CSI Haiti Update

From Scotty Slaydon (Secretary of Foreign Missions/Director, Compassion Services International): Please continue praying for the Haitian church and the relief efforts

Here is the latest CSI Haiti update.

Our CSI SMART team has returned stateside and we are thankful for their safe return. According to their report, all of the national church leaders are safe although there has been some loss of life in the church membership. The full extent we do not know and probably will not have full details for at least the next few weeks. Transportation and communication are both still very limited.

Kudos to the SMART team for their improvisation and working with whatever came their way. They truly had to make do in order to get the job done.

The main compound outside of Port-au-Prince has some damage and will need repairs. There are other buildings and homes that need some amount repair as well. We will have a better understanding of how much repair is needed in the next few weeks as further assessment is done. Again, this will be slow due to the limited communication and transportation.

CSI will launch the first medical team within the week. This will be a small 2-3 man team of paramedics/EMTs going into Haiti via the Dominican Republic and they will set up a medical aid station as well as do some further assessment on continuing medical operations. We are preparing for at least 6 months of continuing medical and recovery operations in Haiti.

If you are interested in becoming a part of the CSI teams going into Haiti please fill out the online application and return that to us via regular mail or email. Please note that we need more than just medical people personnel on these teams. We need mechanics, box movers and hard workers! Eventually we will also need builders, brick layers, plumbers and electricians. Please participate.

Our current priorities and objectives are the following:

1. Establish a safe and secure staging site in the Dominican Republic

2. Secure the main compound in Haiti for use as a forward staging area

3. Distribute immediate medical and humanitarian aid to the Haitian people

4. Establish long term medical operations

5. Reconstruction and repair of buildings

Your financial contributions are greatly appreciated as well as donations of supplies. The people of Haiti need our help and support at this time, please join with us as we respond like never before.