Southeast Georgia missionaries respond to Haitian earthquake

BRUNSWICK, Ga. - MAP International officials worked feverishly Wednesday to clear the way for shipment of the Brunswick-based humanitarian organization's first wave of medicine and medical supplies to help earthquake victims in Haiti.

The Christian relief organization initially is sending $2.7 million in general medications and medical supplies to the island nation devastated by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake Tuesday night.

"This is just our initial push. We expect to be there long-term," said Michael Nyenhuis, MAP president and chief executive officer.

Emergency supplies that include antibiotics, pain relievers, gauze bandages and suture materials will be sent from MAP's Brunswick warehouse and other sites.

"We are coordinating three or four different cargo shipments," John Garvin, MAP's director of humanitarian affairs and relief.

The supplies will be distributed through MAP's extensive network of partnerships with medical and relief agencies already working in the country.

One shipment from Brunswick is destined for hospitals and clinics in the capital of Port-au-Prince. A larger MAP shipment en route from Europe contains enough medicine and medical supplies to sustain 10,000 people for three months, said Garvin, who is going to Haiti to help coordinator the distribution.

MAP has been working with health-care providers in Haiti for 40 years. Organization officials said they have been in touch with hospitals, clinics and medical teams who are treating the injured.

Southeast Georgia residents also were mobilizing to help the earthquake victims. Beaver and Kathy Brooks of Much Ministries in Waynesville, scrambled to contact friends and colleagues in Haiti. The Brooks and others from the ministry have been volunteers at a Christian orphanage in Port-au-Prince, led by former Jacksonville resident, Dorothy Pearce.

Pearce was able to call her son right after the earthquake, and he passed the word that she and Much Ministries volunteers Natasha Taylor and Amanda Taylor, had not been injured, Beaver Brooks said.

Another missionary has let them know that the orphanage's children also were all right, and the building was in good shape, he said.

To help, Kathy Brooks has booked a flight Friday assuming the Port-au-Prince airport remains open. Her husband said he also will go as soon as he can.

Another person planning to leave as soon as possible is Bo Mann of St. Simons Island. He also had volunteered at the orphanage, and at a school during past church mission trips to Haiti. Natasha Taylor is a friend, and co-worker at his coffeehouse, Wake Up Coffee Company on the island.

"The people we know are all safe, but a lot of others aren't," Mann said. "We're going to close up shop ... do whatever we can do to help."

teresa.stepzinski@jacksonville. com, (912) 264-0405