Asking those who have expressed interest in helping Haiti

We now are asking those who have expressed interest in helping Haiti to please access the following website www.umrespond.org/Haiti to register in the national United Methodist database. This will readily identify experience/skills when forming future Volunteers in Mission medical, clean-up, repair/construction teams to Haiti. It will also help in identifying certain experience/skills (e.g. medical skills, Creole or French language skills) which will be needed first.

At this time Global Ministries has advised that it is not safe or possible for volunteers to go to Haiti. The city of Port-au-Prince and the whole country are in crisis, with severe lack of food, water and fuel. There are significant transportation and security challenges. Bishop Joel Martinez, Global Ministries’ interim General Secretary, has alerted United Methodists bishops of the inadvisability of sending volunteers at this point. As with all natural disaster situations, no teams will be dispatched until government and military personnel have assessed that areas are deemed safe and secure. Global Ministries will advise the jurisdictional and conference coordinators when our volunteers have permission to go.

An estimated 150-200,000 lives have been lost in Haiti. One million people, including orphans, are now homeless. The already fragile infrastructure within the country has been severely damaged. Clearly, the recovery in Haiti will take the helping hands of many, many people. Many Volunteers in Mission teams will be needed to help rebuild and the effort is expected to continue for years.

Thanks for volunteering. Our expectation is that those who will be needed first are those with specialty medical skills, etc. So please be patient if you are not contacted until a later date. Please pass this on to anyone who is interested in future medical or construction teams to Haiti.