Editor’s Note: Roberta Edwards was out of the country visiting her parents when the earthquake hit Haiti. Fellow worker Josh Wyatt, from Memphis, Tenn., flew to the Dominican Republic and traveled overland to reach the orphanage and lend his support. One of the children was killed when an interior wall fell, but the other children are safe. The following is a report published by the Estes church.

Roberta is back at her house with her children. It turns out that the security wall is completely down along the south side of her property, in addition to being partially down on the east (behind her house). Josh Wyatt and the boys are working to stretch razor wire and make a temporary barrier, but it is tough going. Surprisingly, people continue to come to the gate and knock, asking for help. At the guest house on Santo 13 the wall is also breached, but we don’t have the details yet on what it would take to repair it.

Her well is actually an artesian well, and the trickle of water that flows normally has not changed. She does not have enough fuel to fire up the generator and run the pump, but by catching the smaller flow they have sufficient water. They are boiling it only as a precaution.

They are feeding about 150 people each day at the church there. She estimates she has enough food for another week. Norm Curington (with Manna Global) says he can meet her at the border with food and fuel, if they can get there to retrieve it. She is scrounging fuel today to see if they can get enough to make that trip. Roberta reports that there are long lines at the gas stations, but it does not appear that much fuel is being dispensed.

The immediate concerns are security and fuel. If we can get these at a reasonable level, then we can begin to increase our food distribution and try to set up a medical clinic. We will know more later today, hopefully.

How can you help?

Right now we are still evaluating the needs in Haiti, waiting for information.  We already have bank accounts in place and ways to send money to Roberta so that is a blessing.  We are collecting funds here and will send them to Roberta as she needs them.  In the past, we have used money contributed for relief efforts to buy food and other basic supplies and we have distributed them through the local churches with Roberta facilitating.  We hope to be able to do the same this time, although we are still evaluating the remaining infrastructure and are trying to find out information from the local preachers.

If you would like to make a monetary donation, you may send it to Estes Church of Christ, P. O. Box 191, Henderson, TN  38340.  Please mark “Haiti Relief Effort” in the memo field.  As we find out more information, there may be other needs you can help with, such as medical or food supplies or other items.  We will wait until Roberta has had time to evaluate the situation fully before we plan to send people to Haiti to help with clean-up and re-building.  We will post any needs that we have on our website. Thank you for your interest and your prayers.

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