AMURT/EL has been busy like bees. Ac. Cirasmita (see her diary) was escorted by a UN Convoy from Santo Domingo, has arrived in Port au Prince, and is staying at Didi Ananda Jiiva Prema's school, and has begun medical relief already. The truck they bought is loaded with medical and food supplies. Eknath and his wife and Dadaji Vimaleshvarananda, recently from Venezuela, have begun setting up a camp office in Santo Domingo. The US and UN are setting up a protected corridor between PAP and SD so that travel should be relatively easy. Dharma is staying with a wealthy Haitian near Didis' school, who has volunteered to help us by shipping and trucking supplies from Miami through SD to PAP on a regular and frequent basis. Krsna Priya and Ciranjiivi have loaded up a station wagon with medical supplies. She is to drive it to Philadelphia tomorrow, where Sarita has arranged a huge supply of medical and other supplies donated by local hospitals with the help of the local Haitian Professionals alliance. Krsna Priya is then driving a 24-foot rented truck down I-95, stopping in Smithfield and elsewhere, picking up supplies from Pashupati and also from the folks in Asheville. Anybody with food or medical supplies or water purification or other goodies is welcome to contact her along the way. Phone number is 802-380-3503. They rented a truck too large so as to accommodate additional supplies. She'll unload in Miami, and then the goods will be shipped to Haiti as above. Ciranjiivi and Pashupati are planning to go to Haiti shortly, perhaps at the end of this week. They will set up clinics at Didi's school and Dada's school as well, and help to coordinate future physician visits as well as setting up interactions between other clinics in the area. Dada Gopalkrsnananda is alive and well, and the school building in Delmas 31 is minimally damaged. He is already doing food distribution based on supplies left over from the school previously provided by World Food Program. Dharma is arranging for barbed wire to be placed on the school walls for security purposes so it can be better utilized as a staging ground for clinics and food distribution. Manavendra has joined medical students from Johns Hopkins in doing assessments of injured patients. Amber is coordinating them, as well as coordinating other groups in caring for children. Dharma has come up with a proposal, after consultation with others, that we will establish several Child Friendly Trauma Evacuation Centers within several hours walking distance from Port au Prince, for housing and rehabilitation of orphans and children whose parents can't take care of them. Formal proposals to be submitted shortly to funding agencies. Didi Ananda Jiiva Prema is alive and well and functional, taking care of the children she houses, and just returning from a successful retreat in Dominican Republic. The AMURT/EL board members, along with many ad hoc members of the team, meet nightly via conference call to update and plan. This is going well. Our next plan is to identify team leaders so that Sarita and Dharmapriya, who have done tremendous work so far, can delegate some of their current duties. The teams include: # • Recruiting for Emergency Response Team in Santo Domingo Additionally, we are looking for skilled people for the following tasks, to spend at least 1-2 weeks, and preferably more, in Haiti. They would then rotate off and hand their charges to the next people coming on. * Photojournalists Those interested should please contact Dharmapriya (Dinali Abeysekera) Donations can be sent through amurt.us, amurt.net, or amurtel.org. Pashupati (Steve Landau)  |
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... Ananda Marga ... |
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