As disaster relief and aid continue to flow into Haiti in response to the mammoth January 12 quake that shook the nation down to its very core, local churches and organizations are also doing their part to help their neighbors in the Caribbean.

Local congregations of the Seventh-day Adventist Church have recently participated in two international collections that will be used to bring relief and supplies to help rebuild the country’s flailing infrastructure.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church of Boone recently donated canned food, collected during a November drive, to provide nourishment to the nation’s famished inhabitants. These contributions will ultimately be given to Adventist churches and its supported organizations in Haiti.

According to Communications Secretary JoAnne Brown of the SDAC of Boone, the church’s presence is felt throughout the Hispaniola Island. Haiti currently boasts a membership of 300,000 hailing from hundreds of churches nationwide. The church also oversees the operation of 167 hospitals and 450 clinics throughout the country as well as a handful of educational centers.

Seventh-day Adventist, Brown explained, is a denomination that has “always had an interest in health” and often contributes supplies and donations whenever disasters - such as the Hatian earthquake - leave people destitute and in need of medical attention.

“We do this because Jesus healed and we felt this was a way to really touch people through the Gospel,” Brown said.

One of the church’s hospitals, Brown said, is located approximately one mile from the quake’s epicenter and is still operational despite the fact that many of the area’s surrounding buildings lie in ruins. The hospital is one of the few treating victims on the island and is currently seeing over 300,000 patients per day. Makeshift tents have been erected in front of the hospital, Brown explained, to give care to those patients who are too afraid to enter the building following subsequent aftershocks.

A local Adventist-founded university, which received minimal damage during the quake, is now open and treating patients in tents scattered throughout the campus. A Seventh-day Adventist distribution center, also unscathed by tremors and the quake, was instrumental in giving supplies to the needy in a city that is riddled by the corruption of its government, Brown said.

Despite the recent successes the church has seen in the days following the quake, it has been met with its own share of hardships. Approximately 115 churches were destroyed by the quake and 500 members lost their lives in the immediate aftermath. Over 25,000 Haitians who call themselves Seventh-day Adventists are without a home tonight. Perhaps one of the more heart wrenching destructions occurred when the roof of one Seventh-day Adventist church collapsed during the middle of a children’s choir practice killing 40 people. Within a day’s time, Brown explained, the church’s congregation was seen standing in the same spot where the devastation had occurred, distributing food and supplies to the needy.

Local churches are not alone in their fight to allocate aid and foodstuffs for victims of the quake. The Cutter’s Ede, in coordination with Edge Ministries, is currently accepting tarps and tents for victims to use as shelter. Danna Little said the salon will be accepting items that can provide easily transportable shelter. To date, The Cutter’s Edge has collected ten tents but workers are optimistic that that number will soon increase with the departure of inclement weather.

To donate a tarp or tent to a Haitian victim, call (336) 246-4251or drop by the salon at 15 N Jefferson Ave in West Jefferson