The following update is from CBF field personnel Steve and Nancy James, who serve in Haiti.
“Lead, Kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom, lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on! Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene; one step enough for me.”
Dear Friends,
We greet you in Jesus, as the skies above us darken with the approaching tropical storm Tomas. Yesterday, I was called early to the Ebenezer Community Health Center to help with 10 year old Willy who was near death from cholera dehydration. Willy is the first case of cholera the Health Center had received.
Steve James, right, provides care to Willy in Haiti.
More and more cases of cholera have been moving north. Willy had only been sick 12 hours and was severely dehydrated in shock. Their neighbor, a 22-year -old young man, had died from diarrhea during the night. Thanks to God and the Christian medical team of the health center, educated, prepared, and mobilized for this new challenge in Haiti, with prayer, we were able to find a vein, start IV fluids, and in a few hours Willy’s life was saved.
Willy’s family and many from the community, hearing of the first cholera case in this community, came to see Willy. We did not lose the opportunity to educate all those who came by in this new disease for Haiti, cholera, its prevention, water safety methods, such as water purification by sun exposure for the poorest of the poor (www.SODIS.ch), personal hygiene and sanitation.
Willy’s family are believers in Jesus and were praising Him with grateful hearts as they took Willy home at the end of the day now hungry and asking for food, having received 3 liters of fluids, drinking well oral rehydration solution without more vomiting, and the diarrhea having stopped.
We are in the midst of helping the Haitian Department of Health in the north secure medical supplies as we also are trying to treat the sickest and educate everyone we meet. It is more than a “three-ring circus” of ministry these days in Haiti! We praise God that yesterday, we received word that the Health Department, through the ministry of Missionary Flights International and Medical Ambassadors with whom we have been working closely together, received the 200 cots for the large Cholera Treatment Center for the North for the treatment of patients requiring IV rehydration. They would otherwise be lying on the ground, spreading more cholera into the watershed without these cots. The day before, again thanks to Medical Ambassadors of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Canada and financial gifts from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and International Ministries, medical supplies crucial to combat cholera were purchased in the Dominican Republic and brought over land into Cap Haitian to be distributed to local clinics. We are today involved in another truck load of supplies from the Dominican Republic coming to Cap Haitian to help the Haitian Ministry of Health who have asked for help with supplies as they are in short supply. New cholera cases daily appear in Cap Haitian and the north of Haiti.
Many are asking how they can be of help in this cholera challenge. Here is a very quick list of needs:
1. Pray for all of us in Haiti
2. Raise money for the purchasing and transport of those supplies in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and send them, designated for cholera relief in Haiti, to those organizations you know working in Haiti.
3. If able, send supplies to Haiti, here is a quick list of needed supplies;
– IV fluids (Ringers Lactate is most needed)
– oral rehydration salts (i.e. Pedialyte)
– disinfectants such as Chlorox wipes, hand soap (i.e. hotel soaps), hand sanitizer, rolled bandages
– antibiotics (erythromycin and azithromycin for children and pregnant patients, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, tetracycline)
– disposable non-sterile gloves
Supplies can be sent to us either to the Missionary Flights International ICEF.
If you do send us supplies , for the sake of Haitian customs, would you please mail us at Agape Flights a letter from your church or organization with their letterhead with an itemized list of the shipment stating that these supplies are intended for the work of the Haitian Ministry of Health, the medical work of the Medical Ambassadors of Haiti and the Haitian Baptist Convention, all organizations registered with the Haitian Government. Please email us about shipments coming before you send them. Thank you!
We are truly together in these challenging days, and we can feel your love, your prayers, and your support for all of us.
All in Christ-God,
Steve and Nancy