Bart Smoot forwards this from Maison de Naissance
Dear Friends:
We continue to hear devastating news from Haiti. You have reached out to us by sharing your concern, asking how to help, and seeking updates on MN and our cherished family and friends. Thank you for keeping MN and Haiti in the forefront of your thoughts. Please share this message with others who want to help during this unparalleled tragedy.
Our Haiti staff report that our facility, staff, and those we serve are still safe. However, they are bracing for the awesome challenges that lie ahead.
We need your financial support to maintain our daily operations. Medications, fuel, supplies and food – already difficult to obtain in Haiti – are becoming scarce. Prices for these essentials will skyrocket in the coming days, and they will become increasingly difficult to obtain. We must attempt to stay stocked and prepared, so we may continue to care for the mothers and babies who need our programs and services. Contributions to MN may be made on our web site at www.maisondenaissance.org or mailed to our office (Maison de Naissance Foundation | 6247 Brookside Blvd, Suite 224 | Kansas City | MO | 64113).
There is also a significant need for financial support of emergency relief efforts in Haiti: food, water, shelter and medical services provided by trained volunteers and professionals. We suggest supporting organizations that are on the ground and poised to assist with these immediate relief efforts in and around Port au Prince:
American Red Cross: www.redcross.org
TheGlobalOrphanProject(PoweredbyC3): www.theglobalorphanproject.org
Episcopal Relief and Development: www.er-d.org
Partners in Health: www.pih.orgIn response to your requests for updates, we offer the following blog site:haitiearth.blogspot.com. We ask everyone to use the ‘comment’ feature to post their updates, questions, thoughts, and concerns. Maintaining this dialogue in a centralized location will allow easy and efficient access to multiple sources and ease e-mailbox congestion. MN will continue to add meaningful posts as we have more concrete updates to share.
Haiti needs you. MN needs you. There are countless ways to help, and we thank you for considering the options we have shared above. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and contributions, and for sharing this message. Let us be guided by Haiti’s motto: L’union fait la force – unity is strength.
Staying Strong,
Your Friends at Maison de Naissance
Dear Friends in Christ:
On behalf of the Bishop of Haiti, the Rt. Rev. Jean Zaché Duracin, first let me say Mesi anpil, thank you very much, for your love, your prayers, your support, your generosity and your kindness.
I know that many of you want to go to Haiti to help. Many of you already have planned mission trips, and long-standing relationships with your brothers and sisters in Christ in Haiti. Please, Bishop Duracin has been very clear about this: Unless you are a certified first-responder, now is not the time to come. Please let the professionals do their job first as they help the Haitians through the immediate dangers and relief efforts.
Episcopal Relief and Development is working very hard, day and night, to get help where it needs to go. ERD is working closely with Bishop Duracin as well, who is directing efforts along with the Executive Council of the Diocese of Haiti, deciding where the most urgent needs are and how to meet them.
I believe the best actions right now are to pray, to be generous in your financial assistance, and to begin praying about how you can respond in the future. If you are considering — or had already scheduled — a mission trip, please pray about who should go: Those who are healthy, who have specific skills such as carpentry, construction, plumbing, electrical work, to help with the first stages of rebuilding. Consider learning more Haitian Creole — 10 lessons are available for free at byki.com, and more lessons can be purchased.
The Diocese of Haiti will need your help for many years. This crisis is a marathon, not a short sprint, so we must be prepared to be in this for the long haul.
One immediate way that you can help: Please send all information to me at my email address. I am compiling it for ERD. I especially need to know about parishes in the immediately affected areas, their locations, their GPS coordinates, and the latest updates you may have received. We have a lot of information floating around out there, but I don't get all of it, and there could be vital information that I miss.
In addition, please to keep an eye on my web site, gointotheworld.net. Help me to ensure the information I have is correct, and help me to get more information to post.
Please know that Bishop Duracin is counting on everyone here to work together, to help the people, and to be faithful. Together, we WILL help God's beloved children in Haiti.
Blessings and peace and many, many prayers,
The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley
TEC Appointed Missionary in Haiti
Haiti address: 86 Rue Riguad
Petion Ville, Haiti, WI
Haiti mobile: 011 509 3685 8329
US address; 3820 Acosta Rd.
Fairfax, VA 22031
US mobile: 703-678-3892 (used only in US)
MereLaurenS[at]gmail.com
GoIntoTheWorld.net