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HOTLINE - week of August 29, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
CWS focuses on the long-term following Irene, flooding; As World Water Week concludes, CWS a voice for ethics; CWS staff responds to flooding in Pakistan; In Kenya, CWS work continues to help in record drought
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Women haul an 88-lb. sack of maize, or field corn, from a food distribution site in Kibauni, Kenya.
Photo: George Arende
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CWS focuses on the long-term following Irene, flooding
CWS focuses on the long-term following Irene, flooding
CWS Emergency Response Specialists are in contact with FEMA, State Voluntary Agencies Active in Disaster and existing long-term recovery groups who are responding to Hurricane Irene and the storm’s subsequent flooding.
“Our CWS work really gets started when others have finished,” says CWS Emergency Response Specialist Bryan Crousore. “So, even as we are now responding to Joplin’s tornado and the bootheel of Missouri’s flooding, we will be there for the long haul of recovery.”
CWS also helped in advance of the storm. In preparation for use by evacuees in shelters, CWS provided affected areas with blankets and kits. Today, for example, CWS is sending 600 woolen blankets, 600 hygiene kits and 600 cleanup buckets to the Chesapeake (Maryland) American Red Cross.
You can help ensure those most in need get the best help possible. Click here to learn more.
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As World Water Week concludes, CWS a voice for ethics
STOCKHOLM--World and country leaders, water experts and advocates are recognizing the vital values and ethics that faith-based organizations bring to the frontlines of global water and climate change challenges, says David Weaver, Church World Service Senior Advisor for Global Advocacy.
Weaver was among a small delegation of CWS staff participating in the global gathering of water experts, academics, and relief and development agencies like CWS.
Weaver said faith-based agencies are leading others to a mindset exploring “a common way of valuing things we don’t sell on the market. The faith community has been out front that there are these intangible values that are more important than the monetary values of what we put on the market.”
The eco-system itself provides things to human life that don’t pass through a human process, he said.
Find out more about CWS involvement here.
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CWS staff responds to flooding in Pakistan
CWS has worked extensively in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, formerly known as the Northwest Frontier Province. Massive rains have gripped the rugged area north of Islamabad, where CWS has health care programs. More than a dozen have died in the floods, and CWS healthcare teams are standing by in case more assistance is needed. Read more.
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In Kenya, CWS work continues to help in record drought
There are an endless number of stories to tell about this year's devastating drought in East Africa. Across much of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and beyond, more than 12 million people are struggling to survive the failure of seasonal rains, the scarcity of water and the skyrocketing price of food.
"This time is the worst drought we ever faced," an Anglican priest, Rev. Ezekiel Mutua, said in Kaikungu, a rural Kenyan community three hours' drive east of Nairobi. "People have gone without food, two to three days, so it's just surviving by God's grace."
Church World Service and the Anglican Church of Kenya began distributing food in Kaikungu in August, hoping to stave off the worst forms of malnutrition.
Most people believe, however, that the long-term solution to recurrent drought is to capture and store more water in the community. Since 2007, CWS and ACK have helped residents drill a well, build a hilltop water catchment and construct six concrete "sand dams" that hold water in the sandy beds of seasonal streams.
Read more …
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Your support for Church World Service work around the world and in the U.S. is urgently needed.
Your prayers and support - and your participation in CROP Hunger Walks and the Blankets+ Program - make possible these and other life sustaining programs. For information on how to get involved, please call your Church World Service/CROP Regional Office toll-free at 1-888-CWS-CROP, that's 1-888-297-2767.
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