wfn.org | ELCA ASSISTS WITH RELIEF EFFORTS IN WEST BENGAL

[Brenda Williams <BRENDAW@elca.org>]

Reply-To: ElcaNews <ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG>
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

September 12, 1997

ACT ASSISTS WEST BENGAL FLOOD VICTIMS

Incessant and torrential monsoon rains inundated large areas of Midnapore district in West Bengal,
India, this summer.  An estimated 16,000 houses have collapsed due to flooding and at least
100,000 people are homeless, Action by Churches Together (ACT) reports.  Drinking water
sources, roads, embankments, infrastructure and crop lands have been damaged extensively or
destroyed.  Around one million people have been affected, ACT reports.  Vulnerable familes are in
"immediate and acute need of food, temporary shelter and assistance in rebuilding their homes,"
according to ACT.  ACT is a worldwide network of churches, including the Lutheran World
Federation, meeting human need through coordinated emergency response.  ACT has appealed for
$422,000 to provide food rations, supplemental feeding, refurbished water wells and housing
construction materials to an estimated 5,000 families in the Midnapore district. The situation in
many areas is "even worse than it was during the floods of 1978, which were the most severe floods
experienced by West Bengal in recent memory," ACT says.  Water flowing over agricultural fields
has destroyed standing crops of rice in many areas.  People have taken shelter on embankments,
roads and highways.  The Lutheran World Federation is a worldwide communion of 124 member
churches, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html