SPECIAL REPORT

CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN SUPPORTS TSUNAMI RELIEF EFFORT OF CHURCH WORLD SERVICE.

Church of the Brethren disaster relief is supporting Church World Service (CWS) relief work in Asia following the earthquake and tsunami of Dec. 26. Enormous tidal waves swept across the Indian Ocean striking coastal regions of Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Burma, Malaysia, and low-lying islands that make up the Maldives. The Associated Press estimate of the death toll from the disaster stood at 67,000 on Dec. 29, reported the General Board’s Emergency Response director Roy Winter, who said that number is expected to increase in the days and weeks ahead.

CWS is focusing initial support in at least three of the hardest-hit areas in Indonesia, India, and Sri Lanka; and is sending initial emergency material assistance shipments with a value of more than $900,000. It deployed an emergency assistance team Dec. 27 from its Indonesia office to aid in recovery efforts in Aceh, Indonesia, the hardest-hit area on Sumatra’s northernmost tip. CWS also deployed an emergency response team to Sri Lanka. In India, CWS is supporting regional response by longtime partner Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action. The material assistance as of Dec. 29 included 500 family shelter kits; 75 Emergency Medicine boxes that will provide basic medicines and antibiotics to 75,000 people for three months; 44,000 Gift of the Heart Health Kits; and 5,000 light-weight blankets. CWS also is undertaking regional deployment of rapid response support and emergency material airlifts of additional shelter and hygiene materials.

Acknowledging the personal struggle to face such a disaster during a time of celebration of the Savior’s birth, general secretary Stan Noffsinger urged Brethren to remember that “all who perished and all who survive are created in the mind of God, as we all have been. We feel so hopeless,” he added. “We can’t all jet off (to Asia), yet what an opportunity to show our goodwill. The appropriate people will be there. Our presence is not the gift, our unselfishness is our gift.”

The Emergency Response/Service Ministries program of the denomination’s General Board is requesting an initial grant of $30,000 from the board’s Emergency Disaster Fund to support the CWS effort, and expects to send more funds in the near future, Winter said. Staff at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md.—which warehouses relief supplies for CWS and other agencies—will be shipping light-weight blankets, health kits, and IMA medicine boxes as part of the response.

“We need churches to respond by shipping more health kits and financial support,” Winter said. “Our focus will be to purchase relief supplies closer to south Asia because of all the shipping costs when sending from the US. A good example is the family shelter kits which Church of the Brethren funding will support,” he added.

Contributions to the tsunami relief effort can be sent to the Emergency Disaster Fund, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120. For information about how to assemble Gift of the Heart Health Kits go to www.churchworldservice.org/kits. For more information about the disaster and for situation reports from Church World Service, see www.cwserp.org.

Newsline is produced by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, director of news services for the Church of the Brethren General Board, on the first, third, and fifth Friday of each month, with other editions as needed. Newsline stories may be reprinted provided that Newsline is cited as the source.

I.M.A., Member Agencies and Local Partners in South Asia Mobilize Emergency Response in Wake of Tsunami
Vickie Johnson

Interchurch Medical Assistance, Inc. (IMA), its Member Agencies and their overseas partners are in the earliest stages of responding to the devastation in South Asia caused by a tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake on Sunday, Dec. 26. With the death toll continually mounting, current figures cite more than 50,000 dead between 12 countries, with Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Thailand suffering the most damage. Additionally, millions are homeless, and the World Health Organization warns that cholera epidemics, malaria outbreaks and other communicable diseases could double the death toll.

I.M.A. is currently processing a request from Church World Service to send 75 I.M.A. Medicine Boxes each to Sri Lanka and Indonesia. We anticipate that the first 75 Boxes for Sri Lanka will be packed and ready for air shipment within a week, with the 75 Boxes for Indonesia following almost immediately. I.M.A.'s pharmaceutical donors have expressed interest in donating additional medicines and supplies for the relief efforts as appropriate.

I.M.A.'s Member Agencies, working in partnership with local churches and organizations in the affected countries, have committed to supporting a massive response, supported by their church constituencies.

I.M.A. is also accepting donations, which will be used for processing and shipping the 150 Medicine Boxes requested by Church World Service and to support the growing response of its Member Agencies to meet emergency health needs in the affected countries.

The immediate response by I.M.A. Member agencies is as follows:

• CWS (Church World Service) has initiated a collaborative response among its 36 Member denominations. The CWS Indonesia office staff is assessing the affected area in that country. In Sri Lanka, CWS is planning to send an emergency assistance team from its regional office in Pakistan/Afghanistan, and the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka, a CWS partner and member of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) has already started responding to the emergency. In India, CWS partner CASA (Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action) will be working with the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India to assess emergency needs. Currently I.M.A. is processing a request from CWS for 75 I.M.A. Medicine Boxes each for Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Blankets and CWS Health Kits will also be part of shipments to two countries.
  
  
• The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Week of Compassion has supported the CWS collaborative response with an initial grant of $6,000. Local Disciples church partners are also responding, including the Church of North India, Church of South India and the Jaffna Diocese in Sri Lanka.
  
  
• Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has committed $100,000 initially to the relief effort, working with partner churches in the countries involved and through global ecumenical networks such as CWS and ACT.
  
  
• The United Methodist Committee on Relief will be working with partner church-related and other humanitarian agencies, including Church World Service in Indonesia and CASA in India, in providing food, clean water, shelter, and sanitary services in a broadband of nations from Asia to Africa.
  
  
• The United Church of Christ has pledged $10,000 from the One Great Hour of Sharing special offering for humanitarian aid to support the CWS/ACT collaborative relief effort.
  
  
• American Baptist Churches USA will support the relief effort through their contributions to the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering. American Baptist missionaries in Thailand report that local churches and relief agencies and the government are collaborating in a coordinated and efficient relief effort, and the Thai government has been doing a superb job of coordinating search and rescue operations in all the areas affected.
  
  
• The Church of the Brethren, in addition to supporting the CWS/ACT collaborative response, will coordinate the packing and shipping of material assistance jointly with I.M.A.
  
  
• MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) has designated $75,000 as an immediate response, with the expectation of an increased response as partner organizations in the affected countries assess the damage and identify the needs. MCC staff in Sri Lanka working with MCC's partner, Y-GRO (a Sri Lanka-based development agency), are assisting local churches by packaging relief supplies and accompanying a medical team to areas damaged by the tsunamis. Other local MCC partners in Sri Lanka include Gospel House and Agape Medical Mission. Currently, a total of 18 MCC workers reside and work in the four countries hardest hit.
  
  
• LWR (Lutheran World Relief) is working with two church groups in India. According to LWR’s director for Asia and the Middle East, an estimated $6.2 million will be needed for the relief efforts. LWR has committed $20,000 initially, with the expectation of raising $500,000 to $1 million in additional relief funds.
  
  
• Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International - has committed $500,000 for emergency assistance. ADRA is on the ground in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and India responding to and assessing the damage. Basic supplies such as blankets, shelter, drinking water, water containers, chlorine tablets, personal care kits, and mosquito nets are already being distributed in some areas.
  
  
• ER&D (Episcopal Relief and Development) is reaching out to affected dioceses in the Church of South India, Church of Ceylon and Church of the Province of South East Asia and will provide emergency assistance such as food, potable water, temporary shelter and medicine.
  
  
• The Vellore Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, has sent a relief team headed to help in south India and will provide financial assistance for the relief effort.

Source: IMA News