SBC disaster relief volunteers may be mobilized due to flu
By Mickey Noah
ALPHARETTA, Ga. – The Southern Baptist Convention’s considerable, nationwide disaster relief resources and assets could be deployed if the Mexican swine flu epidemic escalates to the pandemic stage.
“Now is the time for Southern Baptists and churches to prepare,” said Mickey Caison, team leader for the North American Mission Board’s adult volunteer mobilization team in Alpharetta, Ga.
As of 9 a.m. Weds., Apr. 29, Associated Press reports the swine flu has claimed its first victim in the United States, a 23-month-old toddler in Texas. The number of U.S. swine flu cases stands at 68. South Carolina is now the latest state – including Texas, New York, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, California and Kansas – with at least one confirmed case of the swine flu. New York City has the most cases with 45, followed by 11 in California, six in Texas and two in Kansas. In Mexico, 159 have died from the virus. Cases have also been verified in New Zealand, Great Britain, Canada, Scotland, Spain, Israel, Austria and Germany.
The World Health Organization has raised its Pandemic Alert to “Phase 4” (Phase 6 is the highest). Phase 4 denotes verified human-to-human transmission of an animal or human-animal influenza able to generate community-level outbreaks.
Caison, a long-time disaster relief expert within the SBC, said Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers out in the states and NAMB staff would be asked to serve in several ways if the flu continues to spread.
“For several years, we at NAMB have had a good working relationship with the CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control) since we’re both located in the Atlanta area,” Caison said. “And our state disaster relief directors also maintain close working relationships with state and local health departments.”
Caison said early on, SBC’s 90,000 trained disaster relief volunteers could be asked to help distribute vaccines, medications and help in inoculation centers. “It would take a lot of manpower to do this in the first three or four days,” he said.
Federal and state government agencies might also want to utilize the SBC’s various communications channels to disseminate information quickly to the public.
“They could use our existing networks like Baptist Press, our NAMB disaster relief website and other DR and volunteer networks to get the word out from the CDC,” said Caison.
In one scenario using Mississippi as an example, Caison said vaccines could be shipped in to Jackson by a federal agency, and Mississippi Baptists would help distribute the medicine throughout the state.
“Jim Didlake, our DR director with the Mississippi Baptist Convention, has particularly strong relations with the state health and local health departments there. Our volunteers could be asked to physically unload the vaccine and help monitor the situation. We could also provide volunteers to assist citizens coming into the inoculation centers and handle things like taking names, providing resources and offering snacks,” Caison said.
Caison was quick to add that SBC disaster relief teams would not launch feeding operations in the traditional way feeding is done during times of natural or manmade disasters.
“With a flu pandemic, you don’t want to congregate a crowd of people in one central place because of the potential of contamination and spreading the disease. Instead, we might do some feeding like “Meals on Wheels” where the meals are taken out to the people and left on doorsteps,” said Caison, adding that flu victims would probably be eating soups, Jello and other canned goods anyway.
With a flu pandemic, the federal government would strongly discourage the assembly of people, so work locations might close and employees asked to work from home. Schools and churches would be closed.
Cliff Satterwhite, disaster relief director for the South Carolina Baptist Convention, is already meeting with the mayor and other officials of the City of Columbia. For four years, Satterwhite has been a member of South Carolina’s State Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Response Team.
“We’re a partner at the table on this team because South Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief is the largest volunteer disaster relief organization in the state,” Satterwhite said. “We have 6,800 trained volunteers, more than Red Cross and The Salvation Army. We come to the table with a lot of people.”
South Carolina Baptists, the other 41 state conventions and NAMB also have assets – feeding, shower and medical units – that could be mobilized if necessary. Overall, Caison said the SBC – its state convention DR teams and NAMB – has more than 2,000 units to deploy.
“A lot of people don’t take this seriously, because it always happens somewhere else,” Satterwhite said. “They don’t take it seriously and don’t get alarmed if someone in Texas or New York has it.”
He said the South Carolina DR teams already have been under considerable stress in 2009 because in the last seven weeks, local volunteers have battled ice storms in Kentucky, seven tornadoes in South Carolina, recent fires in Myrtle Beach, and soon could be involved in projects involving the swine flu epidemic.
“But we’ll be on standby if we’re called,” said Satterwhite, who’s headed South Carolina’s disaster relief program for 20 years.
“You really have to think about how you do everything,” Caison said. “Churches would have to re-think how they would minister to members and to their communities. Churches couldn’t hold worship services, would have to cancel their ball games – anything that congregates people.”
Satterwhite agrees. “This is when you’d have to get creative with your ministries,” he said. “Churches would have to do things differently. Since they would be discouraged from having worship services, they could stream their worship service via the Internet. Churches could maintain members’ giving with online payment systems.”
A key ministry churches would have to sustain is emotional and spiritual care for flu victims and their families, according to Bruce Poss, disaster relief coordinator for NAMB.
“Chaplains would be greatly needed,” Poss said, “especially by those who might suffer serious illness or lose loved ones to the flu. Churches also would need to consider a sometimes forgotten group -- its shut-ins, disabled and the infirm.”
For additional information on preparing for an influenza pandemic, SBC churches can access several sources. For instance, click on www.namb.net and access “NAMB Disaster Relief shares flu guidelines.”
The Mississippi Baptist Convention also has a booklet called “If A Disaster Strikes, Are You Prepared?” available on its web site, www.mbcb.org. The book has a lengthy section on “Preparing for Pandemic Influenza.”
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