wfn.org | Newsline: Children's Disaster Services closes Gustav response, monitors Ike

["COBNews Newsline" <cobnews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service -- Sept. 12, 2008
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, News Director
800-323-8039 ext. 260 -- cobnews@brethren.org

CHILDREN'S DISASTER SERVICES CLOSES OUT RESPONSE TO
GUSTAV, MONITORS NEEDS RELATED TO IKE

(Sept. 12, 2008) Elgin, IL -- Children's Disaster Services has closed out
its response to Hurricane Gustav, and is monitoring needs related to
Hurricane Ike as it threatens the coast of Texas. Children's Disaster
Services is a ministry of the Church of the Brethren, working with the
American Red Cross, FEMA, and others to care for children following
disasters.

The American Red Cross has requested Children's Disaster Services to
prepare 10 teams of volunteers for possible deployment on Monday, in
response to Hurricane Ike.

In its recent response to Gustav, Children's Disaster Services
collaborated with the American Red Cross to determine where
volunteers were most needed. As the hurricane made landfall, Roy
Winter, executive director for Brethren Disaster Ministries, departed for
Mississippi and Louisiana to manage the Children's Disaster Services
response on the ground. Staff at the Church of the Brethren's disaster
response offices in Maryland--including Children's Disaster Services
director Judy Bezon--kept the operation going by deploying volunteers,
communicating with the Red Cross or FEMA, and trouble-shooting
issues at the various child care sites.

As the response to Gustav closed out, 6 childcare volunteers were
working in shelters on the Mississippi coast; 10 were working in a Super
Shelter in Shreveport, La.; and 11 were working in a Super Shelter in
Alexandria, La.

Church of the Brethren disaster response staff also are emphasizing an
urgent appeal for Emergency Clean-Up Bucket kits from Church World
Service (CWS), in anticipation of needs after Ike's 20-foot storm surge
hits the Texas coastline this weekend.

CWS disaster relief kits are processed, warehoused, and shipped from
the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md.

"Church World Service has allocated all the buckets we had in the
warehouse," said Loretta Wolf, director of the Church of the Brethren's
Material Resources program. "We're down to a zero level and they don't
have enough."

The bucket kits may be assembled by congregations, other groups,
and individuals, and donated to the disaster effort. In the last 30 days,
CWS also has provided dozens of shipments of blankets, Hygiene Kits,
and Baby Kits. CWS kits have helped flood survivors in Iowa, displaced
persons from the Russia-Georgia conflict, and those affected by
Hurricanes Hannah, Gustav, and Ike.

Go to www.churchworldservice.org/kits/cleanup-kits.html for
information about how to assemble Emergency Clean-Up Bucket kits.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to
continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its
faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and
Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches.  It
celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts more than 125,000
members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and
sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and
India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
>Director of News Services
>Church of the Brethren
>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>800-323-8039 ext. 260
>cobnews@brethren.org

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