wfn.org | PDA sends $25,000 to volcano refugees in Congo

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #7025 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

23-January-2002
02035

PDA sends $25,000 to volcano refugees in Congo

Eruption near Goma is called worst in central Africa in 25 years

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has sent $25,000 to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) amid a major humanitarian crisis caused by a devastating volcanic eruption last week.

The money - $23,000 from the One Great Hour of Sharing and $2,000 from PDA's Congo account - is earmarked for food and medicine.

Hundreds of thousands of people left their homes in Goma, Congo after the nearby Nyiragongo volcano erupted on Jan. 17. Smoking lava engulfed the city, killing more than 40 people and destroying homes and streets. The eruption was said to be the worst in central Africa in 25 years, with fires raging throughout the Rwanda-Congo border region.

"The town of 400,000 is in flames," said Dr. Jo Lusi a Congolese, a surgeon working with the Programme de Santi Rurale (SANRU health project), which PDA supports in its mission of rebuilding the country's health system. 

Most of Goma's residents have fled across the border to Gisenyi, Rwanda, where they are being housed in schools and churches.

PDA, through its work with Action by Churches Together (ACT) - a Geneva-based international alliance of churches and relief agencies - and in partnership with SANRU, already has an assessment team on the ground in Rwanda.

The Nyiragongo volcano is one of eight on the borders of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Only two are active - Nyamuragira, which erupted early last year, causing no casualties - and Nyiragongo.

New Jersey church

PDA also sent $10,000 recently to West Side Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, NJ, which was gutted by fire on Jan. 8. 
Flames destroyed the sanctuary, church offices, a new chapel and a recently renovated administration wing. The fire is believed to have started in defective wiring.

The 1,500-member church, organized in 1912, is the largest congregation in Palisades Presbytery.
------------------------------------------
Send your response to this article to pcusa.news@pcusa.org

------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send an 'unsubscribe' request to

pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org