CYF Conference Needs Help with Project

CYF Conferees, gathering at Bethany College on July 20, will be joining in mission, creating Church World Service School Kits, as they are desperately needed right now.

You and your congregation can be of help in this worthy effort by collecting and sending supplies for the kits, and/or making cloth bags according to the pattern provided here.  Funds to purchase additional supplies would also be welcome.

Please follow the request for supplies as fully as possible, and we will also be grateful for the funds to help ship them ($2 each).

Send the supplies or completed bags (by July 15) to Bethany Memorial Church, P.O. Box 149, Main St., Bethany, WV 26032. Money should be sent online to the Regional Office or checks mailed there (1402 Washington Ave., Parkersburg, WV 26101) – just note “school kits” on your check memo.

Thank you for participating in this great effort in every way possible, including sharing this news with groups and other individuals in your congregation.  Questions may be addressed to Rev. Kevin Snow.

 

Haiti Update for WV

The hands are busy and the dollars are beginning to flow, and relief is beginning to reach the ground in Haiti.  Offerings for Week of Compassion and Global Ministries are quickly moving from our congregations to help do the work.  Nearly $1000 was collected at Moundsville First Christian Church, and another $1000 at Bethany Memorial Church this week, and many other congregations have called for special gifts. 

Weirton, Bethany, St. Albans, New Martinsville, Wheeling First and other communities are quickly assembling hygiene kits and baby kits  for Church World Service.   The youth of Bethany Memorial Church will hold a SpagHAITI Dinner on Thursday January 28 in the church basement from 4:30 until 6:30.

Northern Panhandle folks will want to note that many Wheeling congregations will gather at Vance Memorial Presbyterian Church for a service of prayer on Jan. 24 at 5 p.m.; offerings will forwarded to Church World Service, and kits will be received and blessed at that service and forwarded through the agency toward those who need them. 

Please keep us informed of upcoming ways your church is responding to the crisis.

 

Storm Response: from Church World Service

The following are excerpts from Church World Service Hotline, regarding the recent storms on the Texas Gulf Coast and also Haiti.

Texas Gulf Coast–(Updated 9/15) After leaving a wake of death and destruction across the Caribbean, Hurricane Ike crashed ashore at Galveston, Texas, on Sept. 13, battering southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana and bringing heavy rains and winds to a multi-state area. Some two million homes and businesses remain without power and at least 30 deaths have been attributed to the storm as it has moved northward, leaving a wide swath of flooding. In some coastal areas, officials estimate it may take up to a month to restore utilities.

Lura Cayton, CWS Emergency Response Liaison, is point person with local response organizations for CWS Texas and Louisiana efforts–from the provision of emergency supplies to long-term recovery training and recovery project development assistance. CWS’ Art Jackson is helping to assess needs in Texas.

Pre-positioned supplies. “In the last week and a half we have sent out huge amounts of material resources–blankets, Hygiene and Baby kits and Clean-up Buckets to both Louisiana and in recent days to Texas as they prepared for Ike,” reports Donna Derr, CWS Director of Emergency Response.

Working in partnership. CWS works with local partners to ensure that people with the most limited means recover from disaster, and has a history of working with long-term recovery groups on the Gulf Coast. A CWS-Habitat for Humanity International grant helped families in Louisiana and Texas re-build following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

How to help. “These last two weeks we have seen an incredible number of urgent requests for kits and blankets. Our kit inventory is rapidly depleting and we anticipate many further requests over coming weeks,” reports Derr. She urges groups to make CWS Kits and hold Blankets+ events–as well as support their local CROP Hunger Walk. “The CWS Kits are needed as soon as possible,” she says.

Church World Service is appealing for CWS Kits and for donations to help purchase recovery supplies locally. Cash and CWS Kits, says Derr, are the best ways to help, both domestically and in the Caribbean.

Caribbean Hurricanes–“Since the passage of the hurricanes, our country is experiencing an economic and social catastrophe,” says Polycarpe Joseph, Executive Secretary of long-time CWS partner in Haiti the Ecumenical Foundation for Peace and Justice. In Haiti, four storms have hit in recent weeks.

“People have lost everything from their homes and have had nothing to eat,” Joseph continues. “It is a situation without precedent in our history. The hurricanes have aggravated the already precarious life of the population.”

Joseph reports that there are more than 800,000 direct victims and more than 672 deaths. About 40% of the agricultural sector is destroyed.

“The people need food, clothing, medicines, plastic sheeting, wood, nails, cement.”

CWS is responding by supporting long-term partners in the Caribbean. The initial CWS response includes providing a grant to Christian Center for Integrated Development in Haiti for immediate relief efforts.

CWS also plans to provide material assistance (blankets, hygiene kits, baby kits and medicine boxes) to our partner church in Cuba, Iglesia Bando Evangelica Gedeon. Read more about CWS response to needs in the Caribbean in the Newsroom at www.churchworldservice.org.

 

Church World Service Hotline: Myanmar Cyclone and More

Our ecumenical outreach through Church World Service regularly posts updates of top concern. This one arrived today. You can check links to be added to their email list to stay up on where the worlds greatest needs may be.

Church World Service Hotline for the week of May 5, 2008, updated May 6 – available in Spanish (linea de noticias) and in podcasts in English and Spanish at www.churchworldservice.org.
– Cyclone hits Myanmar (Burma)
– Global food crisis threatens millions
– Vulnerable families in Pakistan empowering themselves and their communities
– Tornadoes strike parts of south-central and eastern U.S.
– CWS Emergency Clean-up Buckets and Baby Kits needed
– New homes dedicated in Mississippi
– Check out alternative gifts for Mother’s Day

Myanmar–Officials in Myanmar are reporting that more than 22,000 people have been killed by Tropical Cyclone Nargis, which hit the country’s heartland on Saturday (5/3). State radio has reported that another 41,000 people are missing, and as many as one million may be homeless. Three-quarters of the structures in the Irrawaddy Delta region were reportedly damaged by fierce winds, rain, and storm surge. In the storm’s aftermath, prices on food, fuel, and building supplies have shot up 300 percent. The Myanmar Council of Churches reports that communications throughout Burma have been compromised.

CWS is initially providing emergency relief assistance, particularly food packages and shelter materials and anticipates the provision of long-term assistance through several of its partners, among them, the Myanmar Council of Churches. CWS Asia-Pacific Regional Office is coordinating assessment activities that will shape a long-term response. Contributions to support emergency efforts are urgently needed.

Global food crisis–Millions of people across the globe face malnutrition because of rising food prices. In some countries, hunger and starvation are looming threats. The Reuters news agency estimates basic food prices have gone up anywhere from 45 to 80 percent. Hunger kills an estimated 10 million people every year, and as food becomes more expensive even those who were once marginally secure in their ability to find food are in danger of slipping into hunger and malnutrition.

For more on this issue and how Church World Service is helping families to gain food security, visit www.churchworldservice. A fact sheet on the Global Food Crisis is also available for download.

Pakistan–Some 750 rural women in Mirpurkhas, in lower Sindh province, are gaining basic math and literacy skills, becoming aware of social issues, and learning to garden with the help of Church World Service and partner The Lower Sindh Rural Development Association (LSRDA).

The women, who are organized into 25 self-help groups, are developing food- and income-generating strategies. They have received goats, micro-loans to start their own businesses, and assistance in marketing their surplus produce. After a year of participation in the project, the women return the value of the goat to their group and another family is chosen to receive a goat and take part in the program. The LSRDA provides continuing business services to these first-time entrepreneurs through product quality control and linkage to the local market.

Among the program’s signs of success thus far: 150 well-established savings and credit groups in different villages in lower Sindh, an increase in income and savings levels for the participating villages, more goats and other livestock being raised by families, and increased literacy for women. And savings, income, livestock, and literacy are tools that help families feed themselves now and into the future.

U.S. tornadoes–On May 2, tornadoes and high winds tore through parts of the nation’s mid-section. Hardest hit was Arkansas, where seven people were killed. Parts of eastern Texas, Missouri, and Illinois were also affected.
Earlier, severe weather systems during the last week of April caused damage across Texas and Virginia. The strongest of these hit the city of Suffolk. More than 120 buildings were damaged.
CWS Emergency Response Specialists are participating in damage assessments. CWS is ready to provide material resources, training, and project development support to help meet needs that arise from these storms.

CWS Kits–CWS is asking congregations and groups to help replenish the supply of CWS Emergency Clean-up Buckets and Baby Kits for distribution to domestic and international partners. Most recently, Church World Service has provided Emergency Clean-up Buckets to partners in Missouri and Arkansas for clean-up following storms and floods there. And, CWS Baby Kits are being distributed to vulnerable families in Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi.
For more information on the Kits and how your group can help, visit www.churchworldservice.org/kits.

Mississippi–On May 2, 22 new homes built to replace those destroyed by Hurricane Katrina were dedicated in West Gulfport. Sixteen of the homes were made possible in part with grants through collaboration between Church World Service and Habitat for Humanity International. Some 500 houses have been repaired or rebuilt through the joint CWS/Habitat collaboration that began in April 2006, following the 2005 devastation by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The goal by the end of this spring is 645 homes.

Mother’s Day–Looking for a unique Mother’s Day gift? Take a look at the Church World Service Best Gift catalog at www.churchworldservice.org and surprise the special people in your life with “gifts” that bring help and hope to families in need.

Thank you for your prayers and support for the life-sustaining work of Church World Service. Contributions may be sent through your church or directly to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515. Credit card contributions may be made by calling 1-800-297-1516 or at www.churchworldservice.org.
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CWS Hotline sends weekly email updates on Church World Service Emergency Response and program work.
CWS Website: http://www.churchworldservice.org