wfn.org | Disciples support Zaire, Rwanda emergency appeals

[DISCNEWS.parti@ecunet.org]

December 4, 1996
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
Email: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the web: http//www.disciples.org
                              

96b-98

     KANSAS CITY, Mo. (DNS) -- The disaster relief, refugee
assistance and self-help development ministry of the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has pledged at least
$30,000 toward a $500,000 Church World Service appeal for
the refugee crisis in eastern Zaire and Rwanda.

     Half of the CWS appeal will support emergency food and
shelter responses through Actions by Churches Together. The
remainder will back Church World Service medical clinics,
development projects and resettlement efforts with orphaned
Rwandan children.

     The pledge highlighted several actions taken Nov. 22-23
by the Week of Compassion committee. The advisory body also
approved the 1997 WOC operating and program budget and four
development projects.

     The Disciples of Christ have already sent $6,000 to
Zaire and Rwanda from the Compassion Response Fund,
according to the Rev. Johnny Wray, WOC director. Regional
assemblies in Georgia and Illinois/Wisconsin recently gave
more than $6,500 toward the $30,000 denominational
commitment.

     The four projects approved for priority fund support
were a literacy and micro-enterprise project for women in
Zaire; a Habitat for Humanity global grant from San
Cristobal, Mexico; a women's tailoring venture in Eritrea;
and a Women in Livestock Development initiative with Heifer
Project International. 

     Forty-six such priority projects in 25 countries have
been approved or funded during 1996.  

     In other action the committee adopted a $2.1 million
program budget and an operating budget of $240,000 for 1997.
The committee also increased the 1996 Compassion Response
Fund by $25,000 to $375,000. The response fund adjustment
will enable Wray to support anticipated appeals from
flooding in Honduras and India, for winter assistance in
Chechnya and other potential year-end emergencies.

     Members also heard an update on the situation in Bosnia
and on the status of WOC projects there from the Rev. Paul
Wilson, Europe secretary for Church World Service and
Witness.

     Two new committee members -- Susan Weagle, Dartmouth,
Nova Scotia, and Bob McCallister, Indianapolis -- were
welcomed and the Rev. Robert Hill was named as the new WOC
chairperson. Hill is pastor of Community Christian Church in
Kansas City. 

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