wfn.org | CWS Rushes Bedding to Venezuela, Plans $500,000 "First Phase"

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

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org

Venezuela Contacts/Story Angles:
- CEPEXSOL (sheltering 800+ evacuees relocated to Barquisimeto) (051) 
621-675
- Asociacion Civil (sheltering evacuees in Caracas) (02) 986-7883
- Bishop Gamaliel Lugo, Bishop, Evangelical Pentecostal Union of 
Venezuela, Maracaibo (coordinating 15 response teams especially among 
Guajiro Indians) (58)(61)23-72-05 or 22-23-23 (office); home 31-00-85.  
Caracas team leader Pr. Ramon Castillo.

Church World Service Response:
- NCC/CWS News, New York, 212-870-2252

131NCC12/22/99
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CWS RUSHES BEDDING, PLANS $500,000 "FIRST PHASE" VENEZUELA RESPONSE
"This is Bigger Than Hurricane Mitch," CWS Says as it Undertakes Flood 
Aid

 December 22, 1999, NEW YORK CITY - Church World Service today 
transmitted funds for local purchase of blankets and mattresses for 
evacuees from Venezuela's coastal areas devastated by flash floods and 
mudslides, announced a $500,000 "first phase" response and laid the 
groundwork for longer-term reconstruction.

CWS, the National Council of Churches' emergency relief, 
development and refugee assistance ministry, transmitted an initial 
$20,000 for blankets and mattresses for 2,000 evacuees who are being 
sheltered in Barquisimeto and Caracas, Venezuela.  Barquisimeto is one 
of several places the Venezuelan government has designated for 
eventual permanent resettlement of evacuees.

 The evacuees are being served by CWS partner organizations, 
Centro de Educacion Popular Exeario Sosa Lujan (CEPEXSOL) in 
Barquisimeto and Caracas a Asociacion Civil Paz y Vida.  

Church World Service is working in partnership with U.S. 
denominations and their Venezuelan counterparts, which are responding 
actively.  For example, the Evangelical Pentecostal Union of Venezuela 
(UEPV) already has deployed 15 "response and solidarity teams" of 10 
persons each that are providing shelter and other relief including 
clothing, food, medicine and potable water; pastoral care, and needs 
assessment services, especially among indigenous communities of the 
Guajiro Indians.  And the Presbyterian Church of Venezuela is readying 
one of its camps to receive unaccompanied and orphaned children 
evacuated from affected areas.

 Even as it helps meet the immediate needs of survivors, CWS is 
laying the groundwork to support the longer-term recovery and 
reconstruction needs in Venezuela.  Don Tatlock, Church World 
Service/Comision Cristiana de Desarrollo (CCD) joint work team 
coordinator in Honduras, is preparing to fly to Venezuela early next 
week to assist in assessment and planning, and a CCD assessment team 
is expected to follow on January 3.

 "The offer of technical assistance from CCD in Honduras meets one 
of our primary objectives of encouraging intra-regional capacity 
building," declared Rick Augsburger, CWS Emergency Response Office 
director.  "The learnings that the survivors of Hurricane Mitch can 
transfer to the survivors of the Venezuela flooding are important 
toward encouraging local ownership of the immediate relief and long-
term recovery efforts."

Just a year ago, CWS and its member churches were responding with 
some $2 million in assistance following Hurricane Mitch.  Emergency 
aid led to reconstruction, including deployment of work teams.  
Similar response is expected in Venezuela, where the need is likely to 
be even greater. 

"This is bigger than Hurricane Mitch," remarked Augsburger as he 
and others met to plan immediate and long-term assistance in 
Venezuela.  "The number of individuals affected already has surpassed 
that of Hurricane Mitch."

Venezuelan government officials are calling the disaster the most 
severe ever in the country's history.  The government has declared 
that at least 10,000 have died, and that the final death toll could be 
more than 20,000.  At least 150,000 were made homeless, the BBC 
reported, most of them residents of shantytowns swept away by the 
unseasonably heavy coastal rains that lasted 10 days.

-end-

NOTE TO REPORTERS/EDITORS: When listing organizations receiving 
contributions for emergency aid to survivors of the flooding in 
Venezuela, please include Church World Service, Attn. Venezuela Flood 
Response, 28606 Phillips Street, PO Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515.  
Telephone 1-800-297-1516, ext 222.  For more information and updates 
and/or to make an on-line contribution, go to: 
http://www.churchworldservice.org.
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