CBF field personnel in Haiti ask for prayer amid cholera epidemic

The following post comes from Steve and Nancy James, who serve in Haiti as field personnel co-appointed by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and American Baptist Churches USA.

This is just a quick update on the cholera epidemic as we are now experiencing it in Haiti. Since we returned to Haiti on 10/19 from a two-week visit to family in North Carolina to meet and welcome our newest grandson, we have been working to help in any way we can with this newest challenge to God’s people in Haiti. Although, as of this moment, we hear reports of hope that the epidemic may have been contained, the threat of spread to the earthquake devastated communities in the south and ultimately to the whole country is still very large. Daily we hear of more cholera cases arriving in the communities of the north. So far, all the cases have originated from the Artibonite valley, 60 miles from us, where the epidemic started.

We have been involved as a health team in the work of community education and prevention of infection at this point. We have not yet been treating any cholera cases. We have been serving alongside our teams of health care providers and partners, in cholera education and prevention of the vulnerable communities around us, addressing safe water and sanitation issues, and preparation of community clinics to receive and treat large numbers of affected people in hopes of being able to contain the spread of cholera to the local communities. Steve worked in the Ebenezer Community Health Center, Haut Limbé, on 10/22, where no cholera cases presented that day. Nancy has been preparing and helping to distribute educational materials to providers and educators in the local communities. We have been working with Rev. Joel Dorsainville, Coordinator of Disaster Relief Services for the Haitian Baptist Convention, updating and coordinating efforts within the churches of Haiti. In the next few days, we plan to help two community health centers set up cholera treatment protocols and treatment centers.

Yesterday we participated in a conference on solar generated water purification for the poorest communities called SODIS (www.sodis.ch). Since the earthquake in January, this program of teaching communities to produce their own clean drinking water has been operating in Haiti through the work of one of our partners, the Medical Ambassadors of Haiti (Community Health Evangelists) and their village health workers.

Yesterday, ministry funds from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the American Baptist Churches were given to help purchase and transport medical supplies (IV solutions, oral rehydration salts, bleach and soap), procured by Christian partners in the Dominican Republic. These funds will also be used to help set up treatment centers to care for the very sickest, as well as to contain the spread of the infection to the communities through health education, prevention and primary health care to partner community health centers.

We have been in communication with our CBF Field Personnel nurse, Jenny Jenkins, in the south in Grand Goave and Port-au-Prince. She, and ABC Missionary, Deliris Carrion, are working together to prepare the local communities for the possible arrival of cholera cases in their area. To date, she has reported one cholera case hospitalized in Grand Goave having arrived from the Artibonite. The Haitian Public Health Department is planning to set up cholera treatment centers. We are in the process of trying to help provide cots for these centers through the help of our partner, Missionary Flights International.

If a large number of cholera cases develop here in the north, there is currently a concern that there will be a shortage of IV fluids, oral rehydration salts, and antibiotics. The World Health Organization and the international communities are involved and may be able to supply the needs for Haiti in time. At this time, there are questions and concerns that remain.

We ask for your prayers for protection for all at risk in Haiti, for the necessary education and prevention measures to be implemented, for the necessary medical supplies to reach the sick, and for strength and wisdom for those working in Haiti at this time that we all might serve in Christ-like love.