Our Work

Samaritan’s Purse responds to Haiti earthquake

March 8, 2010

On March 12, Calgarians will have an opportunity to support Calgary-based Samaritan’s Purse as it helps homeless, thirsting, starving and injured Haitians rebuild their communities and lives in the wake of the recent earthquake.

This year the third annual One Night Benefit concert will feature a rare, intimate rock concert lead by Leonard Leontaridis of classical crossover sensation Destino and the Canadian Tenors. 

The band will be performing pop/rock music with a social message, featuring music by U2, Queen, Coldplay, Justin Timberlake, George Michael among other artists. Leontaridis will be joined on stage by an all-star line-up including the sublime talent of Tree63’s Darryl Swart, The Council’s Justin Kudding, Terra Firma’s Graham Sharkey and Brendan Waters, who has performed alongside such top talents as Kalen Porter and Keith Urban.

One Night Benefit was first conceived in 2008 by a small group of local artists who wanted to help resolve some of the social issues troubling Calgary. Thirty thousand dollars was raised to support five charities including HomeSTART, the Mustard Seed and the Calgary Dream Centre.

 Tickets are available for $20 adult, $15 student and can be purchased from Midpark Christian Assembly by phone, 403-256-4722, or at the door.

Venue: Midpark Christian Assembly, 256 Midpark Blvd SE, Calgary, AB

Time: Concert at 8 p.m., doors open at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: Available at the Midpark Box Office: 403-256-4722 or online at www.onenightbenefitconcert.com. (Cash & Debit at box office only)

Cost: $20/person, $15/student, $10/student in groups of 10 or more.

March 8, 2010

A Tale of Two Disasters

Daniel Zeidan, the director of the Samaritan's Purse country office in Bolivia, spent three weeks helping with our response to earthquake victims in Haiti. He only had been home a few days when the massive quake rocked Chile.

Daniel soon was on the road again to head up our response to the second disaster.

He said the two quakes were both terrible, and yet vastly different.

“Building codes in Chile are stricter than Haiti, so there was less destruction and death,” he said. “But one of the things that’s worse than Haiti is the looting and the anarchy, the collapse of the social order. They are saying there was the earthquake, and then the social earthquake.”

Daniel said the government is quickly gaining control of the situation, and our team feels safe as they distribute food and desperately needed supplies.

One of the similarities in both countries is the gratitude shown by people when we deliver aid in the Name of Christ.

“They cry, and they thank us,” he said.

March 4, 2010 

The Haitian government continues to identify waterproof shelter as the top priority for survivors of the January 12 earthquake. Samaritan’s Purse is continuing to work towards providing people with transitional shelters.

We have cleared and levelled ten sections of land, which are capable of accommodating 50-70 family shelters. We are training local church leaders to help oversee construction of the shelters. We also just received 1,060 rolls of reinforced plastic which will provide shelters for 5,300  families.

The medical clinic that we set up in Cite Soleil continues to see up to 100 patients per day, and is also providing vaccinations for tetanus and diphtheria.

Samaritan’s Purse will begin distributing food again in conjunction with the World Food Program in the next three days. We also have set up a food-for-training program that will provide Haitian women with training in crafts and other trades. The women will receive food for participating in the program. There are 75 women interested in attending the training.

February 26, 2010

Haiti Relief Update

As of February 25 Samaritan’s Purse has:

• Installed 13 community water filters, each one capable of meeting the daily needs of 3,000 people. These community water filters are installed in displaced persons camps, at the Baptist Haiti Mission hospital, in churches and in a university where 20,000 people are living.
• Completed 149 latrines in displaced persons camps in Grand Goave and Leogane to help lower the incidence of sanitation-related disease. We have also conducted 50 health and hygiene training sessions for people in displaced persons camps where water filters have been installed.
• Distributed 1,474 tons to 60,601 families or 353,646 people in Cite Soleil, a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince in conjunction with the World Food Program.
• Provided 20’ by 20’ sheets of reinforced shelter material to 16, 790 Haitian families. Samaritan’s Purse has also begun constructing temporary shelters, each capable of housing a family of up to 10 people.
• Provided medical professionals to the Baptist Haiti Mission hospital and established a medical clinic in Cite Soleil. At the hospital, our medical personnel have helped perform some 250 surgeries and hundreds of castings and repairs. They have helped more than 4,000 people. Samaritan’s Purse has brought 13 pallets of medical supplies, plus wheelchairs and crutches to the hospital. At the clinic, our staff are seeing 150 patients per day, while also providing vaccinations for tetanus and diphtheria.
• Distributed 11,760 hygiene kits to families around Haiti. These kits include enough soap, shampoo, and toothbrushes, among other items, for a family of five for one month.
• Distributed 9,900 blankets, 2,220 solar-powered flashlights, 1,152 jerry cans to carry water and 100 rolls of plastic (20’ by 100’) to provide canopies for church worship services.
• Distributed food, shelter material, and hygiene kits to 81 orphanages.
• Removed 2,550 cubic meters of rubble with heavy equipment, including excavators, a bulldozer, and dump trucks, we brought into Haiti from Florida. Samaritan’s Purse currently employs 170 Haitians in a Cash-for-Work program in Grand Goave to clear debris from roads. To date, they have cleared 282 cubic meters of rubble from six kilometers  of roads.

February 19, 2010

Haiti Relief Update

Samaritan’s Purse teams are continuing to provide food, shelter, medical aid and other assistance for earthquake survivors in Haiti. Our efforts-to-date include:

• The medical team working in the clinic in Cite Soleil is seeing more than 100 patients daily. They are performing immunizations and treating the sick and injured.

• We have provided food and other necessities to 81 orphanages and other institutions. The team is currently assessing 78 requests for assistance.

• Last week, the team distributed 583 tons of food to 23,322 families/139,932 individuals in Cite Soleil. We have distributed some 837 tons of food to 35,163 households/201,018 people. We will continue this program through Saturday. Our team has been able to distribute more food than any of the other areas participating in the World Food Program surge. Each morning, the team begins the distribution at 6:30. In about two hours, they have been able to provide food for more than 3,000 people to bring home for their families.

• Approximately 100 rolls of plastic (20’x100’) have been distributed to churches to shelter worship services.

• As of Monday, we had distributed 12,040 heavy-duty plastic tarps (20’x20’) – 4,250 in Leogane and the surrounding area and 7,790 in and around Port-au-Prince.

• Last week, our team removed 820 tons of rubble from a church in Grand Goave in partnership with the U.S. Navy.

• As of Monday, we had installed 25 latrine banks (100 stalls). Two days of hygiene education were conducted at camps where our latrines have been installed.

• Since the earthquake, our medical personnel at Baptist Haiti Mission have helped perform some 250 surgeries and hundreds of castings and repairs. They have seen more than 4,000 people.

February 17, 2010

Healing Hands

A month after the earthquake, many hospitals and clinics are still crowded with people seeking medical care. Quake survivors are recovering, but new threats of infection and disease are on the rise.

Samaritan's Purse is helping meet those needs by operating a clinic in the slums of Cite Soleil. A medical team is treating more than 100 patients a day at the busy facility, which opened last week.

“Some days we are running an emergency room,” said Dr. John Sawvel, a family practice physician from Beavercreek, Ohio. “We had three IV fluids running and multiple people receiving breathing treatments because of severe asthma exacerbations. One was five-months pregnant and could barely walk.”

The team is also working with other health workers to help stave off the growing threat of tetanus.

“Along with seeing patients we are also participating in a campaign to immunize against tetanus, which has been on the increase because of the higher risk of cuts since the earthquake,” Dr. Sawvel said.

As quake-related injuries decrease, accidents and illnesses related to day-to-day life continue. Patients with high blood pressure and diabetes come to the clinic for treatment. A worried grandmother came in carrying her malnourished two-month-old granddaughter. A young woman arrived who had been thrown from the bed of a makeshift “tap-tap” taxi that flipped over with 12 passengers on board. The woman suffered a broken arm and a lacerated knee, but 10 other passengers died.

The medical team worked together to meet every need.

“It has been exciting to see how God’s hand has been in all of this,” Dr. Sawvel said. “You can see how God put this team together. He allowed a pharmacist to get off work so that we could have someone to set up the pharmacy, two family practice physicians with similar training, one of whom speaks French, a Honduran physician who is a pediatrician, and two nurses with missions experience. We have a very strong team and we all want to represent Christ well and share His love with our patients.”

Samaritan’s Purse helped prepare the clinic for the arrival of the medical team, clearing earthquake debris from the grounds and providing medicine, equipment, and supplies.

“We get visitors all the time, people who want to see how we were able to successfully set up such a clinic in such a short period of time,” said Dr. Anne-Marie Moukala-Cadet. “They are impressed by our pharmacy and teamwork. We tell them God put us together and He will see our clinic through. It has been a great experience to work with such humble people.”

Medical teams are scheduled to help staff the clinic at least through May.

February 16, 2010

Revival in Haiti

There is some good news coming out of Haiti. In the aftermath of the tragic earthquake, unprecedented numbers of people are turning to God. This report is excerpted from a blog post at the Baptist Haiti Mission, where Samaritan's Purse continues to do medical work.

"We are experiencing a revival that is unprecedented throughout Haiti. All the churches that I have been in contact with have been full with people sitting outside. There have been literally thousands that have been saved in Haiti the past three days.

"A month ago we were overwhelmed with patients in the hospital to be saved physically. Today our churches are overwhelmed with people being spiritually saved.

"These days are unprecedented in Haiti. It is wonderful to see our churches in action. Please continue to pray for Haiti."

Click here for the entire blog post with photos.

February 12, 2010

Today is the one-month anniversary of the earthquake and the Haitian government has declared a national day of mourning.

Overnight rain showers affected tens of thousands of people living under bed sheets in the Port-au-Prince area. Makeshift shelters, particularly those made of cardboard, were destroyed, and clothing and bedding were soaked. Haitian authorities have warned that the rainy season is now the country’s “greatest looming threat.”

Since Tuesday, Samaritan’s Purse has doubled the amount of food that we are distributing daily in Cite Soleil to 85 tons. This amount is being given to 3,400 households/20,000 people each day.

The medical team working in the clinic in Cite Soleil has seen more than 350 patients since the facility opened Monday. Samaritan’s Purse has also begun distributing 5,000 tetanus and diphtheria vaccinations that have been graciously donated by GlaxoSmithKline.

Our rubble removal teams continue to work in Cite Soleil and the Leogane area. Among the places we have cleaned have been churches whose walls or entire buildings have collapsed. 

February 10, 2010

Helping children in need

In response to a growing concern for vulnerable children in Haiti, Samaritan’s Purse rushed blankets, hygiene kits, shelter materials, and more than 14 tons of emergency food to 77 homes for orphaned and abandoned children.

Samaritan’s Purse relief teams delivered supplies to dozens of children’s homes in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. Orphanage directors were also able to pick up emergency food and other supplies from the Samaritan’s Purse base camp, located just outside the capital.

“When we saw Samaritan’s Purse coming, we knew it was an answer to our prayers,” said Miriam Frederick, the founder of the New Life Children’s Home. In addition to the 100 children who live in the home, another 40 injured children are being treated in its clinic.

Brothers Desimae and Amatel were at home with their mother when the walls and floor began to shake and the house collapsed around them. Amatel was struck in the head by falling concrete. Desimae’s leg was injured.

As rescuers pulled survivors from the rubble, the brothers were rushed to a hospital for treatment and then moved to the clinic at New Life Children’s Home. The boys didn’t know if their mother was alive.

Twelve days later a staff member at the clinic called a cell phone number the boys remembered. Their mother answered the phone.

“The boys and their mother were screaming for joy!” Frederick said. “The boys were so excited, they were jumping and their mother was crying. They’re going home tomorrow.”

Desimae and Amatel’s story had a happy ending, but thousands of other children are grieving over lost parents, and many will need ongoing care and shelter in a children’s home.

Samaritan’s Purse will continue to provide support for orphanages and children’s homes in Haiti as the country struggles to recover and rebuild. New requests for assistance are received daily.

February 8, 2010

Samaritan's Purse President Franklin Graham visited a variety of our relief efforts and met with our team leaders on the ground to plan for a long-term commitment during a two-day trip to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

“Samaritan's Purse will be here for months, possibly years to come,” he said. “Anything we can do for them we do it in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want the people of Haiti to know that God has not forgotten them. He love them, He cares for them.”

Graham arrived in Haiti Friday morning for a first-hand look at our work. He toured sites in Leogane and Grand Goave, where Samaritan's Purse has distributed emergency relief supplies including plastic for temporary shelter, and installed community water filters.

He then held devotions and had dinner with the staff at our base camp.

Graham attended a food distribution at the Cite Soleil slums in Port-au-Prince and meet with Leon Dorleans, pastor of one of our church partners, on Saturday.

Samaritan's Purse has distributed food, plastic for shelter, hygiene kits, blankets, and other relief supplies in Cite Soleil, one of poorest areas of Haiti. Heavy equipment operators are working to reopen a medical clinic at Pastor Dorleans’ church in the community.

Conditions remain grim in Haiti three weeks after the massive earthquake devastated the country. More than 700,000 people are still living on the streets with no shelter or in “tents” constructed of twigs and worn sheets. Emergency food continues to be a critical need. Although some small markets have opened, food prices are greatly inflated. Medical facilities are reporting an increase in cases of tetanus, measles, and chicken pox, and there is a growing diarrhea problem.

"These people have very little to begin with," Graham said. "Now many of them have absolutely nothing."

Samaritan’s Purse responded immediately after the quake, and had a disaster assistance team in Haiti the following day to help with water, shelter, medical care, and other emergency needs.

To date we have:

• Installed 10 water filtration systems in and around Port-au-Prince. Each system is capable of providing up to 10,000 gallons of clean drinking water daily.

• Distributed food and relief supplies to 43 orphanages, many in remote locations that received little to no other assistance.

• Conducted dozens of distributions of non-food items in Cite Soleil, Leogane, Petit Goave, Pettionville, Grande Groave, and other communities in the Port-au-Prince area. Items included: 4,060 rolls of plastic (each roll providing temporary shelter for five families), 3,058 hygiene kits, and 4,890 blankets.

• Chartered a barge to ferry 400 tons of supplies and equipment, including heavy machinery for debris removal. Another cargo ship arrived with more equipment and supplies over the weekend. Heavy equipment operators are working to reopen a medical clinic in Cite Soleil. Samaritan’s Purse medical staff will begin work in the clinic next week.

• Medical personnel with Samaritan’s Purse have treated more than 1,500 patients at the Baptist Haiti Mission Hospital.

We also are one of eight humanitarian agencies working with the World Food Program and the Haitian government to distribute food in the Port-au-Prince area. Distributions of shelter plastic and other relief supplies are ongoing, and we are flying $130,000 in vaccines for tetanus and diphtheria into Port-Au-Prince from Canada.

February 5, 2010

With the rainy season arriving next month, Haiti’s president has appealed to the international community to provide sturdy tents for at least 200,000 earthquake survivors. Samaritan’s Purse has already shipped more than 5,000 rolls of plastic, enough to build temporary shelters for 25,000 families, but we’re not finished yet.

One barge-load of supplies has already arrived in Haiti. A second load is on its way and on board are another 1,680 rolls of plastic. At this point, more than 700,000 survivors are still living on the streets with no shelter or in “tents” constructed of twigs and worn sheets.

Also on the Samaritan’s Purse barge are two trucks, two trailers, a forklift, a dump truck, 6,432 hygiene kits, and eight community water filters. Those filters will augment the 12 we already have in Haiti, and each unit can meet the daily water needs of 3,000 people.

Meanwhile, we are continuing to distribute food through the World Food Program; so far, over 120 tons has been handed out. We have also distributed food and other supplies to more than 40 orphanages.

On the medical front, our heavy equipment operators finished clearing rubble at our church partner in the Cite Soleil slums of Port Au Prince. Our plan is to restore and staff a clinic there. We are also preparing an operations base in the community of Leogane. Electricity and water have been restored at the base and our staffers have completed 46 latrines in that area.

Finally, a Canadian pharmaceutical company has donated about $130,000 worth of vaccines for tetanus and diphtheria. They are expected to arrive by plane on Saturday (Feb. 6).

February 3, 2010

God Glorified Amid Suffering

HCJB Global is partnering with Samaritan’s Purse by sending medical teams from Ecuador to work alongside our volunteer doctors and nurses at the Baptist Haiti Mission. The following was written by HCJB’s Ralph Kurtenbach after the first team of seven doctors and nurses left Haiti at the end of a 10-day deployment.

For the weary HCJB Global Hands team that returned home to Ecuador last week after quake relief work in Haiti, the hum of turbo jet engines replaced the steady drone of generators.

At the Baptist Haiti Mission (BHM) Hospital in Port-au-Prince, working in conjunction with Samaritan’s Purse, team members had grown accustomed to rationed electricity, shortages of diesel, water, and surgical supplies. As well, they’d grown to expect God to undertake on their behalf during long hours of saving people’s lives by removing crushed and infected limbs.

The team’s return to a world in non-crisis mode followed 10 days of too little sleep, too much pain, and too many deaths, tempered with the joy of being the hands of Jesus to many hurting Haitians.

Their two-day return trip carried the team through airports in Port-au-Prince, Turks and Caicos Islands, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami before landing in Quito. HCJB Global family physician Steve Nelson anticipated a brusque transition while en route to Fort Lauderdale.

“People will be talking basketball and Super Bowl … or is that over already?” Nelson wrote as the team’s transition from ground zero to the outside world awaited them less than 12 hours away.

Nelson’s description of both sorrows and joys reached thousands who upheld the team in prayer. His short missive described the emotional ties formed with the hospital’s overworked staff and the patients whose lives the team worked to save. Crossing language barriers, smiles, gestures, and a shared faith in Jesus bonded the seven-member emergency medical response team with their Haitian hosts and patients.

“I said goodbye to my patients last night,” Nelson wrote. “Brave little kids with amputations and fractured limbs and pelvises. The most hurting ones squeezed out a smile anyway while those feeling better had a glowing one fixed on their beautiful faces already.”

While it wasn’t exempt from the suffering and death that afflicted Port-au-Prince, the BHM Hospital nonetheless has been a beacon of Christian care and the message of the Gospel.

For team leader Sheila Leech, January 15 began in comfort as the team awaited clearance to fly from Miami to Haiti, three days after the quake struck. Late that night in BHM’s operating room, the British nurse cradled a dead baby the team managed to deliver to a mother with eclampsia.

“I watched my colleagues continue to battle to save the mother’s life,” she wrote to prayer supporters. We had tried hard to save the baby, but at 30 weeks with no special care unit and not even an incubator, we knew it was hopeless. She was to be one of the first patients that we could not save.”

Chaplains from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association shared the Gospel with patients in the wards, and dozens prayed to receive Christ as Lord and Savior. But the specter of death was never far off. Asked to photograph a small girl who had died, Nelson later wrote, “The lady who translated for me whispered into my ear, ‘This is the sixth of their nine children who has died from this earthquake. They just want a picture.’” Meanwhile, British water engineer Martin Harrison photographed a mass grave being hurriedly dug on the mission compound.

Before departing Haiti, Harrison’s visit to a church service gave a sample of proof that the Haitian church plans to forge ahead in faith.

“I was truly struck by the strength which God has given this congregation to carry on despite loss of family and property,” he wrote. “One of the pastors had lost four of his children and another his eldest son, yet they stood up to lead the service and to preach the Word of God. The sermon was on the theme of suffering and how we should respond to it, based on passages from the book of Job.

“Amid all this suffering and loss, about 70 people got a good look at the loving, compelling face and person of Jesus and decided to follow Him. Some of those 70 might get to see Him face to face in heaven soon. We lost two young men this week to pulmonary emboli after successfully treating their injuries. More will follow, so it’s a joy to add these 70 to the equation regarding why this is so worth it.”

In addition to Leech, Nelson and Harrison, the team included surgeons Leonardo Febres and Eckehart Wolff, anesthesiologist Paul Barton and family physician Mark Nelson. While Samaritan’s Purse continues to stand in the gap at BHM with physicians and nurses, HCJB Global Hands is making plans to send another team to Haiti in several weeks.

February 2, 2010

Comfort for Orphans

Three new orphans arrived at the New Life Children’s Home in Haiti last week, victims of the earthquake that claimed countless lives and tore thousands of families apart. Sadly, a flood of new children are arriving at homes for orphaned and abandoned children across the nation.

A frail little boy with trusting brown eyes sat in Sherry Frederick's lap, quietly resting his head on her shoulder. Sherry doesn’t know the child’s name, but his parents apparently died in the earthquake.

Sherry, the daughter of the orphanage’s founder, shared the boy’s story.

At the request of a worried pastor, Sherry joined a team that flew into a remote village by helicopter to check on the people. The team returned to the helicopter after assessing the needs and was ready to close the door when the village pastor ran up and handed Sherry the little boy.

“Take! Take! Take!” the pastor insisted, as he forced the child into Sherry’s arms. “Parents dead. Dead in earthquake. Take him home.”

“The child was so malnourished that we were concerned for his survival,” Sherry said. “We will return to the village to confirm that his parents are dead and to see if he has family, but right now he needs our care.”

Many orphanages were cut off from the outside world following the quake. Samaritan’s Purse received a flood of phone calls and e-mails from child sponsors, hoping that disaster relief teams in Haiti might be able to make contact with the homes and find out if the children were safe.

With a collection of phone numbers, addresses, and GPS coordinates in hand, Samaritan’s Purse workers began contacting as many children’s homes as possible, assessing needs and offering assistance with food, blankets, hygiene kits, and shelter materials.

A Samaritan’s Purse team delivered several hundred pounds of rice, beans, corn meal, and a bale of blankets to New Life Children’s Home.

“None of our children ever went hungry, but after the earthquake we were having a hard time finding food, and we were using what we had on hand,” Sherry said. “What you brought today helps fill a major need.”

The distribution team also delivered food and relief materials to My Father's House Orphanage, which provides care for 34 children.

“We are very grateful to Samaritan's Purse for what they did,” said Pastor Ronald Lefranc, the director of the home. “We had a real need for food and supplies.”

February 1, 2010

"Merci, Merci, Merci"

It was all thumbs up, smiles, and thank-yous as 41.5 metric tons of rice was distributed to earthquake victims in Port-au-Prince Sunday. The line stretched the length of two football fields as people from 3,300 families filed past the trucks to receive bags of rice.

“Merci, merci, merci!” one woman said to Samaritan’s Purse workers as she balanced a 55-pound bag on her head. She and another woman were preparing to split the rice between their two families.

“Ever since the earthquake, it’s been very hard to find food,” said Bastien Terzil, a father with seven children. “Our home was totally flattened. My mother-in-law was killed. We need help in many ways. This rice is a blessing from God.”

Finding food for her children has also been a challenge for Gedite, a mother of 10. “Food has been really hard to get,” she said. “We have no money to buy food.”

Samaritan's Purse is one of eight humanitarian agencies working with the World Food Program and the Haitian government to distribute food in the earthquake-ravaged capital.

World Food Program will provide 42 metric tons of rice daily at 16 distribution points across Port-au-Prince for the next 14 days.

Samaritan’s Purse is working in partnership with local churches to help struggling families receive food and other emergency relief materials. A new shipment of 400 tons of equipment and supplies arrived in Haiti last Friday.

“I’ve been doing disaster relief for 22 years, dealing with wars, genocide, and many other disasters, but this is the most complex situation I’ve seen,” said Ken Isaacs, Vice President of Projects for Samaritan's Purse, who is coordinating the relief effort in Haiti. “I see us working in Haiti for at least two years, probably longer. There is a lot of suffering and a tremendous amount of work to be done.”

January 29, 2010

Two trucks left the Samaritan's Purse compound in Haiti this morning carrying 1,000 family relief kits to a distribution site in the Cite Soleil slums in Port-au-Prince.

People from the community were waiting inside Eglise Chretienne Des Cites, the Christian Church of the Cities, located in the heart of Cite Soleil. Each person represented a family in need from one of the poorest slums in the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.

Each packet contained shelter material, a hygiene kit, a blanket, and a collapsible container for carrying water.

“We are here to show Christian love,” Samaritan’s Purse team leader David Torres told the crowd. “Thousands and thousands and thousands of Christians around the world are praying for you and giving so we can provide the materials we have for you today.”

Senior Pastor Leon Dorleans then shared the Gospel and give instructions for the distribution.

The people were dismissed from the church in groups of 50. One by one, each person passed by the Samaritan’s Purse trucks, received a relief kit and moved into a holding area on the church compound. Once every person had a kit, they were allowed to disperse back into the community.

“This is great. Very well organized,” said 1st Lieutenant Robert Auletta, the officer in charge of the distribution detail. “We have seen other distributions that have become tense, but this is going really well. We will be more than happy to help Samaritan’s Purse with further distributions.”

It looked like a sea of Samaritan’s Purse blue as the people left the church compound and flooded back to their earth quake-damaged homes in Cite Soleil. Everyone had a clear presentation of the Gospel fresh in their minds, and a tangible expression of love and hope in their arms.

More than 200,000 people live within the four-square-mile area that encompasses Cite Soliel. Samaritan’s Purse is planning more distributions in Cite Soliel communities, with the assistance of local churches and Christian leaders like Pastor Dorleans.

“God bless Samaritan’s Purse for what you are doing in Cite Soleil,” Pastor Dorleans said. “This is what we live for—this is what I live for—telling the people about Jesus Christ!”

January 27, 2010

The United Nations continues to identify clean water as one of the most urgent needs of the earthquake survivors.

Samaritan’s Purse is working to meet the water and sanitation needs of the Haitian people.

We have 12 community water filters on the ground in Haiti. Each of these units is capable of meeting the daily water needs of 3,000 people. We already have eight water filters installed.

One of the water filters is installed at the Baptist Haiti Mission hospital, outside of Port-au-Prince. The water from this filter is meeting the needs of the doctors and patients at one of the areas few remaining hospitals.

Another three community water filters are installed on the campus of a university in the town of Carrefour, where 20,000 people have set up a makeshift camp.

Another filter is set up in the town of Leogane, where Samaritan’s Purse staff estimate that 90 per cent of the town’s buildings collapsed.

Samaritan’s Purse is also distributing water purification kits with PuR water purification packets. These kits enable families who do not have access to our community filters to have safe water for the time being.

Please pray that the Haitian people get access to desperately needed water. Please pray for our water and sanitation staff on the ground in Haiti.

January 26, 2010

One of the biggest obstacles to relief efforts in Haiti is that roadways throughout Haiti are still covered with rubble from the earthquake that rocked the nation on January 12.

On Monday night a barge containing heavy equipment left Ft. Pierce, Florida headed for Haiti with the goal of opening up some of the bottlenecks to relief.

The barge, hired by Samaritan’s Purse, hauled excavators, a bulldozer, dump trucks and skid steer loaders to Haiti. The barge also carried over 4,000 hygiene kits and over 2,200 rolls of plastic shelter material, which will provide temporary shelters to over 22,000 families.

On the ground in Haiti, Samaritan’s Purse has set up a base of operations in the town of Petit Guave, a town five miles from the epicenter of the earthquake. Our staff reports that just about every building in the town has been flattened. Samaritan’s Purse has water engineers and program managers setting up to provide water and sanitation assistance to the displaced population.

We have also established a working relationship with a large church in Cite Soleil, regarded as the poorest and most violent place in Haiti. However, our team was able to walk through the city yesterday to assess needs and meet residents without any problem. With volunteers from our church partner, we are planning to distribute food, plastic, and other relief items to 1,000 families there on Friday, Jan. 29.

Please pray that the people of Haiti would feel the presence and peace of the Holy Spirit as they go through their days and please continue to pray for the Samaritan’s Purse staff as they work long hours to bring relief to the people of Haiti.

January 22, 2010

Another 14 members of the Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance Response Team arrived in Haiti today. A DC-6 cargo plane also landed at the Port-au-Prince airport, carrying approximately $100,000 worth of donated medical and surgical supplies. Our team on the ground has now been able to assemble kits to help an estimated 1,400 families. Each kit is made up of two blankets, hygiene supplies, a jerry can, and a large piece of shelter plastic.

Since the initial four-person response assessment team arrived in Haiti on January 13, Samaritan’s Purse has been able to transport the following supplies into the country:

 

A large amount of heavy equipment is scheduled to be loaded onto a barge on Monday and is expected to arrive in Haiti by Friday of next week. Please pray for all of the transportation details to be worked out so that the barge will arrive safely and on time. Continue to pray for the 1.5 million people who remain homeless in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. Aid – including food and water – is beginning to reach more people, but shelter remains a critical need. The Haitian government is currently planning to move an estimated 400,000 displaced people into formal camps as soon as possible.

January 21, 2010

Samaritan’s Purse has worked in Haiti for over 30 years. We have delivered Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes, started successful agriculture projects and brought the hope of Jesus to the people of Haiti.
In this time of crisis, the relationships that we have developed over the years have come to serve us well.

As reports coming out of Port-au-Prince indicate that there are more than 300 makeshift camps all around the city with nearly 400,000 people living in shelters built with twigs, bed sheets, and scraps of clothing, Samaritan’s Purse is equipping pastors from 20 – 30 churches to bring relief to their communities.

The pastors are delivering relief supplies to over 300 families per day, families who have nothing left. Inside the kits families are finding plastic shelter material, hygiene kits, blankets and solar powered flash lights. They are also finding a caring ear to listen, someone to provide a smile and words of encouragement when such things are in short supply.

There is also an increased risk of a disease epidemic because of overcrowding in camps; lack of adequate medical care; unclean water; and unsanitary living conditions. Many are still suffering from untreated wounds, and doctors are performing hundreds of amputations each day because of infection.

To help combat an epidemic risk, Samaritan’s Purse has purchased two large emergency health kits, each with the capacity to provide care for 30,000 people for one month. These will be flying into Haiti on a cargo plane that is scheduled to leave Miami on Saturday morning.

A convoy of trucks is headed to Fort Pierce, Florida that is loaded with heavy equipment that will help in the relief and recovery efforts. This equipment will be loaded onto a barge, along with more relief supplies. The 400-ton barge is expected to arrive in Haiti by next Friday.

Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti, as well as the medical staff who are working around the clock operating on people.

January 20, 2010

The Disaster Assistance Response Team continues in its relief efforts on the ground in Haiti.

There is currently 17 medical staff working at the Baptist Haiti Mission hospital outside of Port-au-Prince. These staff are performing over 50 surgeries per day on people injured in the January 12 earthquake. A community water filter has been installed at the hospital to ensure that the hospital has safe water. Samaritan’s Purse has supplied 13 pallets of medical supplies to the hospital.

Today five new medical staff arrived in Haiti and went to work at a hospital run by another Samaritan’s Purse partner in the town of Croix des Bouquets, a half hour east of Port-au-Prince.

Samaritan’s Purse has set up three community water filters in the town of Carrefour on the southern peninsula of Haiti. There are 20,000 displaced people living there in temporary shelters, we have scheduled a distribution of hygiene kits, blankets and other non food items in the coming days.

Samaritan’s Purse continues to work with our established network of local pastors and churches that are distributing hygiene kits, blankets, solar flashlights, and shelter material to over 300 families per day.

Please pray for that the people of Haiti will get the relief that they need as quickly as possible and please pray for the physical, emotional and spiritual well being of our staff on the ground in Haiti.

The Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance Relief Team has been working around the clock to unload another plane load of emergency supplies, primarily plastic for temporary shelters and other non-food items. Two more flights carrying relief supplies and two flights carrying additional team members are scheduled to arrive in Port-au-Prince this week.

A network of pastors has now been established to help distribute the supplies as they arrive. This network is expected to be able to provide an estimated 300 families with aid each day. Hundreds of thousands of people are currently living on the streets or in makeshift displacement camps, making it difficult for aid workers to navigate the streets with emergency supplies. Please pray that people would receive the help they need as quickly possible.

On Tuesday, January 26, a barge is expected to be loaded in the US with heavy equipment including three excavators, two dump trucks, bulldozers, vans, wood, tools, and 5,000 rolls of plastic. The barge is scheduled to leave for Haiti on Wednesday and should take 3-4 days to arrive.

Continue to pray for our team’s physical, mental, and emotional welfare as they face numerous challenges and work to find the most effective ways to respond to this disaster.

January 17, 2010

The Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance Relief Team will begin their first large scale distributions on Sunday, bringing needed supplies to the people of Haiti.

Two distributions will take place, bringing blankets, solar flashlights, hygiene kits, NFI kits and plastic for temporary shelters to 360 families.

Sunday also saw two cargo flights arrive in the early morning hours, bringing 12 pallets of medical supplies, which will be used in the hospital run by our partners, Baptist Haiti Mission. The flights also brought three trucks and other emergency items that will be vital in the relief effort.

Samaritan’s Purse already has two community water filters, capable of filtering 40,000 litres of water each per day. A DC-6 will be flying in 10 more water filtration systems on Sunday or Monday. These filters will be accompanied by diesel and solar generators.

Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti. The situation in the country is continues to be desperate. Please also consider a donation to Samaritan’s Purse; your support can make a tremendous difference to the Haitian people.

January 13, 2010

Samaritan’s Purse initial four-person response assessment team is now on the ground in Port au Prince, Haiti.

This group has begun assessing how Samaritan’s Purse can best serve alongside our local partners in meeting the needs of the Haitian people. The team carries 4,800 blankets, 160 rolls of plastic, 2,200 solar-powered flashlights, two community water filters capable of filtering 40,000 litres of drinking water per day, 1,152 jerry cans, and 1,440 hygiene kits..

A second team will land in Haiti on Thursday. It will include six doctors from a medical ministry in Ecuador, who served with Samaritan’s Purse following a deadly earthquake in Peru in 2007.

Samaritan’s Purse Canada has been partnering with Christian organizations in Haiti for 15 years, including responding after four devastating hurricanes struck the nation in September 2008. Operation Christmas Child has distributed over 200,000 shoe boxes in Haiti since 1999.

Samaritan’s Purse has had extensive contact with our partners. They were already storing some of Samaritan’s Purse plastic shelter material there, and they have mobilized 60 volunteers to assemble and distribute temporary shelter kits.

January 12, 2010

Samaritan’s Purse is rushing to assist in Haiti after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the desperately poor Caribbean nation late Tuesday afternoon, toppling houses and public buildings, including a hospital, and leaving victims running through the streets in terror.

Samaritan’s Purse is sending staff to lead an emergency response that will likely include food, drinking water, cooking kits, hygiene kits, and construction materials to build temporary shelters. The relief agency has been involved in Haiti for many years through partnerships with several Christian organizations there – including some preparing to distribute a new shipment of gift-filled Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes from Canada.

“The Haitian government has issued a plea for help and we are responding,” said John Clayton, Samaritan’s Purse Canada’s director of projects. “We’re asking Canadians to join us in this emergency humanitarian effort. Haiti is already one of the world’s poorest countries, so the need for outside assistance is enormous.”

The earthquake struck about 15 kilometers southwest of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince shortly before 5:00 p.m., with a 5.9-magnitude aftershock about a half hour later, and others since then. It could be felt strongly in the eastern Cuban city of Santiago, about 250 miles west of Port-au-Prince.

Ways You Can Help
Pray Pray for the physical and spiritual needs of the earthquake victims who have lost everything and for those who provide assistance in the Name of Jesus Christ.		Give Help bring aid to victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Donate Here.