Church of the Brethren Newsline
December 12, 2007
Six grants totaling $65,000 have been given by the Global Food Crisis Fund and the Emergency Disaster Fund, two funds of the Church of the Brethren General Board. The grants target hunger and disaster relief in various areas of Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
A grant of $30,000 from the Global Food Crisis Fund has been given to long-time Church of the Brethren partner, Christian Commission for Development in Honduras. The money supports work with eight villages in the Honduran Commonwealth of Northern Choluteca to develop food security, commercialization, and an alternative financial system for the area’s poor.
A grant of $15,000 from the Global Food Crisis Fund has gone to Church World Service (CWS) following serious food shortages in Zimbabwe. The funds will help provide immediate food assistance, as well as support longer term farming assistance.
A grant of $8,000 from the Emergency Disaster Fund is given to CWS for an escalating humanitarian crisis in Myanmar (Burma). Increased poverty, unemployment, infant mortality, and a poor health care system have caused the displacement of civilians across the border to Thailand. The grant will assist malnourished children, medical care to HIV/AIDS patients, and medical care to children suffering from malaria and dengue fever. Additional support will be given to local partners, the Myanmar Council of Church and the Myanmar Baptist Convention.
A grant of $5,000 from the Emergency Disaster Fund responds to an Action by Churches Together (ACT) appeal following an earthquake in Peru. More than 500 people were killed as well as 53,000 homes destroyed, affecting nearly 200,000 people. The grant supports the rebuilding of homes, restoring irrigation and water supply, and services and training related to psychosocial care.
A grant of $4,000 from the Emergency Disaster Fund in responds to a CWS appeal for humanitarian assistance for some 400,000 displaced people in Somalia. The funds will provide emergency food to internally displaced persons camps.
A grant of $3,000 from the Emergency Disaster Fund is given to CWS responding to flooding in Nicaragua. An estimated 5,000 people have been affected, and the flooding also damaged crops and food and water supply. The money will help provide food rations, medical care, personal hygiene supplies, tools for road repair, longterm recovery phases, community sanitation, and agricultural assistance.
In other news from Brethren relief efforts, the Material Resources program at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md., has been busy shipping containers of material relief supplies and receiving 17 Lutheran World Relief railcars and six piggyback loads of supplies. An annual American Baptist shipment of nearly 32,000 pounds of medical and educational supplies has been sent to the Republic of Congo. IMA World Health shipped a 40-foot container to the Republic of Congo. A 40-foot container of school books was shipped to Ethiopia on behalf of International Orthodox Christian Charities. A 40-foot container of medical supplies was shipped to Kenya on behalf of Global Assistance. Feed the Nations and Lutheran World Relief each shipped a container of supplies to Zambia. CWS sent a 40-foot container of school and hygiene kits and toothpaste to the Dominican Republic. Domestic shipments included 400 clean-up buckets to California wildfire survivors; a bale of blankets to Harrisburg, Pa.; 134 bales of blankets to Louisiana for programs in Armenia; six cartons of blankets to Detroit; 20 cartons of blankets to Texas, for tropical storm victims in Mexico; as well as shipments of blankets and other supplies for the homeless in Longmont, Colo.; Great Bend, Kan.; Manheim, Pa.; and Philadelphia. Volunteers are continuing to help the Material Resources program remove toothpaste from donated health kits, and provide quality control for health and hygiene kits.
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The Church of the Brethren Newsline is produced by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, director of news services for the Church of the Brethren General Board. Newsline stories may be reprinted if Newsline is cited as the source. To receive Newsline by e-mail go to http://listserver.emountain.net/mailman/listinfo/newsline. Submit news to the editor at cobnews@brethren.org. For more Church of the Brethren news and features, subscribe to “Messenger” magazine; call 800-323-8039 ext. 247.