Three organizations carrying out relief efforts in the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian have received grants directed by Brethren Disaster Ministries from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund. The grants, each for $10,000, are going to the Church World Service (CWS) Development and Humanitarian Assistance Program, Feed the Children, and Mercy Chefs.
The Brethren Disaster Ministries response plan focuses on supporting partners providing immediate response and then working toward a larger focus on long-term recovery in the coming months. Children’s Disaster Services is on alert to provide care for children at relocation centers in the US or in the Bahamas if requested by partners.
The grant to CWS supports development of long-term recovery programming in the Bahamas. CWS is part of the ACT Alliance and is sending staff to be part of the rapid assessment team and to start developing a long-term recovery strategy. The grant will support the assessment and early response programming that develops. CWS represents the Church of the Brethren and other US denominations in the ACT Alliance.
The grants to Mercy Chefs and Feed the Children are for emergency feeding programs providing emergency food and water to affected families. Mercy Chefs is a faith-based, non-profit disaster relief organization serving professionally prepared meals for victims, volunteers, and first responders in national emergencies and natural disasters. Feed the Children has pre-disaster established partners working in the Bahamas, in Abaco specifically, and through these partners is coordinating a large-scale relief program providing thousands of meals a day, shipping food and supplies from the US. This will be the first time that Brethren Disaster Ministries has partnered with Feed the Children and Mercy Chefs.
For more about Brethren Disaster Ministries go to www.brethren.org/bdm . To financially support these grants and the work of Brethren Disaster Ministries and Children’s Disaster Services give to the Emergency Disaster Fund at www.brethren.org/edf .