Church World Service Katrina Recovery Effort Strong
Agency Says It's There for the Long Haul
Media Contacts:
Jan Dragin - 24/7- (781) 925 1526; jdragin@gis.net Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, (212) 870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
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NEW YORK, NY, Feb. 28 -- In the six months since back-to-back hurricanes devastated the Gulf Coast Church World Service has put in place a variety of short- and long-term recovery programs, including grants, training, and material assistance. In addition to the comprehensive short term response, the global humanitarian agency also has laid plans for its long-term recovery effort.
"Recovering from the pain and the loss--both material and emotional--will take years of effort and years of care. These people's lives have been turned upside down. We prayed for them during the crisis and we will keep them in our prayers as we continue our programmatic outreach to them for as many years as necessary," said John McCullough, executive director of Church World Service.
Most recently, Church World Service awarded thirteen hurricane-damaged schools in Mississippi and Louisiana $600,000 in grants to help them repair the schools and purchase teaching supplies, computers, audio/visual equipment, books, musical instruments, and furniture. Accompanying the grant was a material donation of $110,000 in "CWS Gift of the Heart" kits.
The grant was made possible because a major multi-national corporate donor was so moved by the plight of Gulf Coast schools and children that it made the gift to long-time Church World Service overseas partner Diakonie Emergency Aid. The German faith-based humanitarian aid agency presented the gift to Church World Service--already in the midst of Gulf Coast relief efforts--to use to fund assistance to the schools.
Church World Service Disaster Response and Recovery Liaison Lesli Remali called the Diakonie grant to Church World Service an "exciting and rewarding opportunity" to be able to award the money to schools that so badly need it, but cautioned that "the sad reality is that out of the 200 schools that were identified, the destruction was so bad that only 13 were able to apply for this program. They're just not ready."
Only a handful of New Orleans' 123 schools had reopened by Jan 1. Children throughout the affected Gulf Coast area are attending classes in damaged school buildings or in temporary accommodations as the region grapples with the effects of the storm.
At grant recipient Algiers Charter School in New Orleans, where most of the students live just above the poverty line, school officials plan to use their share of the grant to purchase computers---and with good reason, according to Human Resource Manager Michelle Lewis. "Many families in our school district cannot afford home computers and in today's world it's so important for them to have good computer skills."
The new learning tools will give youngsters returning to their still-under-repair school from the better equipped schools in cities outside the devastated region they temporarily attended "a sense of pride in having the same level of access and quality in their educational experience as other schools, especially at a time like this," explained Lewis.
With 60 years experience in domestic and international disaster response, Church World Service, a global humanitarian relief agency supported by Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican denominations in the United States, was one of the first agencies to respond to the Gulf Coast disaster.
As part of its response, Church World Service put into place a long-term recovery plan focused on under-served populations. CWS works with existing community organizations to identify and provide appropriate services for people whose needs are not being fully met and helps to establish new independent non-profit organizations whose sole work--during this crisis and beyond--will be to fill the disaster related long-term recovery needs of vulnerable populations. Populations identified in a particular community could include the elderly, the disabled, the uninsured, or others in need of a particular service or resource that is not being provided through ordinary channels.
Church World Service also recognizes the importance of continuing pastoral care as people recover from disaster. Through its Interfaith Trauma Recovery Training program (ITRT), which grew out of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the agency supports spiritual caregivers and prepares lay and clergy to understand their roles in crisis situations.
The effectiveness of Church World Service outreach in the aftermath of Katrina is the culmination of decades of relationships with a partner network of relief and recovery organizations and member denominations.
CWS Spiritual and Emotional Care (SECR) Team and Interfaith Trauma Response Training deployments will remain a part of hurricane recovery in 2006. Drawing on a professionally trained staff with backgrounds in theology and counseling, the workshops provide emotional and spiritual support for clergy and caregivers as they respond to long-term recovery needs in their communities.
Fifty Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) caregivers and their spouses from throughout the Gulf Coast region attended a November ITRT/SECR workshop in Houston. Another event is planned for the Mississippi Gulf Coast area. There is a growing need, says Program Coordinator Bill Sage, "to reinvigorate and refresh the idea and practice of self-care. As a new hurricane season approaches, the need will be even greater."
Just as the Diakonie gift is making it easier for children to go back to school in the storm affected area, other CWS initiatives with partner organizations are helping get people back into houses and apartments, back into the workforce, and back into a strong community of caring.
Through its Miami Office and nine of its CWS local resettlement affiliates in communities across the U.S. Church World Service is providing comprehensive, individualized services for Gulf Coast residents who have relocated. The agency's evacuee assistance programs have been the catalyst for several successful new community partnerships that have extended the reach of all the organizations involved.
In Texas, for example, the Domestic Relief Services (DRS) program of Refugee Services of Texas linked up with the Northside Inter-Church Agency to give Katrina evacuees in Fort Worth access to Northside supplies like food, clothing, and hygiene and baby care items.
DRS Associate Director Debby Bobbitt said the new service is invaluable for the evacuees, many of whose food stamps are running out. Her organization also is rallying churches to replenish Northside's supplies and is planning fundraising drive in March.
In Atlanta, Ga., Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta is assisting more than 1,000 evacuees, with the goal of helping them get into permanent housing and become self sufficient. Caseworker Sarah Miller said, "We have been able to accomplish this with the help of churches using a three-month sponsorship model and with furniture and financial donations from churches and individuals in the community. Additionally, we have partnered with Hands on Atlanta to provide 125 evacuee families with 125 volunteer advocates trained to support each evacuee family for three to six months and help them access resources they need to complete the relocation process. We also are proud to partner with United Way to administer a housing program for evacuees who were still in hotels at the end of December."
People whose lives were torn apart by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have made tremendous steps, noted McCullough, but there remains an enormous amount of work because of the hundreds of thousands of people affected. Church World Service will, he vows, continue the work the agency already is doing, with an eye toward developing even more initiatives as new challenges arise over the course of the long-term recovery.
"Our work will not be done until these people have gotten settled into a new lives with all the help possible from Church World Service and the rest of the community of care."
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