wfn.org | Newsline Special Report

[Church of the Brethren News Services]

Date:      Nov. 13, 1998
Contact:  Nevin Dulabaum
V:  847/742-5100   F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL:   CoBNews@AOL.Com

Newsline - Special Edition                   Nov. 13, 1998

The Church of the Brethren sends a bilingual medical team, other
assistance, to Central America in response to Mitch.

(Elgin, Ill.) November 13, 1998--The Church of the Brethren has
mobilized its disaster response efforts in the wake of Hurricane
Mitch by deploying today a bilingual medical team to Honduras and
by initiating and participating in a number of related response
activities. Hurricane Mitch, which killed over 9,000 people and
left over 1 million people homeless, has been called the western
hemisphere's worst natural disaster of the century.

This storm closely followed Hurricane Georges, which struck 
Caribbean countries the hardest, such as Haiti, Dominican Republic, 
Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The Church of the Brethren General Board 
in October allocated $105,000 in Georges-related projects.

This 11-person medical team, sponsored by the General Board's
Global Mission Partnerships office, is led by Yvonne Dilling,
coordinator of the Church of the Brethren's Hurricane Mitch
response efforts in Central America. It is an advance team that
will be followed by several additional Church World
Service-sponsored teams over the coming months.

According to Dilling, worldwide response to Hurricane Mitch has
been overwhelming. Millions of dollars have been donated and tons
of food and supplies have been sent. And yet at this time, only
trained, bilingual volunteers are needed in the region as many
critical needs have to be addressed quickly by people with labor
and language skills who can make an immediate impact.

Such is the case with the medical team, which consists of 10 Church
of the Brethren members. Traveling with Dilling today are Don
Parker, a Salem, Ohio, resident who serves on the Church of the
Brethren General Board; and Lee Smith of South Bend, Ind. Leaving
Saturday will be Heidi Loomis of State College, Pa.; Ed
Okeson-Ritchey of Rockford, Ill.; Oralea Pittman of Bellefontaine,
Ohio; and Donna Raymond of West Boyleston, Mass. (a member of the
United Church of Christ). Departing within the next two weeks will
be Mara Ramirez of Lancaster, Pa.; Debbie Okeson-Ritchey of
Rockford, Ill.; Roxanne Cross from Michigan; and Ed Myer of
Seattle, Wash.

In addition to assisting the team in providing medical care,
Dilling will consult with the Church of the Brethren's long-time
Central American partners, including Honduras' Christian Commission
for Development (CCD). These partner consultations will allow
Dilling to determine the scale and scope of future relief efforts.
The medical team, in fact, is the Church of the Brethren's response
to an initial CCD request. 

"This medical team was the first thing they said they needed, along
with some grants, so we jumped on that first," said Mervin Keeney,
Global Mission Partnerships director. "That's part of our
partnership. We received the request, we took it seriously, and we
made it happen."

And that's only a small portion of the denomination's response to
Hurricane Mitch. A Brethren study/learning group to Nicaragua, led
by Sue Wagner Fields of Bernville, Pa., was quickly transformed
into a disaster response group that took medicines and money to the
Church of the Brethren partner church, Mision Cristiana, when it
departed for Central America on Monday. The group also took money
to purchase bean seeds, tools, and building supplies. 

The Church of the Brethren General Board and Brethren churches and
members have also been very active stateside.

A handful of Northern Ohio District churches raised more than
$8,000 to purchase medicines for use by the Brethren-sponsored
medical team. Kathy Hess, a physician from Ashland, Ohio, and
former chair of the General Board, was able to purchase the
medicines from a local hospital at cost. A group of Indiana
Brethren, who have an ongoing relationship with the people of
Mulukuku, Nicaragua, also raised $7,000 for relief efforts.

Meanwhile, Emergency Response/Service Ministries, a Global Mission
Partnerships unit directed by Miller Davis, this month allocated
$25,000 from its Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) for several
Nicaragua-related relief initiatives and $24,000 to be used in
Honduras by the medical team and by Church World Service and Action
by Churches Together. 

ER/SM's New Windsor, Md.-based warehouse has maintained a frenetic
pace, shipping thousands of pounds of material aid to Central
America on behalf of Church World Service, the U.S. Office of
Foreign Disaster Assistance, Lutheran World Relief, and Interchurch
Medical Assistance. Twenty thousand health kits; 7,500 layettes;
30,000 five-gallon water jugs; over 1,300 rolls of plastic
sheeting; 9,000 blankets; and 150 bales of quilts; and 210 medicine
boxes that contain 17 prescription and over-the-counter medicines
and medical supplies are just some of the items shipped. (A
complete list follows this release.)

Dilling said the Church of the Brethren will consider long-term
disaster response projects once relief efforts shift from emergency
response to rebuilding and repair efforts.

In the meantime, Dilling said there are ways that people in the
United States can assist those affected by Hurricane Mitch through
gifts of money and needed supplies, and by advocacy letter writing.

Donations can be made to the Emergency Disaster Fund, 1451 Dundee
Ave., Elgin, Ill. An appeal for additional "Gift of the Heart"
health and layette kits has been made by Church World Service, as
the supply at the Brethren Service Center has been depleted.
Information on how to construct these kits and where to send them
is included following this release.

Another substantial form of assistance could come by advocacy
letter writing.

First, a letter to President Clinton seeking more than the $80
million already pledged by the United States is being circulated by
the Washington Office on Latin America. To sign on to the letter,
write to lawg@igc.org or call 202 546-7010. 

A second initiative is to convince the Clinton administration to
forgive the debt owed by Latin American countries, which, in
accordance to the International Monetary Fund, must dedicate a
large portion of their national revenue to debt service. On Tuesday
France forgave the debts owed to it by Honduras and Nicaragua;
Spain has announced that Central American countries could forego
making payments on their debts until 2002, saving $64 million.

Currently, Honduras' total debt is $4.5 billion, Nicaragua's is
$5.9 billion.  

Dilling said it is a sin to leave the burden of debt over these
countries during normal circumstances as they have made interest
payments on what they owe that exceed their debts five times. "But
it is a scandalous sin," she added," to not forgive the debt, given
what Mitch has done to the whole region. Frankly, all of our
construction teams and all of our workcamps are worth nothing if we
don't also lend our voice and do what we can to promote a
forgiveness of the foreign debt."

Brethren seeking additional information on Church of the Brethren
response to Hurricane Mitch can write to mitchcob@juno.com. By
early next week, Christian Commission for Development is expecting
to have pictures placed on its Web site at
www.gbgm-umc.org/honduras/ccd. Pictures related to the Brethren
relief efforts will be placed at www.brethren.org/picthis.htm as
soon as they become available.

                         - 30 -

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL: 

Nevin Dulabaum      
Manager of News and Information Services
Church of the Brethren

******************************************

Items shipped or coordinated with the ER/SM Distribution Center in
New Windsor, MD

Church World Service -- 2 shipments 

400 cartons of health kits    50 kits per carton
3 cartons kitchen kits
50 cartons layette kits       15 kits per carton
65 tents
1 carton water purification equipment

200 bags of powdered milk
100 bags of pinto beans 10,000 lbs.
158 bags of rice    17,380 lbs.
--------------------------------------------------

U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance Shipments

10/30     300 Rolls Plastic Sheeting  
     5000 Water Jugs (5 gallon)   
     10 Water bladder kits (10,000 liter)
Total weight   49,100 lbs. to Honduras

11/3 250 rolls of plastic sheeting
     5000 Water Jugs (5 gallon)
     10 Water bladder kits (10,000 liter)
     6 tap stands
     6 connection kits
     3 tool/installation
     1,000 wool blankets
     3,000 poly blankets 
Total weight    52,750 lbs. to Nicaragua

11/7 To Nicaragua
      200 rolls of plastic sheeting
     5500 Water Jugs (5 gallon)
     2,000 wool blankets
     3,000 poly blankets 

     To Honduras
      400 rolls of plastic sheeting
     15,000 Water Jugs (5 gallon)
     
     To Guatemala
     200 rolls of plastic sheeting
--------------------------------------------------

Lutheran World Relief 

Container scheduled for shipment the week of Nov. 23 to
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
300 bales of Men's Clothing 
150 bales of Women's Clothing
100 bales of Children's Clothing
10 bales of Sweaters
150 bales of Quilts 
     (Each bale weighs approximately 100 lbs.)
50 IMA Medicine Boxes*  (Shipped for distribution byYvonne Dilling)
--------------------------------------------------

Interchurch Medical Assistance

I.M.A. purchased 1,000 doses of Tetanus Toxoid for the COB and
delivered it to Sue Wagner Fields for delivery to Honduras. 
               
200 I.M.A. Medicine Boxes* are being shipped for Adventist
Development and Relief Agency - 100 to Nicaragua and 100 to
Honduras. This shipment of boxes also includes water purification
tablets and medicine to treat cholera

I.M.A. has received product contributions pledged by American
corporations in the amount of $3 million dollars to be used for
disaster response in the Caribbean and Central America.

I.M.A. is working with Church of the Brethren General Board member
Don Parker on a shipment of medicines that exceed $8,000.

10 Medicine Boxes are being prepared for Chet Thomas of Proyecto
Aldea Global in Nicaragua.

*I.M.A. Medicine Box contains 17 prescription and over the counter
medicines and medical supplies deemed essential by the World Health
Organization. Each box will treat the common illnesses of 1,000
people for three months.

********************************************

Respond to Hurricane Mitch with a ...

"Gift of the Heart" 

More than 20,000 health kits and 750 layette kits were sent to
Central America from the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor,
Md., in November in response to Hurricane Mitch. Congregations of
all faiths are now being sought to construct a new supply for
future disasters. Send completed kits to the Brethren Service
Center, 500 Main Street, P.O. Box 188, New Windsor  MD  21776-0188.

Health kits
* One hand towel
* One washcloth
* One comb
* One nail file
* One bar of soap (bath size)
* One toothbrush
* Tooth paste tube (4-7 oz)
* Six band-aids

Bundle all items into the towel and tie it together with ribbon or
yarn.

Layette kits
* Four cloth diapers
* Two shirts
* Two washcloths
* Two gowns or sleepers
* Two diaper pins
* One sweater or sweatshirt
* Two receiving blankets

Bundle items inside one of the blankets; secure with diaper pins.

***************************************************

Hurricane Mitch-related resources

* MitchCoB@Juno.Com, an e-mail addresses established by Yvonne
     Dilling for Brethren to use in seeking information and
     offering assistance.

* Newsline, the Church of the Brethren's semi-monthly news service,
     which can be sent directly as e-mail and is archived at
     www.brethren.org/genbd/newsline/index.htm. To request
     receiving Newsline by e-mail, write to CoBNews@AOL.Com.

* www.brethren.org/genbd/ersm, the web site of the Church of the
     Brethren General Board's Emergency Response/Service
     Ministries.

* www.brethren.org/genbd/ersm/kits.htm, the Web site that contains 
     bulletin-size camera ready copies of the Gifts of the Heart
     appeal for layette and health kits. 

* www.gbgm-umc.org/honduras/ccd, the Web site of Christian
     Commission for Development, a Church of the Brethren partner
     agency in Honduras. Pictures of the disaster are expected to
     be published there during the week of Nov. 15.

* For additional information regarding Mitch or other Church of the
               Brethren Disaster Response efforts, contact --

               Emergency Response/Service Ministries
               500 Main Street
               P.O. Box 188
               New Windsor  MD  21776-0188
               800 451-4407
               jyount_gb@brethren.org