On Monday, March 25, 2013, Memorial and Grace United Methodist churches sent a team of 14 people, teenagers to senior citizens, to Haiti , as part of the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission. Their project was to help the Thomas school become self-sufficient. Their work includes basic construction, repairs, gardening, painting, water purification, running errands, and teaching basic computer courses. They are completing the major portion of the repair and rebuild of the Thomas school. The team returned safely on April 2nd and are sharing what they have learned and experienced from the trip. (See their Haiti Blog. See YouTube videos from Haiti)
Money sent direct to Haiti won’t get to where it’s needed. Even if they had money, they could not order needed items because the delivery system there is poor. So our mission team TOOK the needed items to Haiti in addition to working on the projects there.
Memorial will continue to support the Thomas School and so donations are still accepted to Memorial for the school. Memorial will be continuing to sponsor mission trips to lend aid to needed areas of the U.S. and world. If you would like to participate in missions in any way, contact the office.
Haiti Flyer (PDF) (Very informative. Meet the team members.)
In the video below, visit the Thomas school where our missionaries worked. Meet Warren McGuffin and other people who worked with our missionaries at the school.
See video about Haiti and Thomas school (15 min)
(video playback trick: If video stops, pause it and come back later to watch. Play & pause will be at the bottom of the window.)
Memorial’s Haiti Blog
UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) has been active in Haiti even before the earthquake. UMCOR has the policy of not just responding to disasters, but maintaining a presence after many disaster relief organizations leave.
Haiti Progress Report, UMCOR publication.