would reopen Jan. 21 and could accommodate about 150 shipping containers per day. The port’s capacity is expected to grow to 250 containers per day by Jan. 22.

The main airport in Port-au-Prince, which has one runway and one loading ramp, has been a bottleneck for the arrival of humanitarian aid, even after it was reopened. A total of 1,400 flights are backlogged to land at the airfield, Fraser said. Because congestion on the roads has been hindering delivery of relief supplies, 63 U.S. helicopters have been dropping water, food and medical supplies into the most inaccessible areas, he told the newspaper.

The U.S. Military has distributed 1.4 million bottles of water, more than 700,00 meals, and about 22,000 pounds of medical supplies directly to people in need, Fraser said.

As many as 2 million Haitians are homeless because of the Jan. 12 earthquake, relief officials say, with vast numbers of people living in makeshift tents made of sheets and sticks. The estimated death toll stands at 200,000, but humanitarian medical groups warn that number will continue to grow as people die of untreated injuries and disease that infects the ramshackle camps, news services report.

An International Mission Board team is receiving information from Southern Baptist medical personnel who are willing to help. Interested parties can e-mail haitiresponse@imb.org to register their availability. Baptist state convention disaster relief offices also will be organizing teams of volunteers to help once the assessment teams have returned with strategic recommendations for the response.

The Southern Baptist relief effort, like the one mounted after Hurricane Katrina and the South Asia tsunami, will be focused on the long term, Mickey Caison, who directs disaster operations for the North American Mission Board, told the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Network Jan. 20. Previous strategies have focused on short-term help for people being missed by large-scale humanitarian projects and a long-term emphasis on helping people rebuild their lives and communities.

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To give to the Haiti relief effort, click here.

The five-member BGR assessment team is on the ground in Haiti, driving toward Port-au-Prince. They are accompanied by Mark Rutledge, who has 26 years of experience serving as an International Mission Board worker in Haiti. The team will be connecting with Haitian Baptist leaders, surveying earthquake damage, and delivering relief supplies.

A strong aftershock measuring 6.1 in magnitude struck Port-au-Prince at 6:03 a.m., Jan. 20, according to news reports. The shock sent people scrambling for open ground as buildings damaged by last week’s quake shuddered and rubble began falling to the ground. Eyewitnesses said people already traumatized by the horrors of the past week cried and screamed at the new tremor. More than 40 significant aftershocks have hit since the Jan. 12 quake.

Members of the assessment team reported they did not feel the aftershock at their base in the Dominican Republic. However, Steve Leach, a member of Round Grove Baptist Church in Miller, Mo., who operates an independent hospital in northwest Haiti, reported the aftershock “brought down some of the damaged buildings that were still standing and will keep anyone from going back to what buildings are still standing for many days to come.  With so many severe aftershocks over the last week and now another new quake, who knows when people who have a place to go will feel safe to return there.”

Leach said about 1,200 refugees have come to the hospital for treatment and he has been sending trucks into the capital to look for survivors with family who live near the hospital.

“We live in a place that is about as far from the capital as you can get and still be in Haiti and yet we have watched these very poor people trying desperately to figure out a way to get their family members out here so they can take care of them,” Leach said. “The truck drivers are less and less willing to [drive into the city] as the situation in Port deteriorates.”

Relief efforts are struggling to get essential relief supplies to hundreds of thousands of desperate people, but destroyed infrastructure and disorganization are hampering the effort. Officials are concerned that the desperation people feel will boil over into violence. Looters by the hundreds have been fighting each other with broken bottles, clubs and other weapons over whatever goods they can still find in damaged stores.

“Pray specifically for God to give those in control wisdom to direct the relief effort,” Leach said.

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To donate to Haiti relief, click here.

Our five-member assessment team is on the ground in the Dominican Republic and headed toward Haiti today. An assessment team from the Florida Baptist Convention also is in Haiti, and a team of Southern Baptist missionaries is at work in a medical clinic on the border between the Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Please pray for safety and that the Lord will open doors of opportunity before all these team members.

An initial $150,000 has been released from the disaster relief fund for Haiti, but the eventual need will be much greater. About $285,000 has been donated so far to the effort through Baptist Global Response, including a check for $100,000 from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. Every dollar given will be used 100% for disaster response efforts that will be conducted in partnership with local Baptist churches in Haiti. Gifts-in-kind are not being encouraged at this point because distribution poses huge logistical problems in a country where so much of the infrastructure has been destroyed.

Like the South Asia tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, initial response to this disaster is fast and furious, but Southern Baptists also will be focused on the long-term. Long after the large disaster relief organizations have left Haiti, Southern Baptists will still be there, helping people rebuild their lives and experience the love of God.

To donate to Haiti relief, please click here.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A Southern Baptist assessment team is working out logistics for a trip into Haiti early the week of Jan. 18, to connect with Haitian Baptist leaders and craft plans for disaster relief efforts in the aftermath of the 7.0 earthquake that struck the island Jan. 12.

The international community is rallying to meet urgent needs – from food, water and medical services to transportation and security, according to news reports. Search and rescue teams began combing the massive amount of rubble in the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince. Military teams from other countries began establishing communications, transport and security services – critical needs in a country where government offices and basic infrastructure were destroyed by the largest earthquake in 200 years.

The death toll among the city’s 3 million inhabitants could top 100,000, Haiti’s prime minister told reporters Jan. 13.

Serious security concerns could emerge as people become more desperate for food and water in areas where police and military control has not been established, said Jim Brown, U.S. director for Baptist Global Response. The capital’s main prison also collapsed in the earthquake, raising the prospect of criminals escaping into the city. As a result, near-term attempts to travel to the country would be ill-advised.

The five-member assessment team will evaluate ministry needs like rescue operations, medical services and shelter, as well as logistical concerns like transportation and security, Brown said. A separate Florida Baptist disaster relief team is planning their own assessment trip for the weekend and the two teams will collaborate in their reporting to the national Southern Baptist disaster relief network. The teams also will report back on long-term strategies to help Haitians rebuild their lives.

“There are two Baptist conventions in Haiti and the Florida Baptist Convention has historically partnered with one convention while the International Mission Board has partnered with the other,” Brown said. “We will combine our findings to draft the overall strategy.”

The Southern Baptist assessment team will be composed of representatives from Baptist Global Response, North American Mission Board and disaster relief specialists from Kentucky, Mississippi and South Carolina, Brown said.

Initial funding for the relief effort is coming from the International Mission Board’s disaster relief fund. New contributions toward the relief effort can be made at the Baptist Global Response website, gobgr.org. Money donated to the relief effort will be used 100 percent for ministry in Haiti, Brown said.

Apart from donating to the disaster relief fund, concerned individuals can help greatly by joining in focused prayer for Haiti’s 9 million people, more than 80 percent of whom live below the poverty line, said David Brown, who with his wife, Jo, directs Baptist Global Response work in the Americas.

“We want to encourage Christians to focus their prayers on several points,” David Brown said. “Please pray for those who have been affected by the quake – people who are trapped in rubble or homeless, those who are hungry or injured or traumatized. Pray for all those who are involved in the relief effort, that the Lord would give them strength to deal with the awful conditions they are facing. And pray for those who are trying to organize people and resources to assist with the relief efforts. Pray that God would stir up his people to respond with the love of Christ to help people in desperate need.”

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To donate to BGR’s Disaster Response fund, click here.

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan – Winter’s bitter cold will be eased for hundreds of earthquake victims in Central Asia as 20 tons of coal, purchased with Southern Baptist disaster relief funds, makes its way into a mountainous region of Tajikistan struck by an earthquake Jan. 2.
 
The 5.3-magnitude quake hit Gorno-Badakhshansky, where Southern Baptist relief work was still ongoing from a March 2009 tremor, said Glen Hofecker, who is directing the relief response on behalf of Global Partners, a humanitarian organization cooperating with Southern Baptists in the effort. Emergency relief officials in the government report 100 houses completely destroyed and another 900 partially damaged.
 
The coal deliveries will provide an opportunity to help people in and around Gishkhun village who are frightened about the prospect of more violent seismic activity, Hofecker said after visiting the area.
 
“Aftershocks were frequent and some quite noticeable. I am a little jumpy myself after part of a house came down just beside me during one,” Hofecker said. “Local people are frightened from years of seismic activity that some have attributed to pending volcanic eruption. The quake of Jan. 2 and aftershocks have been preceded by loud booming from underground.”
 
The area is prone to earthquakes, Hofecker noted. According to the government’s emergency management office, more than 170 significant tremors were reported in the area between September 2007 and March 2009.
 
Several relief organizations are providing emergency supplies, including tents, tarps, food and clothing, Hofecker added. Water in the area is safe to drink. The coal deliveries, which will begin this week, will provide heat for displaced families forced to live in tents during the weeks of bitter winter weather ahead. The $7,000 cost of the project breaks down to just $11.70 per person.
 
More than 600 people have been left without shelter, so a long-term need in the area will be constructing new housing, said Francis Horton, who with his wife Angie directs work in Central and South Asia for Baptist Global Response.

“Global Partners been asked to build houses. This is the principal humanitarian need and Global Partners could serve as the primary implementer of the project,” Horton said. “Funding will come from several sources, including general relief funds provided by Southern Baptists. Volunteers may be needed in this relief effort, once building can start in the spring.”
 
Meanwhile, people who care can begin helping immediately by praying for the affected families and those who are organizing the relief effort, Horton said.
 
“This is a great opportunity for people who care to help people in need in a very remote area of the world.” Horton said. “One of the Christians in the area has asked us to pray that those in leadership and ministry would have wisdom and discernment, and for the Father to bless and guide them. Please pray that God’s peace would reign in this very remote, isolated part of the world.”

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To help with relief projects like this, please visit the BGR Giving page.

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan — A Jan. 2 earthquake that struck a mountainous region of Tajikistan has left hundreds, perhaps thousands, of villagers homeless in bitter winter weather, Southern Baptist humanitarian workers in Central Asia report.

The 5.3-magnitude quake struck in Gorno-Badakhshansky, the same area hit hard by a tremor in 2009. Southern Baptist relief work from the earlier earthquake is still ongoing in the region and the field partner involved in that effort said he expected to find many houses weakened by last year’s quake have now collapsed.

The field partner reported by e-mail immediately after the tremor struck: “About one hour ago, we felt a rather good shake here. Power went off for one hour and when it came back up we checked online for the location. Seems it was the same place as last year between Vanj and Yazgulom. I was there a few days ago to check on construction progress. I was shown several houses (not included in the project) that had opened big cracks since our initial inspection. This likely was a result of aftershocks from the last year’s quake.”

Emergency official Munira Nazariyeva said Jan. 4 that on-site inspections counted 783 people homeless, 98 mud-brick houses completely destroyed and nearly 1,000 others damaged by the quake, news agencies reported. No fatalities have been recorded but authorities said electricity supplies and communications in the area were cut off and rockfalls and mudslides blocked some roads.

Southern Baptist humanitarian workers in the country are gathering information, assessing the damage and beginning to fashion a response to this event, said Francis Horton, who with his wife, Angie, directs work in Central and South Asia for Baptist Global Response.

“It will take some time to get accurate figures on the homeless. This field partner is continuing an assessment of the situation and will be designing a response that will best assist those affected by this earthquake,” Horton said. “He says the weather is clear and the road is firm for now. They should be able to make some progress over the next couple of days to clarify the picture.”

Because earthquakes are common the region, the field partners, as well as other organizations and local governments, are well-versed in disaster response and have effectively responded to earlier disasters in that area, Horton noted.

“They work very well with other organizations and the local government to get help to the people,” Horton said. “We will await the results of their assessment and move forward according their recommendation.”

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Donations to help alleviate human suffering in crisis situations like this may be made here.