Relief supplies go to Haiti from the Brethren Service Center

Relief materials are being sent to Haiti by the Church of the Brethren’s Material Resources program at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md. The Material Resources staff led by director Loretta Wolf, are working to coordinate shipments to Haiti being made on behalf of Church World Service (CWS), IMA World Health, and Lutheran World Relief, among others.

A $25,000 grant from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund is supporting the initial CWS response to the earthquake, and helping to pay for the immediate distribution of relief supplies to earthquake survivors including hygiene kits, baby care kits, and blankets.

Twenty IMA World Health medicine boxes have been prepared to be picked up today for a Mennonite shipment to Haiti, Wolf reported. Another 60 medicine boxes will be shipped to Haiti on Friday on behalf of Church World Service.

Earlier this week, CWS had arranged for one air shipment and one ocean shipment. The air shipment of 14,743 pounds of blankets, baby kits, hygiene kits, flashlights, and toothpaste left New Windsor on Tuesday, bound for Haiti. The ocean shipment of a 40-foot container of blankets, baby kits, and hygiene kits was scheduled to leave New Windsor yesterday. "Initial plans are for the container to enter through the Dominican Republic," Wolf said.

A group of 13 Church of the Brethren volunteers from Wyomissing, Pa., are volunteering in Material Resources today packing CWS hygiene kits, baby kits, and school kits, which will be shipped to Haiti or used to replenish those shipped.

"We have received many calls from persons wanting to volunteer and are scheduling them as we have materials to work with," Wolf said.

A video report on the work of Material Resources appeared yesterday on Channel 11 television WBAL TV in Baltimore, Md. View it at www.wbaltv.com/video/22292207.

Source: 1/21/2010 Newsline Update