VIM Haiti Update
Volunteers in Mission, GBGM and UMCOR have worked together to launch a National Database www.umrespond.org/Haiti for volunteers wishing to go to Haiti.
The conference coordinators have forwarded your emails to me but we need you to go online to register your intent as the data base includes needed information I might not have received. There will be specific requirements that must be met to be invited to be on a team. You will need to have ‘Haiti experience”. Once a week the database will be forwarded to me and then to each Annual conference coordinator. We will form teams once the invitation is issued from the Methodist Church of Haiti.
Please remember many UMVIM teams will be needed for years to come. GBGM/UMCOR will advise when UMVIM teams have been invited. No doubt you are hearing of United Methodist teams going in to Haiti. They are not Volunteer in Mission teams approved by jurisdictional coordinators or GBGM. While the desire to offer immediate help is universal among Christians, please understand that at this time prayerful waiting is the most faithful witness we can offer. Please read an updated memo from Bishop Martinez, Interim General Secretary of General Board of Global Ministries. http://new.gbgm-umc.org/media/pdf/haitivolunteersjan10.pdf He repeats his earlier request that teams do not go into Haiti. The first teams to go to Haiti will be medical teams. Team members with the proper credentials will be invited to join a medical team. Requirements remain the same as when the earthquake struck two weeks ago. All team members must have Haiti experience, have been on an UMVIM team or team leader training, the ability to speak French, Creole Haitian or Spanish will be helpful. Please continue to encourage people to register on the website http://www.umrespond.org/Haiti. I cannot stress enough this is not the time to ‘cut your teeth on a disaster project”. Please read the attachment from Dr. Jeanne LeBlanc about her recent experience in Haiti. Her thoughts were confirmed by John Bearden of the North Carolina conference to Paulette West,SEJ UMVIM Coordinator.
At this time a volunteer assessment team is being formed. The team will go to Haiti for a preliminary site visit. Greg Forrester (Northeast Jurisdiction) and Lorna Jost (North Central Jurisdiction) will lead this team at the invitation of the leaders of the Haitian Methodist church. Both Lorna and Greg have extensive experience in Haiti. The rest of the team will be made of UMCOR members. This visit will be similar to a jurisdictional disaster volunteer management team. The team will assess housing, transportation and resources for teams, project sites as addressed by the Methodist church of Haiti, logistics of materials and detailed planning of resources so as not to burden the very delicate Haitian infrastructure. Mission Volunteers is also working to develop staffing requirements for sending and receiving of teams. More information will be sent as it becomes available.
While we still grieve the loss of life, devastation, and continued health and safety issues in Haiti as a result of the January 12th earthquake. We can help! You can help! The United Methodist Committee On Relief (UMCOR) and the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) are asking those who wish to help those so disastrously impacted by the earthquake in Haiti to do so in four important ways:
~Donate money. It is the quickest and most effective way to support.
~Assemble health kits to be distributed by UMCOR.
~Plan on sending UMVIM teams—medical, repair/construction, other—as soon as teams are allowed into the country.
~Continue to offer up prayers for all those impacted by the Haiti disaster, and for those who are providing stabilizing first assistance within the country.
Gifts to support UMCOR's Haiti Relief efforts can be made to Haiti Emergency, UMCOR Advance #418325. Checks can be made to UMCOR with Advance #418325 Haiti Emergency in the memo line. Checks can be put in your church's offering plate or mailed to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087.
Or to speed your giving to those in need, go directly to the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) Advance Giving website for the Haiti Emergency Relief and follow the instructions given there: http://secure.gbgm-umc.org/donations/umcor/donate.cfm?id=3018760&code=418325.
100% of gifts made to this Advance will go to help the people of Haiti.
Please see the following UMCOR website for instructions on preparing the health kits: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/getconnected/supplies/health-kit/.
Please provide as many kits as you can to your local church. The kits will be gathered by the churches into designated warehouses within each UMC conference, for shipment to UMCOR’s depot (Sager Brown) for transport into Haiti.
If your church needs to know where kits are to be ware-housed in your conference, please contact your Conference Coordinator. The coordinators for each conference are given (third bullet item) on the South Central Jurisdiction’s UMVIM website: http://www.umvimscj.org.
The relief effort in Haiti will take years, and the need for prayer continues. Pray for the Haitians who are injured and who have lost loved ones, pray for the rescuers, and pray for those who are working behind the scenes to coordinate this massive effort. Thank you for your help and patience during this difficult time. We will take teams to Haiti but we do have to be patient and go when the time is right.
Blessings to you and the work you do.
Debbie Vest
UMVIM Director for the South Central Jurisdiction
