Dear Pro-lifers,
Louisiana and Mississippi pregnancy resource centers are in desperate need of our help. Four New Orleans area pregnancy resource centers were destroyed by Katrina, and it is unclear how incapacitated the Mississippi PRCs are, because no one has been able to get through to any of their directors.
That's the bad news. The good news is that five of eight Louisiana abortion clinics were also destroyed.
The PRCs in Baton Rouge, Shreveport, and other outer Louisiana areas have been inundated by families needing diapers and formula. Area hospitals are also asking the centers to recover post-partum patients.
The formula companies say they have sent huge shipments to the area, but they're not getting to the PRCs.
I spoke with three PRC directors in Louisiana yesterday, and they gave me a list of their greatest needs. We are going to collect donations in the Chicago area over the weekend at Parkview Christian Church (11100 Orland Parkway, Orland Park, Illinois 60467), and a semi is going to deliver them to Louisiana on Monday (September 12).
Here are the needs, in order of urgency:
1. Formula: Advanced Similac with iron; Enfamil with iron; any other formulas - dry, condensed, or ready to serve
2. Diapers, especially newborn
3. Infant car seats
4. Pedialyte
5. Bassinets
6. Baby wipes
More than that, the PRCs desperately need money. They need to finance mobile medical units to go into the devastated areas as they are accessible. A director told me that there is lots of giving going on to churches and relief agencies, but the PRCs are being overlooked.
Donate directly online to: www.ctlm.org. These funds will go to finance mobile medical units and restore pregnancy care centers.
We also need money to pay for the semi truck gas. (The truck and driver's time are being donated.) Donations for gas can be made to Concerned Women for America of IL, P. O. Box 188, Palos Heights, IL 60463.
There is also a need for volunteers to go to Louisiana and stay for a week or two or longer, particularly men for protection. A nurse at the Shreveport PRC says she will help find housing.
Dorothy Wallis, director of Caring to Love Ministries in Baton Rouge, told me that Planned Parenthood was on the ground within 72 hours, handing out morning-after-pills at the shelters.
The only things standing in the way of spreading God's truth and love to these abortion-vulnerable familes are money and hands. Please help.
Thank you very much,
Jill Stanek
