Brethren medical/crisis counseling group is to go to Haiti.

A Church of the Brethren medical/crisis counseling group is to go to Haiti next month to provide a short-term medical presence and to offer primary health care and emotional and spiritual care to Haitian Brethren congregations and surrounding communities affected by the earthquake. The trip is scheduled for March 21-27.

The group is traveling under the auspices of Brethren Disaster Ministries. Organizers plan to provide daily or half-day clinics at locations near the three congregations of Eglise des Freres Haitiens (the Haitian Church of the Brethren) in the Port-au-Prince area.

The group of three medical doctors, two nurses, and a therapist with training in crisis work, will be accompanied by Haitian-American Brethren leaders, the coordinator of the Brethren Disaster Ministries Haiti response, and Church of the Brethren communications staff. Once in Haiti it is expected that the group will be joined by some of the Haitian Brethren pastors and National Committee members. The leadership of the Haitian Church of the Brethren will organize and plan the clinics.

In another update on the Church of the Brethren earthquake response, as of yesterday Feb. 24 giving to the work in Haiti has topped $531,150. This includes a total of $84,678 received in online donations and $446,479 received through mail-in donations to the Emergency Disaster Fund designated for Haiti earthquake relief.

This generosity is paying for the Brethren response that includes feeding programs for children, food relief for communities around the three congregations of Eglise des Freres Haitiens in Port-au-Prince, temporary shelters for Haitian Brethren families who are homeless and preparations to build more permanent homes, and shipments of Family Household Kits, Water Filtration Buckets, Hygiene Kits, Baby Care Kits, and other relief materials. The donations also have made it possible for the Church of the Brethren to give thousands of dollars to support the wider ecumenical response by Church World Service (CWS) and ACT International in Haiti.

Go to www.brethen.org/HaitiEarthquake for more about the church’s earthquake relief effort; go to www.brethren.org/HaitiDonations to contribute.

Source: 2/25/2010 Newsline