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Berlin, OH 44610
T: 330.893.2428
F: 330.893.2305
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Projects for Haiti

Earthquake relief project update

In March 2010, your gifts helped provide the following for earthquake victims:

Nutrition
90,500 lbs. rice
44,435 lbs. beans
28,230 nutritional drink
15,125 nutritional pudding
2,800 food parcels
432 cans (28 oz.) chicken

Bibles and Christian literature
26,545 copies of 25 Favorite Stories from the Bible
14,700 Creole tract One Day Life Was Normal
140 Bibles

Miscellaneous aid
8,470 blankets/comforters
6,140 hygiene kits
1,420 tarps
116 crutches
Medicines and medical supplies

 

Cleanup
37 houses
194 Haitian laborers hired
10,127 hours worked

Medical care
Care for approximately 33 patients at the CAM recovery hospital

Thank you, supporters, for bringing health and hope to quake-affected people in Haiti!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to donate to CAM’s Haiti Earthquake Relief Project, please click the donate button above. For more information, or to donate by mail or phone, contact Christian Aid Ministries, P.O. Box 360, Berlin, Ohio 44610; Phone: 330-893-2428; Fax: 330-893-2305; email: cam@camoh.org.

 

Cleanup project provides income

Friday, March 12, 2010

(by Matthew Morhart, cleanup project manager)

Last week we hired a young Haitian man to head up several cleanup crews in the Port-au-Prince area. We are looking for more men who can give day-to-day leadership of work crews, so we can expand the cleanup project. Our goal is to focus on the harder hit areas and hopefully find enough houses in the same general area to start about three crews per administrator.

People are happy for the work and the owners of the houses are glad to see their places being cleaned up. More than 60 people have been employed by this project for at least one week, and the list of people wanting to be hired keeps growing. We started giving each worker a tract and a 25 Favorite Stories from the Bible as a reminder of the focus of our work.

 

 

 

 

Recuperating

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Rachel, 25, and her mom had been inside their house when the earthquake came. They ran to get out, but concrete from a neighboring house fell on Rachel and covered her. Her mother found two men willing to come help them, and after three hours, they got Rachel out.

For the next five days Rachel was at a hospital where they did nothing for her. Her mom then took her to a different hospital where an American doctor performed surgery on her leg. Later, at Mission of Hope, they set and cast her broken arm. Rachel is now recuperating at CAM’s recovery hospital.

We have over 30 patients at our recovery hospital. Five nurses, an EMT, and several translators are doing a super job at giving personal care and attention for each patient. A number of patients are in the skin grafting stage. It is a blessing to have plastic surgeons at a neighboring facility willing and waiting to help with this. Skin grafting helps speed up the healing process for our patients with large, slow healing wounds.

Physical therapy is also a big need with so many amputees and patients with other physical ailments. Lisa Miller returned to the CAM base in Haiti Sunday afternoon and has changed roles from investigative reporter (her previous job there) to physical therapist at the recovery hospital.

The need for cash donations to help the hurting in Haiti is urgent. If you would like to donate by credit card, please click the donate button above. 100% of your donation will be used for the Haiti Earthquake Relief Project.

 

Research to remote areas

Thursday, February 25, 2010

To reach Do Pwa Rouge, CAM staff member Darvin Seibel had to drive one and a half hours by vehicle and then ride by mule for another one and a half hours. He found the area was indeed affected by the earthquake, with some damaged houses and a girl who had yet to receive medical care for her injured foot. The wound was full of coffee, a common home remedy. Darvin brought the girl back to our recovery hospital where medical personnel cleaned out the wound and scheduled her for a skin graft at a neighboring hospital.

Basically all of Haiti was affected by the quake. Many areas, though not affected by the initial damage, received an influx of people from Port-au-Prince, which puts extreme pressure on the local economies to support the extra people. 

It is CAM’s goal to help out the local economy as much as possible, especially since the earthquake. We helped a new “komès” (business) get started in Titanyen in supplying cooked meals for our recovery hospital every evening. Helping out in ways like this cuts back on the dependency issue that goes along with a food parcel.

 

Tremors, containers, and cleanup

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

More tremors shook Haiti this week starting Monday morning. “The 4.7 quake shot us out of bed at the rude hour of 4:30 a.m.,” says Wendell Sommers, CAM staff member. “One wonders when they [the tremors] will stop.”

On Monday CAM had thirteen 40-ft. sea-containers of earthquake aid in transit to Haiti, with four arriving this week. “Back when life was normal, we had maybe five containers in transit at one time,” commented Wendell, “with one or two arriving per week.”

Our first container of food arrived Tuesday. The distribution team is thankful to now have food to give with the tarps and other aid. They immediately delivered 3,666 lbs. of rice; 1,100 lbs of beans; and 42 bottles (96 oz.) of cooking oil to the cleanup crews.

Cleanup began last week with two crews of ten men each. In addition to helping distressed homeowners clean up some of the mountain of debris, hiring Haitian day laborers puts a few dollars (which for many have been quite scarce) into their pockets.

 

Great needs continue in Haiti

Friday, February 19, 2010

Tarps continue to roll in/out the door.  Wednesday our team was delighted to see a DHL air shipment arrive with tarps, hygiene kits, and comforters—all greatly needed. Of the 1,528 tarps that arrived Wednesday, 585 were almost immediately sent out the door to various distribution centers all over Haiti. Last night another 800 tarps arrived. Lately it has been raining some, so the tarps come in very handy for folks sleeping outside. 

A letter of thanks

. . . I cannot thank you enough for the shipment of tarps, hygiene kits, bedding, ropes, and Bible story books that you sent us. Many of the areas we serve have received little, if any, aid from other relief organizations until now . . . We still have a great need for tarps (up to 1,000) if they are still available . . . Thanks again for the shipment of supplies, we are praising God for His provision! --Joe Jasperse, Haiti Health Ministries - Christianville Foundation, Gressier, Haiti

Devastated schools

Staff member James Miller returned Thursday from an investigative trip to CAM-supported schools in southern Haiti. He reported that two schools were completely destroyed in the earthquake. Plans are for CAM to rebuild them sometime in the future.

CAM recovery hospital, a busy place

Our little “hospital” is a busy place, says Wilma Miller of the CAM medical team. We have close to 30 patients . . . Most of them are able to get out of bed and move around although we have a few pelvic fracture patients who are pretty well bedfast.

Our work consists mainly of passing meds twice daily, changing wound dressings, cleaning pins on fixators, taking vitals, working with patients who need therapy, interpreting, and giving massages. There is always a need to pray for the patient, give a listening ear, or just sitting with them

Mrs. Sheryl Martin writes: They do a lot of singing and praying down at the hospital. Mornings and evenings we often hear them worshiping . . . My heart cries for some of these people—when they leave here, they have no idea what life holds. Some have shattered families–if any—to go back to, and many have no house . . . life is so uncertain for them.

 

Revival in Haiti

Monday, February 15, 2010

(written by Tim Overholt, CAM-Haiti field director)

Last weekend the Christian Community in Haiti called together a “Fasting and Prayer”, of which President Preval gave his approval. Since the quake, many of the Christians have been praying that Haiti will repent and turn away from their Voodoo practices and beliefs. The general thinking is that if the country doesn’t repent, God will bring worse punishment upon them. In a country where there is so much fear of the spirit realm and of witch doctors and such, it would be wonderful to see people turning to God who brings peace and calm to the fearful hearts. Praise the Lord, this seems to be happening in many cases!

Witch doctors turn to God

One of our Haitian employees related how he and a few brothers from his church had been meeting on a regular basis to pray for the many unsaved people in that area. One or more of them took the courage to go and speak to a witch doctor and witnessed of Jesus’ power over the evil spirits and their leader, Satan. Through prayer, I believe, God had prepared his heart and in the next day or two, ten people had been converted to the Controller of even the earthquakes, two of whom had been witch doctors. They didn’t stop with a simple prayer for God to save them, but took all the voodoo things in their possession and had a good old heart-saving, mind-cleansing, get-right-with-God bonfire!

CAM gave 10 New Testaments to the converts and a good stack of fabric for them to have other clothes made. (They had burned many of their other clothes; CAM didn’t tell them to, but God did!

 

Three air-shipments and two sea-containers sent to Haiti

Friday, February 12, 2010

This week, CAM sent three air-shipments and two 40' sea-containers to Haiti. They contained 3,705 tarps, ropes, 652 hygiene kits, 224 comforters, 1,797 blankets, 104 pairs of crutches, 49 pallets of medicines and supplies, 32,000 pounds of rice, 3,780 pounds of beans, 1,200 cans of chicken. We also sent beans, canned chicken, and other items for our regular Haiti school program. Our regular programs must go on, in spite of the tremendous amount of earthquake needs.

Lisa Miller, staff member in Haiti, writes, We are still feeling tremors here occasionally.  Tuesday evening we felt one; it lasted just long enough to make me wonder if the tremors are ever going to stop.

An unexpected blessing arrived yesterday.  Another aid organization shipped down a pallet of baby formula with no way to distribute it. They contacted  us, and we now have a pallet of baby formula to distribute to our clinics – a much needed item.

 

Heart-touching cases at CAM’s recovery hospital

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

A 24-year-old patient at our recovery hospital in Haiti related how she had started running from the house when the earthquake hit, but the ground opened up, caught one of her legs, and then closed again. She was trapped up to her knee. Five or six hours later, this girl was rescued but could not find medical care until the next day. The hospital did not clean her wound well enough, leaving in bits of concrete. Infection set in and the leg had to be amputated. The girl’s mother had died six months ago, and her father has not been around for a long time. In spite of her hardships, her spirits seem good and she is doing reasonably well.

Approximately twenty patients are staying at the CAM facility in Haiti right now, and we expect the number to grow to 40 once enough medical personnel arrive. The patients are recovering from broken bones, surgeries, amputations, and other injuries sustained in the earthquake. The above incident is only one of many heart-touching cases. Please pray for these survivors as they face extreme loss and adjust to life after the earthquake.

Pray also for CAM’s medical teams and personnel. Many Haitians need both physical and spiritual help, and it is a challenge to know how best to help and distribute aid.

 

Update on Rebuilding

Friday, February 5, 2010

CAM is researching the best way to rebuild for Haiti earthquake survivors. From past experience, we are concerned about using wood because of termites, and are looking into termite-proof, earthquake-resistant houses. Some options may be metal kits or concrete block houses with metal roofs.

We can use donations of metal roofing, metal rafters, hurricane clips, etc. If you are interested in donating any of these items, please contact David Leid at CAM: 330-893-2428.

For now, the tarps for temporary shelter are meeting a real need among earthquake survivors. Please PRAY for unproblematic distributions and wisdom and strength for CAM staff as they distribute the 10,000 tarps, hygiene kits, and other aid.

 

Recovery hospital opened at CAM base

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

 CAM’s facility near Port-au-Prince has been converted into a temporary hospital. It’s been interesting/challenging/busy/tear-jerking/heart-warming to keep up with arising needs, says Joanna Seibel, CAM staff member in Haiti.

Our staff in Haiti is discovering a great need for a recovery place for patients they have treated, as well as for patients who have undergone surgery at local hospitals. The streets of Port-au-Prince are far from ideal for the many wounded, homeless people. We currently have 23 patients/caregivers at our temporary hospital in Titanyen, and expect the number to grow. We are sending additional nurses and other personnel to accommodate this urgent need.

Other updates on Christian Aid Ministries’ response:

• An air-shipment of 1,120 tarps and 381 hygiene kits landed in Haiti on Monday. The first tarp distribution took place on Tuesday, with 200 people receiving tarps, hygiene kits, and 25 Favorite Stories from the Bible. Thousands desperately need these tarps. Today, our staff plans to distribute more tarps. Please pray that the distribution would continue to go smoothly.

• Staff members are distributing 1,200 gallons of water, three times a day.

• CAM has shipped over $3 million worth of medicines to Haiti.

• Six sea-containers are en-route to Haiti loaded with tarps, food, medicines, comforters, hygiene kits, and liquid nutrition.

CNN reports that nearly 200,000 are injured; 1.5 million are homeless and living in slums or makeshift homes, and 300,000 children under 2 need nutritional support.

 

CAM air-shipment lands in Port-au-Prince

Friday, January 29, 2010

Today CAM received confirmation that another of our large air-shipments of medicines arrived safely in Port-au-Prince. These medicines will be distributed to clinics and hospitals in earthquake-stricken areas.

Our staff in Haiti requested 10,000 tarps for shelter material. Gary Miller writes, “The need continues for food, water, and shelter. Much of the population in Port-au-Prince is sleeping under sheets, if they have anything sheltering them at all.” CAM air-lifted more than 1,000 tarps this week, and many more will be sent next week.

At our warehouse in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, staff are loading sea-containers with food parcels and bulk food items to ship to Haiti. A sea-container left our warehouse yesterday, and another is scheduled to leave today.

From CAM’s base near Port-au-Prince, Gary Miller writes, “One of our medical team members came upon several children sitting on a pile of charcoal and looking at a book. One of them was reading out loud to the others. The book was CAM’s 25 Favorite Stories from the Bible. Our emergency medical team had handed out this book in the weeks after the earthquake. May the Lord cause the little seeds that are being planted to grow!”

 

 

 

Earthquake victims grateful for aid

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

(written by Gary Miller, CAM staff member)

The tremor that shook Port-au-Prince area Sunday night was strong enough to wake some of us here at the CAM base, but for others in the city the result was much more severe. One of the medical teams treated a man today who sustained head injuries when part of his house finally fell after being weakened by the quake and all the tremors. It is no wonder the streets continue to be filled with people fearful of moving back into their homes.

Three loads of meds (about 1,000 lbs.) went out this morning from the CAM warehouse. After having prayed for the arrival of this air shipment, staying up late sorting the medicines, and loading the trucks this morning, it is good to hear that the medicines are finally getting out to CAM’s clinics and the waiting people. Jeriah Mast, CAM staff member, visited three of the clinics CAM supports and discovered two of them were totally destroyed by the earthquake.

People continue to be very grateful for the water CAM is providing. On Monday the men took around 1,100 gallons of water into the downtown Port-au-Prince area. They estimated the average person was taking home about three gallons of water. In some areas of town you will see mountains of bottled water and food; in other places there seems to be very little of either. Today while driving I saw a man scoop water out of a very muddy pothole in the street.

Today a patient wanted to show appreciation for the help she is receiving at the CAM mobile clinic. She brought a nice watermelon to the team as a thank-you gift. It is very humbling to receive gifts from these homeless people. Some patients tell the medical team they are praying for them and their families at home.

For an update on CAM's response to the Haiti earthquake, or hands-on projects you can do, please click here.

 

From the heart of Port-au-Prince

Friday, January 22, 2010

“I got a good tour of Port-au-Prince yesterday,” reports David Troyer, CAM’s general director. “Mind-numbing scenes of devastation, large, milling crowds, UN personnel trying to control them, near chaos. Real tear-jerkers as we meet children who lost parents, parents who lost children, both who lost homes and everything else they once owned, which in many cases wasn’t much. Smells that make you want to gag. Survivors digging for bodies of loved ones. A woman who lost two daughters (ages 11 and 13) and said, “a truck took them away” (very likely ended up in the mass grave near our base). Jesus wept, and it’s only proper we do the same.”

From CAM’s mobile clinic near Port-au-Prince, Gary Miller writes, “I have been deeply moved . . . I have cried with the seriously injured thirteen-year-old girl who now has no home, mother, father, or siblings, and hasn’t heard from any of her friends since the earthquake. I watched her walk out to live on the street, where the smell of decaying bodies, still under the piles of debris, overcomes the senses. I have listened to the cries of the wounded as injuries are cleaned and infected flesh cut away without the anesthesia we are used to.

“I have watched extremely distressed, wounded, and fearful people come in through the clinic gate. Their faces have a blank, hopeless look. They look like people who have been through more pain, sorrow, and trauma in one week than most of us experience in a lifetime.  All of them have lost either relatives or friends, or both. Most of them have close family members dead and still buried under rubble. Some of them are the only surviving member of their family. They now live alone and on the street. But I have also watched those same individuals leave the clinic. I have seen them walk out with a glimmer of hope in their eyes. I have watched them give a hug or kiss to the one who just scrubbed their wound, causing pain. I have heard a small girl say when she grows up she wants to be like the nurse who just cared for her.

“For just a moment, these Haitian people have come off the street and into a little sanctuary.  They have seen the love of Jesus through the people who have come to help in His name. They have heard the people say there is hope. And, maybe most importantly, they have felt love–something many of them have experienced very little of. But hopefully, as they go back to their makeshift shelters tonight, they are taking more than the healing that medical care has given them. Hopefully, they are carrying more than the literature they received that tells them about a God who loves them. Our hope is that they are also taking with them a better understanding of what God is really like.”

 

Update on CAM’s Response to Haiti Earthquake

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Medicines and medical care
CAM, supported largely by Amish and Mennonites in America, has set up a mobile clinic close to Port-au-Prince where a CAM medical team is giving emergency care to injured earthquake victims. The team has treated infected wounds, splinted broken bones, and stitched gashes. Bethanie Burkholder says, Because the resources of the Haitian medical system were quickly depleted in a disaster of this size, a lot of people did not receive antibiotics with their bandages or stitching. Now some of the wounds are becoming infected.

CAM is airlifting a shipment of medicines and supplies scheduled to arrive on Thursday, January 21 and plans to have two more medical teams on the ground by Monday, January 25. We are looking for better ways to get medicines to Haiti. Our sea-containers are being routed through the Dominican Republic since the port at Port-au-Prince is damaged and not receiving shipments. More than 20 clinics throughout Haiti receive medicines from CAM on a regular basis and urgently need our help. Medicines are needed for these clinics as well as our medical teams.

Food
Food parcels are being packed at CAM’s warehouse in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, to send to earthquake victims in Haiti. Plans are to send two sea-containers of food parcels per month for an extended period of time.

Caring for emotional and spiritual needs
Our medical/staff personnel are Christians, and are ministering to earthquake victims in both physical and spiritual ways. One way is to listen to their stories and comfort them in their distress. CAM is also distributing some Bible story books and other Christian literature. Please pray for CAM staff, that they could receive from God the physical and spiritual strength they need to respond to the many needs around them.

Rebuilding
In the future, CAM plans to help with rebuilding. We will hire mostly local Haitian help for this project to give them a feel of ownership and some income.

Haiti Earthquake!

January 15, 2010

The strongest earthquake to hit the area in over 200 years struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. It registered 7.0 on the Richter scale and was centered 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince. Many aftershocks have followed.

Tens of thousands of people are feared dead in this desperately poor country of 9 million. Many thousands more lost their homes. Untold numbers are trapped under rubble. Haitians are piling bodies along the devastated streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s destroyed capital. Block after block of buildings is destroyed. Millions will probably need emergency aid for months to come.

CAM-Haiti staff members immediately began helping to dig out and rescue survivors trapped underneath the rubble. CAM sent their medical staff from northwest Haiti to Port-au-Prince and additional search and rescue volunteers, including medical personnel, left Thursday for Haiti.

CAM has had extensive programs in Haiti for over 20 years, providing medical assistance, food and development aid, as well as responding to past natural disasters. Since the earthquake, we are focusing our energies in Haiti almost exclusively on aiding earthquake survivors. We are also organizing a shipment of medicines and medical supplies. Further assistance will be ongoing.

CAM's main need is cash donations. If you would like to donate by credit card, please click the donate button above.

For more information, or to donate by mail or phone, contact Christian Aid Ministries, P.O. Box 360, Berlin, Ohio 44610; Phone: 330-893-2428; Fax: 330-893-2305; email: cam@camoh.org.

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