wfn.org | Church World Service Raises Katrina Appeal to $9.5 Million

[Jan Dragin <jdragin@gis.net>]

CWS ASKS DONORS TO TARGET SURVIVORS' LONG-TERM NEEDS

Effort To Include Relocation Services, Spiritual and Trauma Response Care

Agency¹s Responders In Region Developing Long-Term Recovery Program

NEW YORK/HOUSTON­ September 9, 2005  ­ Following Katrina's first waves of
destruction and flooding of New Orleans and the unprecedented wave of
evacuation from the devastated area, responding agency Church World Service
(CWS) announced today it is raising its national fundraising goal to $9.5
million and is expanding its immediate and long-term recovery response to
include expanded trauma and spiritual care and relocation assistance for
people displaced to other cities, working in concert with other state,
federal, and CWS programmatic partners.

In addition, CWS has also processed a shipment of 20 Interchurch Medical
Assistance Medicine Boxes to Louisiana, which is sufficient to serve twenty
thousand people total for up to three months.

CWS Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough says, "Given the enormity of
need now and for a long time to come, we are increasing our efforts in our
core strength as domestic disaster responders, that is, long-term recovery
for the poor, elderly, disabled, for children, the impoverished, Native
Americans and others.

"We'll also be providing trauma and spiritual care and assisting Katrina¹s
thousands of displaced throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and
nationwide," he said.

>From Houston, CWS Associate Director for Emergency Response Linda Reed Brown
reports, "Thousands are lined up outside the (George Brown) Convention
Center, waiting to go through FEMA processing. People are calm, subdued,
though there¹s lots of anxiety."

CWS has almost 60 years of experience in disaster response and is the only
national resettlement agency with a disaster response and recovery unit.
Church World Service will assist with voluntary relocations for those
families who remain displaced as result of evacuations and the destruction
of housing in their communities.

This week, CWS disaster responders are in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi,
assessing needs, meeting with existing community-based long-term recovery
organizations, and organizing new ones.

CWS predicts that as many as 25 new CWS-assisted long-term recovery groups
will be formed nationwide as a result of Katrina. "Some of these groups are
still working to help survivors of last year¹s hurricane season," says
CWS¹
Brown.

"We¹ll be bringing our many years of expertise in helping displaced
people,"
says McCullough. "We're now working with our network of affiliate agencies
across the country to adapt and enlist the longstanding resources and
systems already in place so they can better help evacuees who resettle in a
given city tap the resources they need to re-create their lives.

"Our community-based affiliates and local church group volunteers know where
to go," says McCullough, "and can help people find the resources they need
to start a normal life again."

"Trauma for those directly and indirectly victimized by this hurricane may
reach epic proportions," says McCullough, "affecting not only the survivors
but also thousands of relief and rescue personnel and case management
care-givers. They¹ve exposed themselves physically, psychologically, and
spiritually to the grief, frustration, and hopelessness of the overwhelming
demands on their lives. Suicides within the New Orleans Police Department
have already attested to this."

Within three days after Katrina struck, Church World Service delivered its
initial shipment of immediate emergency medicines and supplies to Baton
Rouge, the latter including blankets and emergency needs kits.

Response, Recovery, and Relocation

In addition to the Church World Service Disaster Response and Recovery
Liaisons now in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, ten domestic
responders in all will be sent to affected communities to support organizing
work for long-term recovery.

CWS domestic responders and senior New York staff will work with leadership
of state councils/conferences of churches on coordinated, collaborative
activities of the faith community across the affected states, particularly
in relation to relocation activities.

"Age, health, education, economics, ethnicity, religious heritage, gender,
and geographic location can all serve to increase vulnerability and diminish
capacity to recovery from a disaster," says McCullough.

Domestic responders will concentrate organizing activity in areas where
significant numbers of vulnerable survivors are, to help assure that their
unmet needs are identified and given priority.

CWS encourages the research and training of community leadership to
effectively organize new and diverse communities for long-term recovery.
Case management is designed to help families establish and fund a recovery
plan.

Church World Service activities will also include:  home reconstruction
grants to long-term recovery organizations; seed grants for developing
long-term recovery organizations; and sustainability grants for long-term
recovery staff and administration (3-5 years).

For those who remain displaced as a result of evacuations and destruction of
housing in their communities, CWS will support programs for up to 500
people, or roughly 165 families, over an initial period of three months.

CWS is working with those of its resettlement affiliate offices in eight
sites around the United States. The initial phase of this support will focus
on resettlement affiliates that have already received uprooted families,
according to McCullough.

Spiritual Care and Care-for-Caregivers

McCullough also notes, "Spiritual and emotional care will be of primary
concern in coming months -- and for years -- for those who are affected. We
intend to give particular support to clergy and lay caregivers who are
ministering in the early days of relief and rescue, to those churches who
are helping the relocation operations in their communities and states, and
faith houses that will provide a continuum of care for long-term recovery."

CWS programs offer local faith leaders training opportunities and support
through its Interfaith Trauma Response Training (ITRT) that helps equip them
for care within their communities and self-care for themselves. The agency
also offers trauma care through its Spiritual and Emotional Care Response
(SECR) cadre of volunteer professional counselors. Both programs were
developed during recovery after the September 11 disaster.

CWS domestic responders with high expertise in disaster emotional and
spiritual care will also support the development of a national strategy to
provide appropriate trauma and psycho-social care in shelters, relocation
communities, and for grueling public operations such as morgue and death
notification.

CWS Blankets and "Gift of the Heart" Kits

To date, Church World Service has shipped more than $300,000 in donated
material assistance to affected areas, including 18,100 CWS Blankets; 14,335
"Gift of the Heart" Health Kits; 500 CWS "Gift of the Heart" Kids Kits; and
1,000 "Gift of the Heart" School Kits. Shipments have arrived in Texas,
Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. A shipment of UNICEF school and
recreation materials will be distributed over the weekend in Meridian, MS.

Contributions to support these efforts may be sent to:

Church World Service
Hurricane Katrina Response -- #6280
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515

Or call 800 297 1516, ext. 222. Or give online at
www.churchworldservice.org.

Media Contacts:
Ann Walle, CWS/New York, 212-870-2654; awalle@churchworldservice.org