wfn.org | Episcopalians continue to help hurricane victims

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

For more information contact:
Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
kmccormick @dfms.org
212/922-5383
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-041
The response to Central America's hurricane disaster continues
by Kathryn McCormick

(ENS) Central America's massive hurricane recovery effort has faded from
the front pages of newspapers across the U.S., but in Honduras,
Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Belize, the work goes on.  For
Episcopalians, it means that money is still flowing and volunteers from
throughout the church have signed up for missions to the devastated
areas. 

Some in the church who have visited Central America since Hurricane
Mitch struck last October found they received as much as they gave.

"What an experience-but I was glad to be going home to my bed," was how
Bruce Garner of Atlanta, Georgia, summed up his trip to that country in
March. Garner is a member of the church's National Commission on
HIV/AIDS, which was directed by the General Convention to study the
issue of racism and HIV. 

The commission, which has held hearings around the church, was invited
by Honduras Bishop Leo Frade to listen to the experience of people with
HIV/AIDS in Central America.

"The visit fit with our broader mission," Garner observed in a long
statement he wrote after the commission's visit. "While Honduras has
about 17 percent of the population of Central America, it has 50 percent
of the AIDS cases in Central America. Honduras has some 12,000 cases of
HIV with a total population smaller than that of Georgia."

Garner described what he saw of the aftermath of Mitch: washed-out
roads, walls still streaked with high-water marks and hundreds of people
living in cardboard-and-corrugated-tin shacks.

Then he met with some young Hondurans living with HIV. "There are no HIV
drugs for adults," Garner learned. "The government makes promises but
does not come through. Emphasis is placed on prevention as much as
possible-not on caring for those already sick. The cost of antivirals is
beyond the reach of all but the rich."

The Hondurans told of rampant discrimination, particularly the loss of
jobs when employers learn of someone's HIV status. These employers
included U.S. companies doing business in Honduras. Garner, who is
HIV-positive, was so moved by the Hondurans' stories that he shared his
own medicine with their doctor.

  Later the commission visited a home for children with AIDS, two AIDS
hospices for adults, a refugee settlement and the home for girls run
under the direction of Frade's wife, Diana. Garner noted that a
2-year-old at the home had been diagnosed with HIV, but the other girls
will not allow her to be sent to the home for children with HIV; they
claim her as family. 
Dioceses get involved
Garner's experience left him deeply moved. But he is not the only
Episcopalian from the U.S. who has journeyed to Central America or who
has offered help after the storm, which, according to the U.S. State
Department, left 9,000 dead and 9,000 still missing. Among the dioceses
that already have sent groups and materials are:

The Diocese of Texas In addition to donating nearly $700,000 to the
Honduran recovery effort (including $500,000 from the Cain Foundation
established by Gordon and Mary Cain), 10 volunteers-eight of them
students at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, plus one seminary
spouse and a youth minister from Marshall, Texas-journeyed to Honduras
in January to help distribute food and supplies. ETSS students are
already planning to return to Honduras later this year. In addition a
diocesan relief task force has been helping to organize other efforts to
respond to the disaster.

The Diocese of Newark While it first set a $10,000 goal for funds to
send for hurricane relief, it received $21,000, and its initial
collection of materials filled two 40-foot containers.

The Diocese of San Joaquin Members of St. John the Baptist Episcopal
Church in Lodi, California, immediately filled cartons of gift packages
for children, 65 packages specifically for infants and toddlers and more
than 50 for children from 3 to 14. The cartons were sent to the "Banana
Boat Team" in the Diocese of Texas that was working with the Chiquita
Company, which had made a ship available to transport supplies to
Central America.

Medical mission teams from the Dioceses of West Texas and Mississippi
already have visited Honduras, and plans are under way in many other
dioceses to get involved. The Diocese of Kentucky, for example is
organizing a trip for youth and adults set tentatively for Aug. 3
through 14; the Diocese of Central Florida is planning a trip for 100
youth and adults in July.

Early this year, in an appearance at the National Cathedral in
Washington, D.C., to express her thanks for the Diocese of Washington's
outpouring of aid to its companion diocese in Honduras, Diana Frade
said, "God does not bring gloom and doom. God is in the midst of turmoil
and chaos. This [hurricane] was nature's doing. Our response is what
matters."

The church is now contemplating a new phase for its aid, which will
include development help from the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World
Relief.
--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of Office of News and
Information for the Episcopal Church.