This is an update on events of Friday and Saturday..
▪ Global Orphan Project (GOP) delivered additional food to Les Cayes by truck and plane to provision the orphanages at Cambry, Casamajor and LeHatte.
▪ Cleanup has begun at Cambry. The damage there is significant and the tree loss is tremendous. There will be much left to do when we arrive next Saturday.
▪ Our October team met yesterday to work out a revised plan and begin the packing process. All went well and the 19 person team is ready and resolute. The team leaves Charlotte on Saturday the 15th and returns on the 22nd.
▪ Goals include cleaning up not only at Cambry but also at Darivarger, Bigarouse and Cavaillon if time allows. We are anxious to return those children to their orphanages as soon as possible to resolve the overcrowding at Cambry.
▪ Samaritan’s Purse will be working out of our Cambry headquarters while they are looking for a longer term base, which provides better circumstances for landing a helicopter.
▪ GOP did an amazing job of supporting our ESMI partners in Jeremie. Jeremie has been practically leveled by the storm and has been cut off from vehicular traffic since Monday. It is easily the most desperate circumstance on the island right now.
▪ ESMI President Dony St Germaine purchased as much food as could be found in the city after the storm and distributed it to about 3000 people in the community, including 300 kids being housed at the ESMI headquarters by the airport. The next food to arrive was the GOP plane load that arrived yesterday afternoon. In all, GOP delivered 4 plane loads of food on Friday and Saturday.
▪ We learned that Mission of Hope sent more food to Jeremie by boat yesterday and will be staging and distributing it from the ESMI campus there and through the ESMI network of churches.
I cannot say enough about the level of cooperation and collaboration between the various organizations we are blessed to share this work with. Hats off to ESMI, Global Orphan Project, Samaritan’s Purse and Mission of Hope for their tireless and competent work in the middle of this crisis. Please continue to support and pray for the people of Haiti. There is a very long road to recovery there and the aftermath could easily claim more lives than the storm did.