Disaster Ministry Directs Grant to CWS Work with Unaccompanied Child Refugees, Material Resources Sends Supplies Following Floods in Detroit

Brethren Disaster Ministries has directed a grant of $25,000 from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to support the Church World Service response to the surge of unaccompanied child refugees entering the United States.

In other disaster response news, the denomination’s Material Resources program has shipped supplies to areas of Michigan affected by flooding. The program received an urgent CWS request to ship 2,000 Clean-Up Buckets to Detroit. The shipment left the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md., yesterday, to be delivered today to the American Red Cross in Michigan.

Grant to CWS for unaccompanied child refugees

The staff of Brethren Disaster Ministries requested the allocation of $25,000 for CWS efforts responding to the needs of thousands of unaccompanied children into the US from Central America. The combination of poor economics and high levels of violence in Central America has resulted in a surge of more than 57,000 unaccompanied children coming into the country already in 2014.

As children seek to escape the violence in Central America, and in many cases reunite with family already in the US, the result is a growing humanitarian challenge and crisis for these children, said the grant request.

The funds will provide Spanish-speaking legal aid to unaccompanied children in Austin, Texas;  religious services, pastoral support, and basic supplies (food, water, clothing, medical care, and housing) to children in New Mexico; and support to children who have been returned to Honduras (not admitted into the US) in the form of food, healthcare, and hygiene services while they live in a designated shelter.

For more about the work of Brethren Disaster Ministries go to www.brethren.org/bdm . For more about the Emergency Disaster Fund see www.brethren.org/edf .

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