Brethren Disaster Ministries staff have directed allocations from the
Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to SHARE to support schoolchildren in
Angola, and to the Shepherd Society of Bethlehem Bible College in
Palestine.
An allocation of $17,000 responds to a SHARE appeal
aimed at providing food resources, bicycles, wheelchairs, school
materials, and hygiene kits to children affected by almost three decades
of protracted civil war in Angola. SHAREcircle has been a partner
organization to Brethren Disaster Ministries, along with the IECA Church
in Angola, for more than a decade. The grant will support students in
three schools in Bié, Kwanza Norte, and Kuando Kubango provinces and
will provide shipping of material aid to Angola from the Brethren
Service Center in New Windsor, Md. As part of a larger coordinated
relief program, the resources and material aid increases the likelihood
of SHARE receiving a USAID grant for a food package program.
An allocation of $15,000 to the Shepherd Society in
Bethlehem, Palestine, the charitable arm of Bethlehem Bible College,
will aid Palestinian people living in the West Bank who find themselves
confined to their towns without adequate employment. “Bethlehem is under
occupation and the separation wall makes business difficult,” said the
grant request. “The poorer segments of society lack insurance and social
security. The result is a despairing people reaching for hope.” The
allocation will provide support and relief to a minimum of 500 needy
people in the Bethlehem area with urgent medical care and a family food
subsidy. The Global Food Crisis Fund also is making a similar allocation
(see related report from the GFCF).
In more disaster relief news:
A week of rain in eastern New York State resulted in some minor
flooding in the small town of Middleburg on June 14. Middleburg is about
six miles south of the current Brethren Disaster Ministries project
housing in Schoharie, and is in the service are of partner agencies to
Brethren Disaster Ministries. The majority of the homes affected only
experienced flooding in the basements, though a handful did have water
in the first floor. The creekbeds in the region were still loaded with
silt that had been deposited during the flooding in Aug. 2011, resulting
in a considerable mess, reports team leader Tim Sheaffer. The Brethren
volunteers who were in Schoharie for the week had already left, but the
leadership team of Sheaffer along with Larry and Alice Petry and Adam
Braun, joined with associates from World Renew and local volunteers the
next day to assist in clearing out ruined furniture, flooring, and
carpeting, and clearing driveways and basements and a couple of first
floor homes. The effort was coordinated by partners at Schoharie
Recovery.
Florin Church of the Brethren in Mount Joy, Pa., is hosting a
district Emergency Clean-Up Bucket assembly to help replenish the
depleted supply of buckets warehoused at the Brethren Service Center in
New Windsor, Md. The two-day event June 28-29 starts each day at 9 a.m.,
with lunch provided. The project is sponsored by the Brethren Disaster
Auction and organizers hope to assemble a total of 1,700 buckets. RSVP
to 717-898-3385 or 717-625-4918.
Source: 6/28/2013 Newsline
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