wfn.org | Episcopalians continue to help Hurricane Mitch victims

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

99-2293
Hurricane Mitch relief looks toward the long term

by Kathryn McCormick
 (ENS) In a response that has spanned the church, 
Episcopalians have worked together to ship tons of food, clothing, 
medicines, tools and building materials to hurricane-ravaged 
Central America, but now that the countries hit hardest by 
Hurricane Mitch last fall have faced their direst emergencies; 
planning is beginning to shift toward long-term aid focused on 
rehabilitation.

The Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, for example, 
one of the first agencies to respond after the storm struck, is 
now looking at how it will use the money it has received for 
hurricane relief-well over $1 million, with more arriving every 
day. The Fund has dispensed all it can under its guidelines for 
emergency grants; now it must determine how to award development 
grants to the affected dioceses.

"That money has to be thoughtfully allocated," said Phoebe 
Griswold, wife of the Presiding Bishop and an organizer of an 
informal committee trying to help match grants with imaginative 
projects.

The committee was formed, she explained, shortly before she 
and Ann Vest, former interim executive director of the Fund, 
visited Honduras and Nicaragua last December. Those countries were 
the hardest hit by the hurricane. "Before I left, I wanted input 
from people representing different constituencies in the church 
structure; I wanted to know what stories they wanted me to bring 
back-the different lenses through which the church would view the 
tragedy," she said.

Now, she said, she wants to "see what seeds planted in the 
relief work could grow into good development work."

Water pumps and jobs
She cited the example of the solar water pump donated for 
use in a Honduran village she visited. She said she had marveled 
at how well the man running the pump was making it work 
efficiently to the benefit of his entire community. He confessed 
with a smile that he was a volunteer firefighter with a special 
knowledge of pumps. "I could just see him running several of 
these in a network," Griswold said. The result would be a job for 
him and help not only for his community but surrounding areas.

Thoughtful development could also help in areas where 
forests have been destroyed, she said. There is discussion in 
Honduras of a moratorium on cutting down trees-nearly impossible 
to enforce in areas where wood is the main fuel for cooking. "We 
need alternative energy sources there," she said. "Maybe solar 
power?"

While planning for the long term has begun, others in the 
church have found ways to send help in the wake of the first major 
deliveries of goods.

One of the more imaginative has been "Church in a Box," a 
project led by Sara Jordan, director of the Altar Guild in the 
Diocese of Texas. The project is one of several involving 
collecting vestments, chalices and other church appointments that 
can be boxed and shipped to specific churches in the Diocese of 
Honduras. Nearly half of Honduras' 27 Episcopal churches were 
destroyed by Hurricane Mitch.

Plans call for each box to contain a chalice, paten, 
purificator, lavabo bowl, two cruets, a flagon, linens, two 
candlesticks, Missal, clergy stoles and/or vestments in seasonal 
colors. 

"It will make a big difference to the people there to see 
their church getting back to normal," said Jordan.

The Diocese of Washington, which has a companion 
relationship with the Diocese of Honduras, shipped more than 1,000 
"Family to Familia" boxes packed with household and baby items 
plus tools and medicine to Honduras in December.

The Diocese of Washington has also sent money for the 
purchase of 4x4 dual-cab pickup trucks to help in the distribution 
of supplies in Honduras. Funds raised by the diocese have topped 
$400,000. 

Send checks
Meanwhile, though a number of dioceses in the United States 
are continuing to collect supplies of all kinds, more than one 
disaster relief organization operating in Central America has 
begun saying, "Don't send supplies; send checks."

According to the Miami Herald newspaper, agency heads who 
are still deeply moved by the huge initial emergency response 
point out that local economies are functioning normally now and 
that many supplies can be purchased at home. What's needed now 
are:
* Specialized medicines to treat cholera and other diseases 
resulting from disaster-related conditions. The medicines 
are available; what's needed is money to buy them, local 
experts say.
* Land for farmers whose fields disappeared in mudslides and 
floods. Local officials are trying to buy property in order 
to relocate the farmers.
* Seeds, available locally if farmers have the money to pay 
for them. Most do not.
* Of course, the agencies say, donations of any kind will not 
be refused, but they see a situation growing more urgent 
every day that long-term development-and the jobs and 
security it promises-is less than fully addressed. The New 
York Times noted recently that the number of impoverished 
immigrants fleeing toward the United States from Central 
America has grown rapidly as people look desperately for 
ways to support their families.
* For Phoebe Griswold, development after the disaster will not 
only bring answers to economic questions; it will tell the 
Episcopal Church much about its own identity.
* "I saw how effective we are" in December, she said. "Now, 
what is our charism in the rest of this work?"

--Kathryn McCormick is Associate Director of the Office of News 
and Information of the Episcopal Church.

Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
(212) 922-5383
kmccormick@dfms.org
www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens