Folks,
This reply is from:
Matt St. John
Program Officer, Latin America and the Caribbean
Episcopal Relief & Development

*****************************************


Hi Pix,
Thanks for your email. We have been closely monitoring the
situation in Haiti. It is really terrible and they don't appear to be
out of the woods yet with Hurricanes Ike and Josephine still to come.

Many developments are occurring as we speak since the storms are coming
so quickly. To give you a broad overview, ERD has already been
providing relief in the US Gulf states of Louisiana and Mississippi from
Gustav working through our local church partners.

In the Caribbean, ERD has been in contact with the Episcopal Churches in
Jamaica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and of course Haiti to make needs
assessments and develop relief plans. In short, the Cubans, Jamaicans,
and Dominicans are currently making full assessments of the damages and
needs for relief mostly from Gustav.

In Haiti, this has already occurred and ERD is providing relief supplies
to 1000 people in the south in response to Gustav working through the
Diocesan Development Office. (As I said, this is occurring so quickly
that we don't even have an announcement up on our website yet.) With
respect to Hanna, we are in communication with the Diocese to conduct an
assessment and help them develop a response plan. But as you are
probably aware many areas that were hit the hardest are still difficult
to reach even for the UN and the government; like Gonaives and the
surrounding area. We are preparing to provide additional relief support
to the Diocesan Development Office for Hanna. In addition, we are
working with them to prepare for Ike and Josephine.

After emergencies like these, the first crucial step is to conduct
assessments of damages and needs that can guide a rapid and efficient
response. One great way your PCUSA missionaries in Haiti can really
help the Episcopal Church in Haiti right now is by having them contact
the Diocesan Development Officer, Pere Fanfan, to let him know of the
situation in their areas. For example, how many people are affected,
what is the flooding like, what type of needs does the community have,
how many people are in shelters, what are their immediate needs; food,
shelter, water, first aid supplies, seed, ect? And to coordinate any
help with the local Episcopal priest and local Diocesan Development
Agent. I am sure you already have it, but just in case, Pere Fanfan's
numbers are: 509-3-445-2236 or 509-3-774-0808. They can even text
message him. Long-term, we can discuss further partnership activities
once we see what long term needs arise.

Thanks for checking in!

Best
Matt


Matt St. John
Program Officer, Latin America and the Caribbean
Episcopal Relief & Development
815 Second Ave
New York, NY 10017 USA
D: (212) 716-6358/ T: (800) 334-7626
B: (646) 541-7657
F: (212)687-5302
E: mstjohn@...
www.er-d.org


-----Original Message-----
From: Pix Mahler [mailto:pix@...]
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 9:35 AM
To: Matthew St. John
Cc: Maria Arroyo
Subject: ER-D in Haiti

Matt,
Any words of wisdom you might wish to share about how the PCUSA may
be involved through our partnership?

Grace and peace,

Pix
Pix Mahler

PCUSA Haiti Partnership Facilitator
http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/mahlerp.htm