Community Covenant Church - Haiti Tent Drive

The earthquake in Haiti is the most devastating event to ever happen in our hemisphere.  The death toll will match or surpass the 250,000 people lost in the tsunami.  The need for food, medical, and shelter is beyond our imagination even having experienced Katrina.  The capital city, Port-au-Prince, looks more like “ground zero” after 9/11 than our minds can comprehend.  The shelter is inadequate in the emerging tent cities and the rainy season is only weeks away.

Since President Rene Preval's request for 200,000 tents, we have been working diligently searching for an outlet to ship donated tents and to figure out the best way to help make a difference.

 

"Competition for tent homes has boiled into arguments and machete fights, a sign of the desperation felt by the hundreds of thousands of people without homes struggling for shelter in this wrecked city. Haiti's president has asked the world for 200,000 tents and says he will sleep in one himself." (Associated Press article, by Jonathan M. Katz and Ben Fox, 1/26/10) 

We have been involved in relief efforts over the past month and are well aware of the situation on the ground.  The need for tents to serve as short-term shelter has dwarfed the ability of the world to meet the short-term needs of the people of Haiti.  As a result, we decided to conduct a Tent Drive, February 21st – February 28th, as part of the local relief effort.  We are asking that new or “gently used” tents (no heavy canvas) that can accommodate 2-8 people be given in this tent drive.  You can drop off your tent(s) at Community Covenant Church, Monday-Friday (8am-7pm), Saturday-Sunday (9am-5pm). 

Due to our involvement in the relief effort, we have been able to develop a shipping and distribution system for tents to the people of Haiti.   We are confident that the tents that are collected will be distributed the first week of March to both the outlying areas and to Port-au-Prince – wherever there is need.  We believe that we can accomplish this for about $10 per tent.

 

We need your help:

Donate a Tent – Everyone and anyone can donate a tent. New tents can be purchased from any local store and contributed but, we are asking that “gently used” tents be given as well (that would be the tent you purchased and used a few times that is now in the attic!).  The tent must be in good repair (no heavy canvas), sleep 2-8 people, have all poles, stakes and lines for set-up and be packaged as a single unit with the number of people it will sleep marked on the outside.  It would be helpful if you could assemble it ahead of time to insure the above criteria.  In addition to the tent, we are asking for a $10 donation per tent to cover shipping and distribution costs.  Tax receipts are available.

We also want to ask you to consider starting a “Collection Location” in your neighborhood, business or any organization you are associated with.  

Collection Locations – A business, church, organization, school, and even a neighborhood can be a “Collection Location.”  To become a “Collection Location” simply promote the tent drive to those you can influence and ask them to bring their donated tent(s) to your location and then transport the tents you collect to the nearest “Drop-Off Point.”  If you would like to be a “Collection Location” please review the “Collection Location” form (on our resource website).  Within our website there will be additional links to various resources and instructions that you will need.   

If you know of another church that would be interested in becoming an additional “Drop-off Point” we would like you to contact them and work to enlist their support. 

Drop-off Point– we invite other churches to become “Drop-Off Points” for donated tents throughout the region.  This involves advertising, staffing, inspecting, packaging and delivering donated tents back to Community Covenant Church.  If you would like to be a “Drop-Off Point” in your local area, please review the “Drop-Off Point” Agreement (on our resource website), fill it out, and email it back (e-mail address included in the Agreement).

Lastly, we need volunteers to help receive, inspect, package and help to ship the tents.  If you can help in this effort please fill out the volunteer form. You can drop off your tent(s) at Community Covenant Church, Monday-Friday (8am-7pm), Saturday-Sunday (9am-5pm).

We sincerely hope you will become a part of this effort to help our Haitian neighbors.  If you have questions, e-mail them to sean@communitycovenant.org or call 508-222-9400 X102.  

Thank you for your support – we are “Better Together."

 

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