As many of you know, last week I (Tom) made a trip to Haiti with Esperanza leaders and Network pastors to continue to assess the situation and coordinate the relief efforts we are supporting.

Visiting Haiti

It was a challenging trip. Conditions are as bad, if not worse, than what you are seeing on the news. The complexity of the situation is overwhelming. The pre-earthquake conditions and challenges Haitians faced and lived in are now multiplied tenfold.

The resiliency and survival abilities of the people are amazing. There is a lot of activity on the streets. Street markets are back up accommodating themselves to the rubble and obstructions on every other corner and vehicular traffic is heavy.

But getting back into the buzz of everyday life doesn’t mean that life gets back to “normal”. If high unemployment and subsistence living in an over-crowded urban landscape were the common denominators before, the lack of minimal housing, no employment, no services, and a lack of everything makes life nearly unbearable now. Read more...

As we have shared, DCC exists to serve and support network movements among churches in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is through our presence on the ground and deep connection to the Dominican Network of churches and ministries that we are channeling the support to assist our brothers and sisters in neighboring Haiti. It is also through DR network that we have made connections in Haiti and through those pastors and churches we are working with to distribute the much needed food, hygiene and bedding kits for families.

The scale of the devastation in Port-au-Prince is hard to get your arms around. Most city blocks have multiple houses, apartments and businesses destroyed. Streets are obstructed. At dusk most streets in neighborhoods become blocked off making it impossible to use vehicular traffic as families camp out under sheets and tarps to sleep on the streets.

Almost all of the structures I saw suffered structural damage, making them uninhabitable. Even those structures that have no evidence of damage are empty, as the people’s confidence in safe housing has been shattered. The aftershocks add to the apprehension and fear. And working through the local churches is also a challenge, as most church facilities that I saw were damaged beyond safe use.

Yet, through all of this despair there are still followers of Jesus. People who are suffering the same conditions and bleak outlook as their neighbors are reaching out to identify and serve others in need from their churches and communities.

Relief Efforts: Phase One

As we have stated in previous communications, the networked response to the need is going to be carried out through the local churches and in phases. In this first phase we are concentrating on the immediate survival needs of the families who are now refugees of the catastrophe. As a channel of resources, DCC has received and channeled $33,556.00 dollars which have been used to purchase, prepare and deliver over 1200 family kits + 1000 gallons of water.

Haitian pastors have helped us set up two reception and distribution sites, in Delmas #41 and Croix Des Bouquets where through their contacts with churches (26) have moved the supplies to families in extreme need in 28 different areas of Port-au-Prince (Delmas, Tabarre, Cite Soleil,) several sectors of Croix Des Bouquets, and Leogane.

Through other contacts with Haitian churches through the Dominican Network we are hoping to expand this emergency distribution system in the coming weeks.

Walter Dordt from the Croix Des Bouquets connection shared that a pastor engaged in this network distribution system gave a kit to a woman and her children who had not received anything from any organization up to that most recent distribution. It literally saved their life. Ironically, they were located in Delmas Airport road area of the city where the largest logistical concentration of aid is. Our efforts are limited and small in scale, but through pastors and their churches we are providing the food and water and basic supplies that will help for another week.

We are preparing the third truck of 600 kits, 500 gallons of water and some 60 bedding supplies to get out from Santo Domingo on January 28th.

Over $17,000 dollars more of donations that were made through e-giving are being processed and will enable us to follow this truck with another in several more days. Thank you for your generosity and support of this networked effort.

Esperanza Intl. has several containers of food kits being donated and is due here in a couple of weeks. These donations will help our networked efforts tremendously! Through the coalition we are not only in and around Port-au-Prince but also supplying churches in Velladere, the central plateau, who are receiving more and more refugees everyday. Over 100 kits have been distributed to help those families from PAP who arrived to this community with nothing. Families and churches are housing and taking care of them.

Please continue to pray for the Haitian pastors who are serving in the identification and distribution of the supplies. It is incredibly complex and challenging. The distribution of food and water is one of the most difficult aspects of the relief effort due to the chaos and difficulties that plague the distribution process. As a result, many organizations want to avoid it all together and leave it in the hands of the larger response efforts (UN, Red Cross, etc). But these efforts tend be concentrated in the huge improvised refugee centers throughout the city and do not get out to the forgotten, poor neighborhoods that have been devastated.

It seems that these smaller efforts (multiple stealth distributions through local churches) is one more effective way of getting the aid out there. It is limited, but we think it is working well.

Relief Efforts: Phase Two

When we find that we are covered in the basic food supplies, we will let you know where our focus on donations will be shifting. We are still working on the water purification systems, which take more work related to the logistics and placement of those systems and have several good connections to possible solar panel donations.

Ongoing Prayer Requests

Health issues are going to continue to worsen under these conditions. In response to that need, DCC and the RdC DR Endeavor ministry are currently facilitating the logistical support to a 20 person medical team that has arrived from Rush Presbyterian Medical Center in Chicago. These doctors and surgeons will be working to visit areas of high need where little medical attention has been given. Please pray for the logistics, on the ground connections and safety of the team for the next 5 days while they are there. It is an extremely challenging environment to be serving, especially in terms of the logistics that are entailed in getting around, set up and organized, etc.

Once again, thank you for your support. We will continue to channel and coordinate in this collective effort from the DR to bring help and hope to our Haitian brothers and sisters.

Tom and Dee Yaccino

For more updates and information about our Haiti relief efforts, click here.

GIVE NOW! To give towards the Haitian earthquake response initiatives through the RdC DR please click here and select "Haiti Disaster Relief" from the drop down list.