Thursday, September 08, 2005

Newsline Update on Brethren Response to Hurricane Katrina

NEWSFEATURE
Brethren begin Disaster Child Care and clean-up projects following Hurricane Katrina.

The Church of the Brethren's Disaster Child Care program and the General Board's Emergency Response/Service Ministries have begun projects in several areas as the Brethren response to Hurricane Katrina grows. In addition, two more grants have been given from the Emergency Disaster Fund, and trainings are being offered for more child care volunteers.

Disaster Child Care (DCC) began providing child care on Sept. 7 in three Red Cross Family Assistance Centers. The centers are providing services to displaced citizens who have been relocated to Grand Rapids, Mich.; Denver, Colo.; and Kingwood, W.Va. Plans are underway to deploy child-care volunteers to Wichita, Kan.; Cleveland, Ohio; and Pensacola and Gulf Breeze, Fla.

"In order to expand our pool of Disaster Child Care volunteers for this large response, we will be adding training events to the schedule," said Helen Stonesifer, DCC coordinator. Information on training events is available at www.disasterchildcare.org.

Brethren Disaster Response will begin a clean-up project on Sept. 13 in the Southeastern District of the Church of the Brethren. Cedar Creek Church of the Brethren in Citronelle, Ala., is opening its facilities for both clean-up volunteers and one team of child-care workers. Citronelle is just 35 miles north of Mobile, and can be a staging point for a number of southern Alabama and Mississippi communities. To volunteer to take part in this project, call 800-451-4407.

Shipments of relief materials from the warehouses at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md., continue to the Gulf Coast, as well as to areas where displaced citizens are being relocated. Over 60,000 pounds of Church World Service blankets and Gift of the Heart Kits have been packed by Service Ministries staff and shipped to Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Arkansas.

Interchurch Medical Assistance, Inc. (IMA) has responded to a request from Church World Service for 20 IMA Medicine Boxes to help meet the basic health care needs of displaced people in two shelters in Louisiana. In this first-ever domestic response in the US, IMA is being supported by its pharmaceutical donors and receiving generous cash donations from its online constituency.

Two grants have been made from the Emergency Disaster Fund this week, in addition to an initial grant of $15,000, bringing to $45,000 the total given from the fund for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts so far.

An allocation of $25,000 supports the Emergency Response/Service Ministries relief efforts including deployment of Disaster Child Care volunteers, emergency training for new child care volunteers, support for Brethren Disaster Response volunteers at the Brethren Service Center, and support for Church of the Brethren congregations in Alabama, Louisiana, and other states responding to the needs of survivors.

An allocation of $5,000 provides funds for the Southern Plains District of the Church of the Brethren. The money will assist the district in providing aid to hurricane survivors being sheltered near two Church of the Brethren congregations in Louisiana.

To contribute to this effort, donate on-line (see below) or send a check made out to the Emergency Disaster Fund to 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120.

Source: 09/08/2005 Newsline
top
On-line donation service is up and running.

Brethren and others can now help Hurricane Katrina survivors and other disaster survivors by donating to the Emergency Disaster Fund on-line at the denominational website www.brethren.org. The website also can now receive donations for other General Board programs.

"Thank you for your generosity that enables the General Board to continue in ministry on your behalf," said Becky Ullom, director of Identity and Relations. She reported that since the on-line donation service went live last Friday afternoon, more than $6,000 has been received on-line for the hurricane relief effort.

The General Board's funding staff is encouraging Brethren to check at their place of employment for information on any "matching donation program" that may be available to employees. Such programs would enlarge the value of a donation to the Emergency Disaster Fund. Contact the funding staff for the appropriate EIN number to validate the General Board's 501C status as a nonprofit organization, call 800-323-8039.

Links follow for specific donations:For questions or problems related to this new service, contact Becky Ullom at bullom_gb@brethren.org or 800-323-8039 ext. 212.

Source: 09/08/2005 Newsline
top
Brethren website to feature daily updates on hurricane relief efforts.

The Church of the Brethren website www.brethren.org began this week to feature daily updates on Brethren relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina. The General Board communication staff plan to add updates to the site each business day, as new information becomes available. Click on the button "Responding to Hurricane Katrina" or go directly to http://www.brethren.org/genbd/ersm/NewsUpdates.htm.

Source: 09/08/2005 Newsline
top
Christians around the world pray for hurricane survivors.

Expressions of care and concern are being received from Christians around the world, who join Christians across the US in prayer for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

The World Council of Churches expressed its compassion and solidarity in a press release on Sept. 1. "The whole fellowship of the World Council of Churches unites in prayer for the people, leaders, and churches of the United States as you come to grips with the tragedy," read the release, which quoted Hebrews 13:20-21. "We pray for those who mourn, who suffer, who search for meaning. We pray the time will come when even those who are now most troubled in spirit will rediscover the hope of resurrection. We pray for those who have perished and are already safe within God's eternal keeping. And we pledge our solidarity with those who have begun the task of rebuilding broken walls and restoring stricken lives. In particular, we hold in our prayers all the church relief agencies, workers, and volunteers who are struggling to assist those in need."

In just one sample of such letters being received by the National Council of Churches, Christian leaders in China wrote: "At this time, please be assured of Chinese brothers and sisters' concerns and prayers for those who lost their family members, friends, and valuable possessions, our hearts are with them." The letter from the National Council of TSPM and the China Christian Council continued, "We also pray for those who are managing to survive, those who are participating in hard succoring work, and those who are committed themselves to rebuild homes and communities."

Source: 09/08/2005 Newsline
top
Brethren are asked not to make unsolicited donations.

A Church World Service staffperson issued a request this week to members of churches involved with the relief agency, not to send in donations of unsolicited goods--meaning clothing and other items that have not been requested by relief agencies. Such donations only confuse and complicate the hurricane relief efforts, CWS staff said in a conference call with leaders of denominations in the National Council of Churches.

Stan Noffsinger, general secretary of the General Board, echoed the request. He pointed out that at this time it is most helpful to follow the suggestions issued by the Emergency Response/Service Ministries staff asking for donations to the Emergency Disaster Fund and donations of Gift of the Heart Kits (see www.churchworldservice.org for instructions to assemble and send kits).

Source: 09/08/2005 Newsline
top
The Church World Service response: 'This is about human integrity.'

(Note to readers: The following has been excerpted from a longer report from Church World Service, received on Sept. 6. The Church of the Brethren supports the work of Church World Service through grants from the Emergency Disaster Fund and the work of Brethren staff in New Windsor, Md., who prepare shipments of relief materials.)

As Church World Service (CWS) disaster response specialists were deployed to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas this past weekend, CWS executive director and CEO John L. McCullough returned from a tour of post-Katrina Louisiana.

McCullough, an African American, says CWS is intent on collaboration with and harnessing the strength of African American churches and policy leaders on behalf of New Orleans' poor blacks, first devastated and now evacuated and scattered around the country. "This is not a problem about gas and oil, but about humans and human integrity," he said.

"In one week, we are seeing a new version of the Trail of Tears," said McCullough, "only this time due to natural disaster, in which New Orleans's poor survivors who had little resources to begin with have finally been rescued but are being transported en masse to temporary shelters in Houston and Dallas, from San Diego to Cape Cod. Others are scattered in homes and temporary shelters elsewhere in Louisiana."

"These people's lives are shattered, many have lost family, been separated from family or children during evacuation," said McCullough. Our assignment, he said "is helping these people rebuild their lives, find new homes, recover from the trauma, and know that they are important, that they are not abandoned."

CWS is one of the first agencies called by FEMA in times of national disaster, along with the Red Cross and Salvation Army. In addition to providing emergency aid and material resources, CWS specializes in helping establish community-based, longterm recovery assistance organizations to serve vulnerable populations. CWS's global experience in refugee resettlement and in working with uprooted people in conflict countries will especially be called upon in this US disaster.

Linda Reed Brown, CWS associate director for Domestic Emergency Response, said Katrina's aftermath "requires new roles for Church World Service, our disaster response staff, and the interfaith organizations who will be serving in this current refugee situation."

"We're essentially responding to three different disasters," said Brown. "Normal hurricane response in the northern parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and other affected states; extreme hurricane disaster along the Gulf Coast shoreline; and the almost unprecedented New Orleans refugee crisis. Even in Mississippi and Alabama, where more traditional response work around flooding and wind damage is in order," she noted, "those areas too may be affected by the refugee situation."

"There are a reported 109,000 persons registered at Red Cross shelters in outlying areas of New Orleans. But there are also hundreds of unofficial local shelters across Louisiana alone, including civic buildings and many churches," Brown said. "We are concerned about the capacitation of temporary shelters in the region and how long can they or will they operate." Officially, there are no shelters south of Interstate 10, but in actuality communities are full of them. These temporary shelters need help with next steps.

In a meeting convened by the Louisiana Interchurch Council in Baton Rouge, McCullough stressed that cooperation and not competition among faith groups "will help consolidate their role as advocates for survivors who are coping with an unimaginable disaster in destruction and scope."

Staff of CWS are in south Texas and assisting Houston Interfaith Ministries in providing relief for survivors now at the Houston Astrodome; in Louisiana helping the Louisiana Interchurch Council in assessing outlying areas of New Orleans; and in Mississippi, helping to revive previously established recovery structures along the Gulf Shore and assisting in the coordination of long-term recovery organizations active in other areas of the state. CWS estimates as many as 20 recovery organizations may be organized and resourced to carry out long-term recovery in Louisiana, Mississippi, northwest Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

Responding to immediate emergency needs, Church World Service delivered relief supplies valued at $99,381 to Baton Rouge Sept. 5, which included 5,000 Gift of the Heart Health Kits and 5,000 blankets. Some 135 Gift of the Heart Health Kits and 100 blankets were shipped to Houston Interfaith Ministries, an ecumenical alliance of dozens of churches, to assist a United Methodist church in Victoria, Texas, housing 200 displaced persons. Some 1,500 CWS blankets were shipped to Terrebonne Readiness and Assistance Coalition. Over the Labor Day weekend, CWS readied a shipment of 20 Interchurch Medical Assistance (IMA) Boxes containing enough essential medicines and antibiotics to serve 20,000 persons for up to three months. Fifteen boxes will go to the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, La., and five boxes will be used at the Baton Rouge River Center Shelter.

"When the Mississippi River flooded in the summer of 1993, the people of Bangladesh sent to Church World Service in the United States a cargo shipment of burlap bags and tea," said CWS North Carolina regional director Joseph Moran. "The Bangladesh people had seen photos of people in river communities frantically filling burlap bags, and of church volunteers serving them hot drinks and were deeply moved. What was remarkable about this," added Moran, "was that two-thirds of the country of Bangladesh lies below sea-level. Their own country gets flooded every year during monsoon season, resulting in the deaths of thousands at a time. Something happened this past week," said Moran, "that reminds us that the world is a caring place."

Source: 09/08/2005 Newsline
top
Credits
Newsline is produced by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, director of news services for the Church of the Brethren General Board, on every other Wednesday with updates and special reports as needed. Newsline stories may be reprinted if Newsline is cited as the source. Kathleen Campanella, Vickie Johnson, Becky Ullom, Ann Walle, and Jane Yount contributed to this report.