WELLNESS SEMINAR IN TOBAGO

During the weekend of March 5-7 Dr. Hedrick Edwards conducted a seminar in Tobago on the topic of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Wellness. Beginning with an overview of the theme on Friday evening and ending with a dedication ceremony on Sunday evening - with didactic presentations and interactions throughout Saturday - the seminar was extremely well received by the approximately three hundred persons who attended. Based on this positive response, the organizers and sponsors are eager to invite HANDS to lead a similar seminar next year. The hope is that a larger facility could be secured, the wider community invited, and support staff (such as a therapist and a counselor) could be included in the team. Because the need is so deeply felt, HANDS executive is willing to consider any such request.


TAX EXEMPT STATUS RECEIVED
In a letter from the IRS dated March 18, 2010, HANDS was informed that it has been granted Tax exempt status. The letter reads in part:

"We are pleased to inform you that upon review of your application for tax exempt status we have determined that you are exempt from Federal income tax under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to you are deductible under section 170 of the code. You are also qualified to receive bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under section 2055, 2106 or 2522 of the code".

This is great good news, and all HANDS partners and prospective supporters may now breathe a sigh of relief. We wish to thank all those who contributed so unselfishly in the past, even without such clear assurance that their gifts are tax-deductible. Let us take advantage of this new opportunity afforded us by the government to support the programs and projects of this Public Charity agency with our generous contributions. Not a single penny of such contributions will be used for anyone's personal gain or self-interest. Our commitment to minister to the chronic needs of vulnerable populations and to those going through critical crises remains undiminished. In the spirit of Christ, we are volunteers without borders serving the under-served without pay.

Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Wellness Seminar

On March 3, HANDS executive Secretary leaves for Tobago to conduct a five-part seminar of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Wellness

A Letter to Outgoing Executive Director

Dr. Hedrick Edwards, you had a dream of an organization that would bring grace and healing in brokenness. You acted on the idea with dedication and persistence and HANDS International is the result. I applaud you and on behalf of the many who have benefitted from your helping hand I say: Thank you and God bless you.

I am profoundly privileged to join hands with you in facilitating the continued growth and development of this association. Together with the existing team of associates we envision a strong and consistent stream of continued service to those in the most need of it.

The continued blessing of God on our acts of kindness towards others is guaranteed. We are part of this movement because we are compelled by the Spirit of the Lord who has transformed us into a living version of the Gospel, we will find the poor in means and spirit, heal the broken-hearted, free those in various forms of captivity, and support a medical ministry that brings healing to anyone who is sick, without hesitation.

Our main task as a corporation will continue to be to harness human and material resources and organize, direct and execute missions of care in a coordinated, efficient and effective manner.

In the year ahead of us, some of the critical structures necessary to accomplish our goal need to be further completed and set in place. We need people who are dream builders, who have insight into how human systems work, and who want to roll up the sleeves and shoulder some of the weight.

I look forward to a busy, but rewarding year with you, our current and future partners.

Thank you again.

Most caringly,

Tony Brandon
President, HANDS International

CHANGING OF THE GUARDS

Hello Friends and Partners:

Last Sunday, February 7, the HANDS board convened at the Del Rosa Church and completed its annual year-end agenda. The focus of the agenda was on electing new members of the board to replace several whose term had expired. We were pleased that Drs. Lawrence Weekes, Charles David, and Paula Fox were voted in as new board members. Other members to serve for the new term are Norman Mitchell, Linbrook Barker, Naomi Modeste, Antonius Brandon, Paul Thorpe, and Hedrick Edwards. Norman Mitchell was re-elected as chair.

After serving as Executive Director from the inception of HANDS five years ago, I am pleased to have had a part in its creation and its evolution to this point. I am very satisfied with the progress the corporation has made - the principles upon which it is founded, the causes it has espoused, the projects it has conducted. Though still very much a work in progress, it has begun to fulfill its mission of service to the underserved in the spirit of Christ. With that foundation in place, with a core of stable supporters here in the west, and with a widening cadre of enthusiastic partners in the east, I have chosen to step down as the Chief Executive officer and allow for new personalities to assume leadership. Accordingly, I recommended, and the board has elected, Dr. Antonius Brandon (Tony) as the new CEO, who will now be designated as President.

Tony is an ordained minister and an experienced, active clinical psychologist who has been a member on the two action teams during our projects in Guyana and Grenada. I am happy to welcome him to this responsibility for which he is eminently qualified. Let us all now pull together as he leads us to the next level in the development of this service agency. My commitment is unquestioned, and I will now serve as Executive Secretary with Paul Thorpe as Treasurer. In due course others of you will be asked to fill various roles and we do hope that all will serve with the same spirit of exuberance and dedication that has inspired us in the past.

Thanks so much to one and all of our action team members who have helped to stay the course and ventured on the front line during these formative years- to Paul, Daphne, Joselito, Hope, Naomi, Norman, Tony, Julihana, Gus, Beth, Ranju, Steve and Ingid, the Shapiras, Susan, Lester and Ava, and others. And thanks to others who supported with their kind thoughts and generous gifts. Without your smiles and prayers, your passions and perhaps your tears, your personal sacrifice under God's blessings nothing worthy of note could have have been achieved. Thanks, thanks, thanks to
one and all.

Sincerely,

Hedrick Edwards
Outgoing Executive Director, now Executive Secretary, HANDS International

Haiti Relief

Follow the activities of our Delaware partners in Haiti here,
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=haitihttp://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100126/NEWS/1260311
and here:
http://www.delawareonline.com/section/VideoNetwork?bctid=63921861001#/News/Del.+team+returns+from+Haiti/43042526001/42498973001/63921861001

Hello Partners:

As you know, our colleagues leave for Haiti this afternoon. They are prepared, highly motivated and uncompromising in their commitment to put themselves on the frontline in a cause that is much bigger than themselves. How can we who are unable to go to Haiti be a part of this effort? There are three very basic things we can do.

First, we can provide moral and spiritual support to them by writing to Ingrid, Steve, or the Shapira's with words, just words, of encouragement. Second, we can also pray. Pray that they would be protected from danger, be given safe passage through the maze to the most appropriate places of service, and that they will be instrumental in bringing health where there is sickness, hope where there is despair, put a smile on many a sad face, and return with satisfaction and a spirit of renewal. That's why I love so much the prayer-song of St. Francis: "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace, where there is . . ."

Third, we can make a decided effort in helping to raise funds to sustain all phases of this initiative. This first phase is going ahead with whatever has been raised so far. But it will require a great deal more to sustain it. There is no doubt that "we make a living by what we get", but "we make a life by what we give" .

Thanks for the brave effort being made in a time of crisis. As Ingrid has written, all evidence is that God is opening a door. The least we can do is simply go through that door in faith.

Hedrick Edwards


BY THE NUMBERS

THE EARTHQUAKE
• 7.0 magnitude quake hit at 4:53 p.m. Jan. 12
• Aftershocks: 56 of magnitude 4.5 or greater

THE TOLL
• Bodies recovered: 150,000 (includes 54 Americans, 44 Europeans)
• Estimated dead: 200,000
• Rescued from collapsed buildings: 134
• Injured: 194,000
• Children who are unaccompanied, orphaned or lost a parent: 1 million
• People enduring amputations or other surgery: 200,000

THE DISPLACED
• Homeless: 1 million
• Living in makeshift camps: 700,000-800,000
• Tents needed for homeless: 200,000 family-size
• People who have fled Port-au-Prince for the countryside: 236,000

THE DAMAGE AND NEED
• Structures destroyed: 70 percent in broad areas of the capital; 90 percent in towns closer to the epicenter
• Schools destroyed or badly damaged: 90 percent throughout the capital
• People who need food aid: 2 million
• People receiving food aid: 400,000

THE RESPONSE
Backlog of planes waiting to land at the airport: 800-1,000
Flights landing each day: About 140
• U.S. military: About 20,000 troops, 18 ships
• U.N. peacekeeping troops and police: 12,500
• Donations: More than $1 billion from governments, including $575 million from Europe and $316 million from U.S. government, in addition to $470 million in donations through private U.S. charities.

Sources: U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, U.S. Geological Survey; European Commission Monitoring and Information Center; U.S. Agency for International Development; International Organization for Migration; U.S. Department of Defense; The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Save the Children

Haiti: Adventist relief efforts continue in midst of death and destruction
Inter-American Division > Communication Department
Libna Stevens
Jan 20, 2010
Top Seventh-day Adventist leaders in Haiti reported that 522 church members were killed by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake which struck last week. More than 55 churches were destroyed, 60 churches partially damaged and some 27,000 church members left homeless

.

See Adventist Church near Port-Au-Prince International airport on Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/28427041/haitians-helping-haitians.htm

HAITI RELIEF

Re: HAITI RELIEF
Date: Tue, January 19, 2010 5:29 am
To: hedwards@lasierra. edu

Dr Edwards,

Thank you for all the support! We are all gathering tonight 6:30 o'clock to pack, to sort through the donated supplies and have our final meeting before travelling.

We are truly blessed because the newspaper here [The News Journal, Delaware] is sending two journalists with us to do daily reports about the work we will be doing. The U. N. also promised to provide security for us there. God has placed in our path several individuals who have been willing to make calls and get everything moving for us. Our support is tremendous! The hospital here http://www.christianacare.org/body.cfm?id=14 has donated thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies, and we have at least twenty volunteers who will be coming just to help us pack; not counting the volunteers who will actually be going to Haiti. There are about twenty-two of us travelling. Fourteen doctors, at least one from each speciality; four nurses, one physician assistant, two medical school students and I.

1. Dr. Reynold Agard, Newark, internal medicine, Christiana Care
2. Dr. Lester Horrell, Newark, pediatrician, Christiana Care
3. Dr. Nadiv Shapira, Arden, thoracic surgeon, Christiana Care
4. Dr. Steven Johnson, Hockessin, general surgeon, Christiana Care
5. Dr. John Brebbia, Magnolia, trauma surgeon, Bayhealth Medical Center
6. Dr. Kamar Adeleke, Greenville, cardiologist, Christiana Care, St. Francis
7. Dr. Lanny Edelsohn, Greenville, neurologist, Christiana Care
8. Scott Stevenson, Oxford, Pa., physician's assistant, Christiana Care
9. David Brayfield, Newark, nurse technician, Christiana Care
10. Dr. Erin Meyer, Bel Air, Md., internal medicine and pediatrics, Christiana Care
11. Susan Kaye, Brandywine Hundred, registered nurse, Christiana Care
12. Rose Valmond, Bear, nursing student, Christiana Care, native of Jacmel
13. Denise Sanchez, Newark, registered nurse, Christiana Care
14. Joshua Wallace, Ellicott City, Md., mental health associate at Christiana Care
15. Richard Agard, Newark, prospective medical student
16. Ava Horrell, Newark, medical stenographer
17. Cliford Francois, New York, U.S. Army member, native of Jacmel, brother of Rose Valmond
18. Jean Baptiste, New York, native of Jacmel, cousin of Rose Valmond
19. Ingrid Agard, Newark, medical administrator
20. Kern Agard, Philadelphia, emergency medical technician

God is truly in this venture. I have never seen or received such support for any mission and everything just seems to fall into place without any real effort on our part. Another Adventist team of doctors, all Haitians, from New York and Boston area called last night saying they just heard about us and they will be travelling to Haiti on Friday; they want to join forces with us. What a blessing. Again thank you for all the support.

In His service,

Ingrid