Brethren Disaster Ministries responds to Indonesia, flooding in Georgia.

The Brethren Disaster Ministries program is responding to recent disaster situations with a grant for relief work following an earthquake in Indonesia, and the sending of a Children’s Disaster Services team following flooding around Atlanta, Ga.

Brethren Disaster Ministries has been monitoring the situation since two earthquakes hit Indonesia last month, and a massive tsunami swept over the South Pacific island of Samoa and surrounding islands in late September.

Disaster staff have been monitoring both situations through Church World Service, a longtime ecumenical and international partner. CWS Indonesia staff have reported that the level of damage in the earthquake that hit Sumatra at the end of September was "far worse" than the Sept. 2 earthquake that rattled West Java. CWS is responding to both earthquakes in Indonesia, providing non-food relief items such as family tents, blankets, and relief kits.

An allocation of $15,000 has been given from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund to CWS for work in Indonesia following the Sept. 2 earthquake, a 7.2-magnitude quake that struck West Java Province.

The grant will help provide supplies and shelter to 900 households, or about 4,500 people, in four remote communities that are among the worst-affected. In the four villages, most of the houses were destroyed by the quake and only a limited amount of aid has been able to reach the area in part because of limited road conditions. CWS has been assisting with food, blankets, tarpaulins, tents, hygiene kits, baby kits, and mosquito nets, and now plans to help the villagers with new shelters made from bamboo sheet walls, beams, and tarpaulin roofing.

In the Atlanta, Ga., metro area severe flooding has affected thousands of families. Judy Bezon, Children's Disaster Services (CDS) associate director, returned on Sunday from a week-long CDS response in Marietta, which she coordinated with a team of six volunteer caregivers. The team provided care for more than 100 children affected by the floods.

Brethren Disaster Ministries also is continuing three rebuilding project sites in the United States: a new project site in the Winamac, Ind., area in response to severe flooding last year; an ongoing project in Hammond, Ind.; and an ongoing site in Chalmette, La., where homes are being rebuilt following Hurricane Katrina.

Source: 10/7/2009 Newsline