Volunteers from Children’s Disaster Services, a program within
Brethren Disaster Ministries, are at work in Moore, Okla., helping care
for children and families affected by the tornado that devastated the
town on May 20. As of Wednesday morning, the volunteers have provided
care for 95 children.
In related news, Brethren Disaster Ministries staff have directed a
$4,000 grant from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund
to support the Church World Service relief effort in Oklahoma. The grant
responds to a CWS appeal for the affected communities. CWS has been
communicating with local, state, and National Voluntary Organizations
Active in Disaster (VOAD), along with local groups, to assess the need
for supplies such as clean-up buckets, blankets, and hygiene kits. CWS
anticipates need for long-term recovery support and training and expects
to provide long-term recovery groups with seed grants.
Brethren program cares for children
Over the long weekend, two CDS teams initially set up two child care
areas at Multi-Agency Resource Centers (MARCs) at Little Axe Elementary
School and West Moore High School. The the school sites were two of the
four MARCs that were opened in the Moore area on Saturday, May 25.
The CDS volunteers in Oklahoma have included Bob and Peggy Roach, Ken
Kline, Donna Savage, Beryl Cheal, Douetta Davis, Bethany Vaughn, Josh
Leu, and Virginia Holcomb.
Established in 1980, CDS works cooperatively with FEMA and the
American Red Cross to provide care for children and families following
disasters, through the work of trained and certified volunteers who set
up child care centers in shelters and disaster assistance centers.
Specially trained to respond to traumatized children, the volunteers
provide a calm, safe, and reassuring presence in the midst of the chaos
created by disasters.
The CDS teams served several children at the Little Axe center on
Saturday and Sunday, before that center closed. The two teams were then
consolidated at the West Moore High School center.
The CDS team has received comments of appreciation for their work.
“Several Red Cross people came over and expressed appreciation ‘for the
great job you are doing,’” Bob Roach wrote in his report to Brethren
Disaster Ministries executive Roy Winter. FEMA staff stopped by the CDS
child care center “and praised the program and what we were doing at the
MARC,” Roach wrote.
The group also took part in a moment of silence on Monday, May 27, at 2:56 p.m., to mark the one week memorial of the tornado.
Donations to the Emergency Disaster Fund will support the response by Children’s Disaster Services. Go to www.brethren.org/edf or send a check to the Emergency Disaster Fund, Church of the Brethren General Offices, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120.
NCC leaders express grief over the tragedy
The National Council of Churches Governing Board, which was meeting
the day after the tornado struck Moore, issued a statement expressing
“agony and grief” in the wake of the natural disaster. Church of the
Brethren general secretary Stan Noffsinger was one of those at the
meeting.
“There are no words to express the agony and grief that lie in the
wake of killer tornadoes this week in Oklahoma,” the statement said, in
part. “As we gather today as representatives of the 37 member communions
of the National Council of Churches, we and the millions of members in
our congregations weep for those who have lost loved ones and property.
Our prayers go out especially for the bereaved whose losses cannot be
overestimated. There are few things in life more painful or more
difficult to understand than natural disasters over which we have no
control. We beseech a loving God to be a powerful presence in the lives
of those who have lost so much.”
Source: 5/30/2013 Newsline
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