News outlets are reporting that seventeen missionaries (sixteen American and one Canadian), including three children, have been kidnapped in Haiti by one of the gangs operating in the area around Port-au-Prince. The missionaries have been identified as being a part of Christian Aid Ministries out of Ohio and is associated with Mennonite and Amish groups.
The group of missionaries was returning from visiting an orphanage in Fond Parisien on Saturday and were en route to their home base in Titanyen when their bus was hijacked and taken over by gang members. Unfortunately, this is an increasingly common occurrence in the country.
At the current moment, both the State Department and the CDC have listed Haiti as a Level 4 Travel Advisory “Do Not Travel” due to heightened violence and COVID transmission rates.
In light of this, NCC UMVIM strongly urges any team planning to travel to Haiti to postpone missional-exchange until such a time that the multiple threats have decreased. Missional Exchange Grants for missional-exchange to Haiti will not be approved until further notice.
You may reach out to NCC UMVIM at umvim@nccumc.org or the Conference UMVIM Coordinator, Miles Baker Hunt, at mhunt@nccumc.org for further guidance on missional-exchange.