Noel hits the Dominican Republic/Haiti

Hello friends!

I know that many of you have been concerned for the DR as the news of the tropical storm Noel has come out. Here are the stats from the morning paper in the DR regarding the devastation counts:

30 provinces in red alert
56 dead
27 missing
58,328 evacuated
14,582 houses affected
21 highways and bridges affected
682 people rescued
52 communities isolated (cannot reach other communities due to flooding and/or bridges destroyed)

VisionTrust is not a relief organization, but we have found out about families of the children in two of our shools that were completely devastated. Below is an email from Nelson, our director in the DR concerning those families.

"Last night finally I could talk to the pastor in La represa, we’ve been calling the numbers we have everyday but not answer,, last night was the day we could talk. I was very sorry to hear about the disaster for that poor community, as you know they are located between rivers, all of those were very high and the streets of La Represa were full of water, in the area were the school is because it is on a higher part of land the problems were minimum, but were the pastor and his family lives, all of thos houses were haft way under water. Pastor Tomas and Sonia his wife lost everything, beds, couch, everything in the house is gone, and the house it self is full of Mud, the same with the church. Many of the children’s houses also lost everything.

In Sabana Perdida, Paulina, our director mentioned that some of the student’s houses were under water too for 2 days, and they lost everything they had.

Could this be a moment to share this need with some friends and raise some funds to help these families, they would appreciate any help, I would suggest to provide a new bed, some plastic chairs, clothing, etc.

Between La Represa and Sabana Perdida we can identify 10 families and help them. Each family may represent a help of 500 dollars, I would guess.

Let me know if this is something we can do."

If you feel compelled to make a donation to help these families, please mail it today to Visiontrust International, PO Box 50524, Colorado Springs, CO 80949. Please indicate that it is for the DR relief project.

In Christ,
Casey