Haitian relief advances

Desperately needed supplies for the earthquake ravaged country of Haiti are being collected for kits by two United Methodist Churches in the area.

Kits should include one hand towel, one washcloth, one comb, one nail file or fingernail clippers, one bath-size bar of soap, one toothbrush and several adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages. One dollar is also needed for the purchase of a tube of toothpaste, a mass amount of which has already been purchased by the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).

“It’s just responding to the basic needs for food and shelter for these people. It’s just something we do,” said Joan Hubbard, church secretary for the Colfax United Methodist Church.

The church has already collected 35 to 40 kits and has an open call for more.

Their sister church in Garfield is also accepting supplies at the moment.

Hubbard said they expect to assemble all the kits by mid-March to send them to UMCOR.

Two UMCOR employees, the president of UMCOR and one leader in global missions, died in Port-au-Prince during the earthquake. The two were working on other UMCOR projects at the time.

Rules for the kits are, all items must be new and only contain items from the stated list. Participants are asked to leave out any personal notes or extra money.

When the earthquake initially hit, UMCOR sent out 23,000 pre-made kits to help with relief efforts.

These current kits will refill the agency’s supplies, Hubbard said.

Participants are asked to place their supplies inside a one-gallon plastic bag and drop the bags by the church in Colfax or Garfield.

Colfax resident, Darlene Kroll, who had planned a trip to Haiti before the earthquake struck, will leave for Haiti soon and be there several days to work with a mission station already on the ground. A long-time member of the First Baptist Church of Colfax, she receives regular e-mails from One Mission Social (OMS), an inter-denominational mission agency based in the United States.

The day of the earthquake she signed up for a pre-planned trip offered by OMS. She’ll visit the city of Cap Haitian and get to visit with missionaries who work at the OMS radio station, medical facilities and schools. Little of their work will be relief work.

She said she won’t be in Port-au-Prince most of the time and isn’t worried about witnessing massive damage left by the quake.

She plans to bring an extra suitcase full of supplies.

“One suitcase is just stuffed to leave there,” Kroll said.