Brethren grants support food needs in Sudan, aid to Iran.

Three grants from the General Board's Global Food Crisis Fund (GFCF) totaling $32,900 will be directed at food needs in Sudan. A grant of $20,000 from the board's Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) will support earthquake recovery in the city of Bam, Iran.

The grants for Sudan will be given through the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC), which is based in the south of the country. Sudan has suffered from a decades-long civil war between the mostly Muslim and Arab north and the mostly Christian and African south.

Nyal, an area of Sudan that has suffered the most from the civil war, according to Ross Kane of the NSCC, will benefit from the GFCF allocation of $12,400 to fully fund a women's gardening and tailoring project to generate income and improve diets.

A GFCF grant of $8,500 for a women's bakery in Rumbek County in the lake region of Bahr El Ghazel, home to a cluster of international relief and rehabilitation programs and a population of 300,000 that includes an influx of internally displaced people, will fully support the construction of the bakery and a store where bread will be sold. Women launched the project to deal with their lack of employment, and the income generated will enable the women to meet the needs of their families and send their children to school.

To alleviate the burden on women grinding grain and to generate income for churches suffering from abject poverty caused by the war, grinding mills are being built in five towns in Yei County, southern Sudan. The project will cost $32,000, toward which GFCF is giving $12,000. The grant was sought by the NSCC on behalf of the Sudan Pentecostal Church, and will help construct mills and buy a truck and fuel for use in training and supervising workers. The income from the mills will be used for evangelism.

Responding to a Church World Service appeal, the EDF grant will fund psycho-social assistance to the needy—especially children—in Bam, as well as prefabricated housing and earthquake-resistant housing for families outside the city. A devastating earthquake Dec. 26, 2003, killed an estimated 42,000 people, injured another 30,000, left 1,800 children orphaned, and destroyed more than two-thirds of the buildings. An initial EDF grant provided $35,000 for food, medical supplies, and blankets. "The wake of this disaster has left many emotional scars and much humanitarian need," said Roy Winter, director of the board's Emergency Response program. "The reconstruction of homes and lives will take years."

Source: Newsline 4/16/2004 top