Ready When Disaster Strikes: FFTP Pre-Positions Supplies in Countries
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (April 28, 2021) With hurricane season almost one month away, Food For The Poor is pre-positioning critical relief supplies to help in-country partners respond immediately if a storm or other disaster strikes.
Beginning this week, the disaster kits will be shipped to the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
Some of the charity’s key U.S. partners provided the items in the kits.
Each country will receive a kit containing 24 boxes of P&G water purification packets from Water Mission, 14 cases of Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier, an oral rehydration solution, 540 Disaster Health Kits with hygiene items from MAP International, 280 children’s activity kits from Midwest Mission Distribution Center, 320 disaster blankets, 180 solar lanterns and 100 tarps.
When disaster strikes, items will be distributed to vulnerable families by the charity’s team members in Haiti and Jamaica, and by in-country partners elsewhere.
In addition to the kits, the charity is sending each of the eight countries a Living Water purification water pump from Water Mission capable of purifying 10,000 gallons of water a day and providing clean drinking water for 5,000 people.
“The people in the countries we serve start at a disadvantage when a hurricane or natural disaster threatens and it can be devastating,” said Food For The Poor President/CEO Ed Raine. “Pre-positioning these supplies is essential to being able to respond immediately and can mean the difference between life and death. We are grateful to our partners who provided the items in the kits.”
The items go beyond the traditional supplies that are distributed to families in need after a storm. The children’s activity kits, for example, will help the emotional well-being of children affected by the disaster.
“When a child has something to do, parents feel more at ease because the child isn’t focusing on the parent’s discomfort or desperation,” said Jisabelle Garcia-Pedroso, FFTP’s Operations Senior Programs Manager. “That really helps the entire family.”
Chantel Corrie, Executive Director of Springfield, Ill.-based Midwest Mission Distribution, personally delivered the children’s activity kits to the charity’s Coconut Creek warehouse earlier this month.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Food For The Poor,” Corrie said. “The children can use these supplies to express their emotions and just take their minds off what has happened. When disaster strikes, our supplies are already on the ground and can get to children as soon as possible to help with their recovery.”
Two shipments of disaster supplies will be kept in the charity’s Coconut Creek warehouse. They will be used to replenish supplies if a country experiences a disaster and partners have to distribute the relief items before the end of the year.
In addition to the pre-positioned supplies, FFTP also organizes emergency aid that can be airfreighted and distributed within days to families affected in any of the 17 countries helped by the charity in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Learn more about the charity’s pre-positioned disaster kits in this video: https://youtu.be/y93opRRBIBM.
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty primarily in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
Michael Turnbell
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
[email protected]
