FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) – The Baptist World Alliance has sent emergency funds of more than $12,000 to help counter a recent cholera outbreak in Haiti.
The funds are earmarked through Baptist World Aid, the BWA’s relief-and-development arm. They will be used by Haiti Baptist Mission, a BWA member body, to move patients, pay for medical supplies and provide clean water to those in need.
Edrice Romelus, superintendent for evangelism and former general secretary for Haiti Baptist Mission, told Baptist World Aid that 31 of the group’s churches are located in affected areas and would use the funds to provide “direct support” to those who are ill.
The Haitian government said Oct. 27 that the death toll from the cholera outbreak had risen to 292 and the number of confirmed cases totaled 4,147. Officials fear the epidemic could become much worse if the disease should spread from the rural north into makeshift homeless camps around Port-au-Prince where more than 1 million homeless Haitians have lived since the country’s January earthquake.
Joel Dorsinville of the Baptist Convention of Haiti, another BWA member body, said the convention is collaborating with medical personnel to survey the situation accurately. The group is also providing information and educating the public on how to prevent the disease from spreading.
Dorsinville said market prices have risen since the Dominican Republic, Haiti’s neighbor on the island of Hispaniola, closed its border over fear that the spread of the disease could harm the country’s large tourism business.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Previous ABP story:
Baptist missionaries fight cholera outbreak in Haiti (10/26/2010)