RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Baptists will field two medical teams this month to aid victims of Haiti’s devastating earthquake and qualified volunteers are being sought to fill them, a disaster relief leader says.
The announcement comes as contributions for relief work in Haiti given through the Baptist General Association of Virginia have crossed the $70,000 mark and as BGAV disaster relief leaders have scrambled to reschedule collections of food and medical supplies as massive snowstorms paralyzed much of the state.
The two medical teams will be assigned to Port-au-Prince, one from Feb. 18-26 and the second from Feb. 21-March 1, said Dean Miller, who is coordinating relief efforts for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.
“These teams are for qualified, licensed medical personnel only,” said Miller. “Volunteers must be in very good health and willing to endure rather harsh conditions on the field.”
Additional details will be released later, he said, but in the meantime, qualified medical personnel interested in serving should complete a medical volunteer application form here.
Other teams are expected to be needed in the coming months, said Miller.
Meanwhile, a statewide collection by churches of medical supplies to be distributed throughout Haiti has been postponed as deep snowfalls slowed transportation.
“Due to the recent inclement weather across the Commonwealth, churches have had a difficult time collecting and organizing their medical supplies,” said Miller. “For that reason, the collection period, originally scheduled to end Feb. 19, has been extended by one week.”
Medical items should be delivered to the Virginia Baptist Resource Center [www.vbmb.org] in Richmond the week of Feb. 22-26, he said. The resource center is located at 2828 Emerywood Parkway.
“A majority of these supplies will be distributed in partnership with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionaries in Haiti,” said Miller. “A centralized distribution depot established by the Haitian government will also receive some of the donations. The remaining items will be carried directly by our Virginia Baptist volunteers and teams from other states. We suggest that churches partner with other congregations in their region to coordinate this effort.”
A list of approved medical items and delivery and packaging instructions is available at here.
Snow also postponed the packaging of more than 140,000 meals for Haitians, which was set to take place in early February in partnership with Stop Hunger Now, an international hunger relief organization. That project has been rescheduled for April 6-7.
The Stop Hunger Now project is undertaken in cooperation with Methodists in the Richmond area, said Miller. Virginia Baptists have been asked to provide between 40 and 50 volunteers for each of several packaging periods at the Stop Hunger Now warehouse at 5022 Byrd Industrial Dr. in Richmond.
“Virginia Baptists have partnered with SHN on many occasions, most recently at the annual Baptist General Association of Virginia meeting last November,” Miller said earlier this month. “They have a reliable partner on the ground in Haiti and have sent more than six million meals there over the past several years.”
Advance registration for a specific time period is necessary to participate in the food packaging project and reservations will be accepted once time periods have been established, said Miller. Registrations made for the early February event will not be honored, he added. Additional information is available from the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s Jeannette Hildebrand at 800.255.2428, ext. 7260, or at jeannette.hildebrand@vbmb.org.
Virginia Baptists also are participating in Buckets of Hope, a nationwide emphasis of the Southern Baptist Convention to provide food for Haitians.
“Individuals, families, and church groups are being asked to purchase a five-gallon bucket and fill it with food items from the approved list,” said Miller. “These buckets should then be delivered to regional collection sites which will then be sent to a central collection point. From there all the buckets will be transported to a staging area in Florida and then delivered to Haiti. The buckets will be distributed by local pastors.”
Instructions on filling the buckets is available here.
Miller said that the more than $70,000 contributed through the BGAV will “make a radical difference in the lives of the people of Haiti.”
“One hundred percent of these funds will be used to provide food, water, shelter, medical supplies and long-term, sustainable aid,” he said.
Robert Dilday is managing editor of the Religious Herald.