Groups building health care kits to send to Haiti

For 14 years, Gail Capper and her husband, Stan, a dermatologist at the Wichita Clinic, have gone to Haiti to help people who live there.

When the devastating earthquake hit earlier this month, the Cappers intensified their efforts to help.

They are joining with three local churches — College Hill United Methodist, First United Methodist Church and Goddard United Methodist — to invite Wichitans to help prepare health kits.

The kits will be sent to the United Methodist Committee on Relief and then on to Haiti.

Each kit should placed in a sealed one-gallon plastic bag and include: hand towel, washcloth, comb, nail file or fingernail clippers, bath-size bar of soap, toothbrush and six adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages. The specifications for each item can be found at http://tinyurl.com/ybazlpx.

Capper said the kits will be collected until Feb. 12 and can be dropped off at any of the churches.

At least one school has joined the effort. Capper said a third-grade class at College Hill Elementary prepared 40 kits last week and will work on more this week.

Each kit contains about $12 worth of items. In addition, people are asked to donate $2 per bag for toothpaste and shipping.

"Anyone can collect and put kits together," Capper said. "We will box them up and ship them to UMCOR. We want to just get as many as we can possibly get. These type of kits have been used in disasters throughout the world and designed to help those most in need."

For more information, call Capper at (316) 683-5370 or College Hill United Methodist at (316) 683-4643.

This story was originally published January 26, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Groups building health care kits to send to Haiti."