The Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) team serving at the Surfside building collapse in Florida returned home after a six-day deployment, due to low numbers of children in the facilities.
Brethren Disaster Ministries staff have directed a grant of $15,000 from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to the Rwanda Church of the Brethren. The grant will be used to help families who have been displaced by the eruption of the Mount Nyiragongo volcano. In related news, an EDF grant of $20,000–representing a donation from The Meat Canning Committee of the Church of the Brethren districts of Southern Pennsylvania and Mid-Atlantic–has been given to Proyecto Aldea Global (PAG) in Honduras for a chicken-raising project to aid survivors of Hurricanes Iota and Eta.
In updates from Brethren Disaster Ministries and Children’s Disaster Services (CDS), the rebuilding project site in North Carolina has been closed, with the prospect of reopening the site this fall. CDS has sent a second volunteer team to Texas to work with migrant children and families at the border
The Church of the Brethren’s Material Resources director Loretta Wolf has issued a plea for more donations of Church World Service (CWS) disaster relief kits. The Material Resources staff process, warehouse, and ship disaster relief materials and other goods working out of the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md.
Brethren Disaster Ministries has directed grants from the Church of the Brethren Emergency Disaster Fund to COVID-19 response in Nigeria through Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) and the worldwide COVID response by Church World Service (CWS). Another grant supports CWS relief work in Indonesia and Timor-Leste following flooding. A grant also has been given to support a humanitarian response at the southern US border by Children’s Disaster Services (CDS).
Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) has deployed a team to work with children along the US/Mexico border in Texas. This CDS team will be on location for two weeks, providing creative play opportunities for the children and much needed rest for their parents before the next leg of their journey. Since arriving in Texas, the team has been averaging 40 to 45 children per day in the CDS center.
Brethren Disaster Ministries is one of the organizations working with the Miami Valley Long Term Recovery Operations Group to build homes for tornado survivors in Trotwood, Ohio. A groundbreaking took place April 14 on the first two Trotwood homes as part of the Tornado Survivors Pathway to Homeownership Project (Pathways Project).
Staff of Brethren Disaster Ministries and Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) are monitoring the situation at the southern border of the United States as numbers of migrants increase, in particular the conditions for families with children and unaccompanied minors.
An allocation of $37,850 from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) supports the coastal North Carolina rebuilding site of Brethren Disaster Ministries. The project in Pamlico County, N.C., is rebuilding and repairing homes affected by Hurricane Florence, which hit the area in September 2018. Partner agency Pamlico County Disaster Relief Coalition reports that around 200 families have not completely recovered, almost two and a half years later.
Brethren Disaster Ministries has directed two grants from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to assist the hurricane relief work of partner organizations in Central America. The grants respond to needs following two hurricanes that have hit Central America this month, Hurricanes Eta and Iota.
