Call for Health Kits

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has issued a call for Health Kits, which provide basic necessities to people who have been forced to leave their homes because of human conflict or natural disaster.

· What is Sager-Brown?
Sager-Brown is the UMCOR depot in La. just across the Texas border.

· How often do you accept/send out health kits?
We accept kits year round and your kits will be resupplying the kits that have already left for Haiti.

· How are they shipped?
Shipments will go to military transport departing to the island on a regular basis for now.

· Who is collecting the kits?
Kits will be delivered to: Old River Terrace UMC, 161 I-10 East, Channelview, TX, 77530
Please follow the directions exactly. Include all items; do not add items that are not on the lists.

Note: All items must be new.
Place the following items inside a sealed one-gallon plastic bag:
1 hand towel (15" x 25" up to 17" x 27")
1 washcloth
1 comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized)
1 nail file or fingernail clippers (no emery boards or toenail clippers)
1 bath-size bar of soap (3 oz. and up)
1 toothbrush (single brushes only in original wrapper, No child-size brushes)
1 large tube of toothpaste (4.5 oz. or larger, expiration date must be 6 months or longer in advance of the date of shipment to UMCOR Sager Brown)
6 adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages
Value: $12 per kit.
ADD: $1 for to UMCOR Sager-Brown for processing and shipping to Haiti.

http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/getconnected/supplies/health-kit/
This link will get you to the UMCOR Health Kit page. All information connecting this effort to an international relief organization is there.

Send other Monetary donations payable to:
Texas Annual Conference
5215 Main Street
Houston, Texas, 77002
Memo line: UMCOR International Disaster Response Advance #418325.

Medical volunteers -The U.S. Department of Health

Please see note below regarding medical volunteersresponding through National Disaster Medical Assistance. This may be anoption for some of your health care volunteers.Note web sites: http://www.hhs.gov/ and http://www.medicalreservecorps.gov/

Barbara StoneConsultant
--Mission Volunteers
--UMCORUnited Methodist Global
Ministriesbcstone@ktis.net
573-253-1374

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is requesting physicians ofspecific specialities to deploy with the National Disaster MedicalAssistance teams to Haiti. The need is for trauma surgeons, orthopedists,anesthesiologists, and others with experience in treating crushinjuries. Volunteers must be able to serve for at least 2 weeks, and bewilling to live and work in spartan conditions.
Preference will be given to physicians who are Creole or French speakers, and to thosecurrently credentialed through the Medical Reserve Corps in their home state,or the ESAR-VHP program (Emergency Services Advanced Registration of VolunteerHealth Personnel).
These volunteers will need to be credentialed as temporary federal employees andwill need to be able to provide credentialing paperwork as soon as asked. Credentialing normally takes about a week. Volunteers with these clinicalskills should contact Michala Koch at Michala.Koch@hhs.gov. Not everyone who wishes to help will necessarily be deployed, and those withoutthe requisite skills may not receive a direct response.

For medical professionals wishing to help in this way in future relief efforts,please take a few minutes to learn about the Medical Reserve Corps, identifyyour local unit, and register to become part of the corps. To do so,visit http://www.medicalreservecorps.gov/. This is the channel through which medical volunteers are deployed immediatelyfollowing an event, and only those registered beforehand are likely to bedeployed.

Volunteers and Teams in Wake of Haiti Earthquake

From: Bishop Joel N. Martinez Interim General Secretary

This is a follow-up to an earlier memo in which I said that the time was not right for sending volunteer teams, or even individual volunteers, into Haiti for post-earthquake service.
I am here repeating that request with renewed emphasis.
We know that the church seeks to respond to the great crisis in Haiti. We are in touch with many persons and groups wanting to reach out in tangible ways to provide relief for suffering people there. We have already received an outpouring of inquiries and offers for volunteers to provide a variety of services. While we are encouraged by this spirit of support, we strongly advise that teams and others not set out for Haiti at this time.

There will be great need for short-term and long-term volunteer mission groups in due course—for medical care, rebuilding, and responses to many other needs. However, the current state of Haiti is not conducive to the safety and welfare of the volunteers; security is a major concern; infrastructures are shattered. There is little access to water, power, fuel, and even roads.

An UMCOR Team is on the ground, coordinating with relief partners on appropriate courses of action. As you know, the United Nations (representing government) and the Red Cross go into to massive disaster areas first. This is long-established international protocol. Church-related and other relief organizations follow. Objectives of our initial team include the assessment and organization for the reception of volunteers.

In collaboration with jurisdictional coordinators of UMVIM, we are making a registry of potential individual volunteers and teams. The time for volunteers will come and their assistance will be crucial.

In the meantime, the best way for congregations and individuals to respond to the Haiti crisis is by supporting the work of UMCOR. Not only are funds needed but also health kits. Please direct persons to http://umcorhaiti.org/.

I will be glad to receive your questions arising from this memo, and I pledge to keep you informed on our relief operations in Haiti.

United Methodists Respond with Prayer, Aid for Haiti

By Linda Bloom and Kathy L. Gilbert, UMNS
“We are OK, the building held up, thanks for your prayers.”

After hours of uncertainty in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake that rocked Haiti, those words from his wife, Pam, and two other members of a mission team were an answered prayer for the Rev. Kenneth Carter Jr. of Providence United Methodist Church in Charlotte, N.C.

The three volunteers were safe inside the Methodist Guest House in the capital of Port-au-Prince Tuesday evening. The three had gone ahead to Haiti to prepare for a larger team from the church that had planned to leave North Carolina Wednesday morning, Jan. 13. The trip is delayed, Carter said.

Many are feared dead in the earthquake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince. Early news reports told of a hospital collapsing and houses falling into a ravine in the poor nation where many live in substandard housing...more>>