Relief efforts continue

Saturday was quite a busy day for all of those who are involved with the relief effort. Elder Hardick is the Country Director for the church for welfare and humanitarian efforts. Since the rains have been coming down he has been on the phone almost 24/7 trying to direct the relief effort on behalf of the church. He has been coordinating the churches efforts with LGUs and NGOs. He and Sister Hardick are from Canada and have been here for about 1 year. This week has been the busiest since they have been here.

Elder and Sister Hadlock have been in country for about two months. There assignment is that of wheelchair specialists for the country. Since the rains have come their focus has changed and they are now in full calamity mode in putting together all the kits that volunteers are putting together to be distributed around to where there is need. Elder Hadlock has been busy communicating with others in the office with there contacts to make sure we have the product necessary to put the kits together. With all the flooding that has been going on the reliability of getting product here on a timely basis can be very frustrating. Fortunately on Saturday the product was able to come in on a timely basis. Early Saturday morning and around noon rice was delivered to the PAO. The church purchased about 6-7000 pounds of rice. This rice then is packaged out in smaller portions and put in a food kit with other items that will be distributed.

It is amazing the amount of help that is coming from the area stakes and wards. Fortunately school was cancelled for the end of the week and a lot of the employees brought there children in to help. Also there have been many families coming in to donate their time and labor to help fill the kits that will be going out. The count that was taken on Saturday with all the volunteers who have been packing food has been about 150 or so. This doesn't include the full time senior missionaries who have been on the task for the last week.