GOOD NEWS INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION LASSTIC REPORT

Dear GNIF Friends,

Here's another picture of earth shaken Haiti. The initial emergency medical work there is coming to a close, as Kevin put it "the cowboy medicine with my leatherman is fast coming to a close" and the runs into the D.R. have stopped as a result. But of course the clinics are still running wide open with lots of "re-work", patients that need more care and follow ups after initial surgeries etc. CDR has 4 nurses that are currently working at a medical clinic called Double Harvest with more on the way. They are working 12 hrs on/off and staying at a motel now, but will stay at our church in Fond Parisien when work to build bunks is completed there. Supposedly 500 orphans are to be delivered to Double Harvest tomorrow! In a country that had so many homeless children pre-earthquake its almost impossible to imagine.....

The rented GNIF house is staying full at an average of 20 people, including a teacher, CSI, CDR and GNIF! Apparently they are making good use of the laundry area and the porch for sleeping quarters!

Yesterday, some went to church in Fond Michelle. This is the poorest congregation in Haiti and it has only gotten worse. Many of the young people had left and went to Port au Prince where there was job opportunity and sent money back to their parents/family. But now the tables have turned and they now came back home for help! After church they went to the deacon's house for lunch. In the conversation he quietly admitted that they were getting desperate for the basic needs to provide to all the extra family that has returned home.

There are thousand living in tents everywhere. Some places there could be 10,000+ people living side by side with approximately 8' x 8' of space to defend! CDR is currently working on getting tents set up to provide shelter, but as you can imagine everyone wants one at the same time! Security is always an issue, with so many, so desperate.

All food convoys driving from D.R. are escorted by the U.N. soldiers. Because distributing aid is very slow on the ground the sky is full of helicopters dropping food and supplies. One aid group, Operation Blessing, is sending a ship with about 700 truck loads of food, from the ship they will deliver with a helicopter. They have asked us for help in the distribution of all this food and US Army Rangers have offered protection!

The ship has still not appeared on the GNIF radar. Its not surprising since all ships bringing in aid take priority at this time. The roads to the port are really broken up and travel in that area is really risky. So, we will continue this almost familiar "see what happens next" scenario.

GNIF is considering what humanitarian capacity we can fill right now. Clean up is needed everywhere! Buildings, roads, drainage ditches, the list goes on! Some volunteers could stay at the church where they are now building sleeping quarters. With the Lastic Canyon Project on hold at this time, we want to shift our focus on the earthquake relief. We need your prayers and thoughts on where GNIF shoud be in this new effort. We know you want to help in this disaster, so there will be another update tomorrow (01/26/10).


Good News International Foundation
This letter was written by Daniel Jantz of Ballico CA