Children’s Disaster Services sends team to Texas

A CDS volunteer interacts with children at a shelter in Texas, in an area affected by massive rainfall and flooding from Tropical Depression Imelda in September 2019. Photo courtesy of CDS

Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) deployed a team to Beaumont, Texas, in response to the flooding from Tropical Depression Imelda. The team arrived Sunday, Sept. 22, and began serving children in Beaumont and Silsbee, Texas, the following day.

CDS is a program within Brethren Disaster Ministries. Since 1980, its trained and certified volunteers have been meeting the needs of children and families by setting up child care centers in shelters and disaster assistance centers across the nation. Specially trained to respond to traumatized children, CDS volunteers provide a calm, safe, and reassuring presence in the midst of the chaos created by tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural and human-caused disasters.

The team now in Texas has made 42 child contacts as of the end of the day Wednesday, Sept. 25. The volunteers are expected to complete their assignment and return home on Sunday, Sept. 29.

“Split into two locations, this team is enjoying their time playing with the children in a Red Cross shelter and a United Methodist Church,” reported Lisa Crouch, CDS associate director.

Find out more about CDS and how to volunteer at www.brethren.org/cds . Provide financial support for this ministry through donations to the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund at www.brethren.org/edf .

[gt-link lang="en" label="English" widget_look="flags_name"]