wfn.org | CWS Responds to Afghanistan Earthquake

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Coucnil of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Wendy S. McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227
Internet:  news@ncccusa.org

58NCC6/9/98         FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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EDITORS: When listing organizations receiving funds
for humanitarian response to the Afghanistan
earthquake, please include: CHURCH WORLD SERVICE,
Attn. Afghanistan Earthquake, #976309, P.O. Box 968,
Elkhart, IN 46515.  Phone pledges or credit card
donations: 1-800-762-0968.

CWS, a ministry of the National Council of Churches,
works in more than 70 countries, including the U.S.,
in disaster relief, human development and refugee
assistance.
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CHURCH WORLD SERVICE RESPONDS TO AFGHANISTAN
EARTHQUAKE

 NEW YORK, June 9 ---- Church World Service
(CWS) is responding to a second devastating
earthquake which hit Afghanistan on May 30, killing
an estimated 4,000 people.

 CWS and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) will
concentrate efforts on 1,500 households in 15
villages of the Rustaq District, with a planned
distribution of 1,500 tents, 3,000 blankets, and
1,500 food baskets.

 CWS will provide $30,000 from its Blanket Fund
and will appeal for more funds from its member
communions to support a $102,925 appeal by Action by
Churches Together International, a worldwide network
of churches affiliated with the World Council of
Churches and Lutheran World Federation that
cooperate to provide humanitarian aid and relief
programs.

 CWS and NCA have been jointly implementing
relief activities since the February earthquake,
after which ACT appealed for $235,000 to provide
seeds, fertilizers and agricultural tools.  Partners
in Afghanistan include the Norwegian Project Office
and the Cooperation Center for Afghanistan (CCA),
which have been implementing a rehabilitation
project.

 The earthquake-which measured up to 7.1 on the
richter scale-damaged a wide area in northern
Afghanistan.  Some villages were totally destroyed,
having been swept down mountainsides into valleys.
At least 1,000 people were injured and at least
60,000 left homeless.

Poor roads and a shortage of helicopters have
hampered relief efforts in the area such that local
authorities had to arrange a convoy of food carried
by donkeys and horses so that survivors could eat.

Weather is also a factor.  The affected region
is harsh, unforgiving land, with extreme
temperatures ranging from 100s at day to below
freezing at night.

 The earthquake came at a particularly bad time
for the region, which had been gradually limping
back from the severe devastation caused by the
February earthquake.

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