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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 11, 1999

ELCA INTERNATIONAL DISASTER RESPONSE
IS PRESENT AROUND THE WORLD
99-FE-03-MR*

     An avalanche of water, rock and mud wiped out entire neighborhoods
and hundreds of acres of farmland within minutes when the crater lake of
the Casita volcano, Posoltega, Nicaragua, collapsed.  The avalanche,
killing more than 2,000 people, was the single worst disaster spawned by
Hurricane Mitch Oct. 29-31.
     "The area destroyed by the Casitas volcano is completely covered
by now-dried mud," said the Rev. Jeffrey B. Sorenson, assistant to the
bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) South Dakota
Synod, Sioux Falls.  "What was a tropical rain forest is now a flat,
barren wasteland."  Sorenson visited the devastated areas of Nicaragua
the last week of May.
     "The Nicaraguan military came in immediately after the disaster,
sealed off the area, gathered up the bodies and buried them in a mass
grave," Sorenson said.  "The few survivors and family members were not
allowed into the area for fear of disease outbreak.  The government
confiscated the land with intentions of turning it into a government
preserve for safety's sake but has done nothing to replace the land for
the people who were on it.  They are literally camping out downstream of
the damaged area, with nowhere to go, no means of livelihood," he said.
     Hurricane Mitch killed more than 12,000 and left millions homeless
in Central America.  The Category 5 hurricane was the strongest storm to
hit the Atlantic Ocean since Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.  The intense and
sustained precipitation caused widespread flooding and mud slides in El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua.
     In response to the catastrophe in Central America after Hurricane
Mitch, ELCA International Disaster Response is ministering to the urgent
needs of survivors there.  Members of the ELCA have provided $861,000
through Action by Churches Together (ACT) for implementation by the
Lutheran World Federation (Central American Region Office) and $900,000
for Lutheran World Relief to be implemented in Nicaragua and Honduras.
Some direct aid has also been made available to some of the ELCA's
"companion" Lutheran churches in that region, said the Rev. Y. Franklin
Ishida, director for international communication, ELCA Division for
Global Mission, Chicago.
     ELCA International Disaster Response, coordinated through the ELCA
Division for Global Mission, provides funds for food, medicine, drinking
water, emergency shelter and other materials and supplies.  Funds are
used to rebuild communities and repair structures destroyed by major
disasters.   Funds are received as designated gifts from members of the
ELCA.
     "There has been and continues to be significant disaster relief in
the northern region of Nicaragua through Action by Churches Together
(where ELCA funds have been funneled)," said Sorenson.
     "People from some of the poorest areas, where they have little or
no means of livelihood, came to the Lutheran church in Nicaragua seeking
help because of its reputation for a vital, focused concern for the
poor.  This small, young church is overwhelmed with requests for aid and
caught up in a relief effort that both helps its growth and exceeds its
ability to respond -- even with the funds we and others have sent its
way," he said.
     ELCA International Disaster Response sent a total of  $77,000 to
Iglesia Luterana Fe y Esperanza de Nicaragua (Lutheran Church of Faith
and Hope in Nicaragua) and $20,000 to Iglesia Luterana Costarricense
(Lutheran Church in Costa Rica) June 16 for humanitarian assistance and
the construction of homes, schools and community clinics following the
devastation of Hurricane Mitch.
     The Lutheran church in Nicaragua will construct 20 housing units -- 
10 in Aguespalapa, a province in Chinandega, and 10 houses in the
province of Somoto -- and remodel a community health clinic and school
in Aquespalapa.  An additional $16,506 was provided by the ELCA for
seeds and livestock and to help reactivite local economies.
     The Lutheran Church in Costa Rica will continue to provide food
and temporary shelter to 200 Nicaraguans displaced by Hurricane Mitch.
The church will also provide pastoral care and counseling and secure
employment for 50 individuals by December 1999.  Community houses in
Sarapiqui and Tejarcillo will also be remodeled.
     "Millions for Mitch" -- a campaign that involves millions of
Lutherans contributing millions of dollars for recovery efforts in
Central America following Hurricane Mitch -- has surpassed the $2.5
million-mark since the campaign began in November 1998.
     Gifts designated for "Millions for Mitch" or "Hurricane Mitch" are
used for church-related relief and recovery efforts under way primarily
in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
     Sorenson, along with two others from the ELCA South Dakota Synod,
visited the Lutheran church in Nicaragua to inquire about the
possibility of developing a "companion" synod-church relationship.
Sorenson said the South Dakota Synod assembly next year will consider
that possibility.  In the fall, the synod and the Lutheran church in
Nicaragua will engage in a mutual day of prayer.  Congregations from
both churches will pray for one another's ministries.

ELCA INTERNATIONAL DISASTER RESPONSE
     ELCA International Disaster Response responds when earthquakes,
famine, floods, hurricanes, political and/or military conflict strike
somewhere in the world. The ministry not only responds to high-profile
crisis situations like Kosovo, but ELCA International Disaster Response
is present in Sierra Leone, Colombia, North Korea, Congo-Brazzaville and
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
     While stories about relief and recovery efforts eventually drop
from news headlines, Lutherans continue to work "side by side with other
people of faith to serve people in need," said Ishida.
     "We sometimes question the wisdom or policies of governments'
responses to disasters around the world but we, the church, can be
there," he said.
     ELCA International Disaster Response often channels its funds
through international relief agencies like Lutheran World Relief -- the
relief and development agency working overseas on behalf of the ELCA and
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Lutheran World Federation (LWF), and
Church World Service, Isheda said.
     Much of the work of these agencies is coordinated through Action
by Churches Together (ACT), a worldwide network of churches and related
agencies meeting human need through coordinated emergency response.  The
ACT coordinating office is based with the LWF a global communion of 128
member churches in 70 countries representing 58 million of the world's
61.5 million Lutherans and World Council of Churches responding to more
than 300 communions around the world -- in Geneva, Switzerland.
     Once disaster strikes, ELCA International Disaster Response begins
by assessing the situation and determining the needs of survivors
through local church contacts, international relief agencies and other
sources of information.
     Companion Lutheran churches and other ecumenical agencies in the
immediately affected area are also means by which relief and supplies
are given to those in need, Ishida said.

SIERRA LEONE
     Members of the ELCA sent $50,000 to provide humanitarian
assistance for the people of Sierra Leone.  A nine-year war between
government and rebel forces has created a humanitarian crisis in the
West African country.  On July 7, 1999, a peace agreement was signed
between the government and the rebel Revolutionary United Front.
     "Many people in Sierra Leone have been killed, many have been
maimed, and many have been made homeless," said the Rev. Tom J. Barnett,
president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Leone (ELCSL).
      "It is difficult to say why rebel forces formed and what they
have been fighting for, but there has been a lot of anarchy rendering
the government of Sierra Leone almost unworkable," he said.
     "First and foremost, the church has been trying in the mission of
Jesus Christ to bring peace, not just for the members of the church but
peace for every Sierra Leonean," Barnett said.
     ELCA International Disaster Response channeled $50,000 through ACT
to be used by Lutheran World Federation, the ELCSL and the Council of
Churches in Sierra Leone, said Ishida.
     "The Lutheran church in Sierra Leone has been blessed because of
its relationship with the Lutheran World Federation and our bilateral
relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to organize
relief emergency assistance.  We have been able to bring clothing, food
and medicine to people in need," said Barnett.

COLOMBIA
     ELCA International Disaster Response sent $11,428 to Iglesia
Evangelica Luterana de Colombia (Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Colombia) June 16 in response to a request that Lutheran churches around
the world provide $73,000 in immediate assistance for survivors of a
major earthquake and aftershocks.  On Jan. 28 the ELCA sent $15,000 for
immediate emergency assistance.
     The Jan. 25 earthquake killed more than 1,000 people, injured
thousands more and left large numbers of people homeless.  The magnitude
6 quake centered in a mountainous coffee-growing region of western
Colombia.
     Funds from the ELCA International Disaster Response are sent
through ACT, designated for the Lutheran church in Colombia.  Funds are
being used to provide for food, shelter and medicine for survivors, and
clean-up equipment/tools and transportation.

NORTH KOREA
     Flooding in 1995 and 1996 and a tidal wave in 1997 have caused
widespread crop failure and farmland destruction in North Korea.  With
an already weakened economy, severe food shortages have led to famine in
North Korea.
     The ELCA sent $100,000 on June 16, 1999 to Church World Service
and Witness, an agency providing food aid in North Korea.  ELCA
International Disaster Response had already sent more than $90,000.
Church World Service is a ministry of the National Council of Churches
of Christ in the U.S.A. whose 32 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican
member denominations -- including the ELCA -- have a combined membership
of nearly 49 million.
     According to ELCA International Disaster Response, the degree of
the crisis in North Korea is not certain, as figures on famine-related
deaths or nationwide nutritional data are unavailable even to United
Nation agencies and nongovernment organizations working in the country.
Many foreign humanitarian workers agree with the North Korean
authorities in charge of relief activities that massive amounts of aid
are needed to avoid extreme suffering, ELCA International Disaster
Response reports.  As the crisis in North Korea enters its fourth year,
there seems to be a growing realization that emergency assistance alone
cannot solve what must now be described as a chronic crisis not only in
food production but in the overall economic system in North Korea.
     A gradual transition from short-term emergency aid to medium-term
rehabilitation of North Korea's own food production, while insuring the
provision of health care and other social support services must start
now in order to break the ongoing suffering and crisis, according to
ELCA International Disaster Response staff.
     At present, life-threatening emergency situations continue
throughout the country.  Severe food shortages, inadequate health care,
severe winter weather and heavy rain during in the summer have increased
the overall vulnerability and needs of people in North Korea.
     ACT has continued to respond to the humanitarian crisis there.  In
1999 ACT has continued emergency aid to the people of North Korea while
at the same time providing critical rehabilitation assistance.

CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE and DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
     ELCA International Disaster Response provided $100,000 for
refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo), formerly Zaire.
Funds, channeled through ACT will be used to provide food, medicine and
seeds for refugees.  ACT members in the Congo are providing assistance
in several areas, as well as undertaking assessments for newly arrived
refugees from neighboring Congo-Brazzaville and Angola.
     United Nations sources estimate that 200,000 residents of southern
Brazzaville and an undetermined number from other southern regions have
been displaced since December 1998, as a result of the latest conflict
involving militia groups and government forces in Congo-Brazzaville.
     Fighting broke out in Brazzaville in June 1997 and intensified
during that summer, devastating the capital and forcing international
aid workers there to flee.  The civil war ended Oct. 15, when rebel
forces took over the city.
     In Congo, unconfirmed news sources claim that rebel forces have
launched a major offense on three fronts.  Supposed targets for the
offense are mentioned as Mbujii-Mayi in southern Kasai province, Kamina
and Lubumbashi in Katanga (far south) and Gbadolite in the north.
Whether there is an offense or not, these locations represent the
geographically-widespread civil war in Congo, according to ACT.
     Due to the size of Congo, its poor internal communication and the
fact that the country is now split by the second civil war in two years,
the number of people in need throughout the country is not certain, ACT
reports.  Some United Nations reports have mentioned figures as high as
half a million people in need of assistance throughout Congo.
     ACT issued an appeal for $690,000 in United States dollars for
further assistance in the Bas, Kasai, Katanga, Kinshasa, Kisangani and
Maniema regions.  Ongoing and planned ACT activities in the Congo
include the distribution of shelter materials, medicines, agricultural
tools, seeds and livestock.  Schools and food centers have been
organized for more than 50,000 people affected by the conflict.

[*Melissa O. Ramirez is assistant director for news and information for
the ELCA News Service.]

***********************************************
Editors:  When listing organizations receiving funds for aid to
survivors of major disasters *outside* the United States, Puerto Rico or
the U.S. Virgin Islands, please include:

                    Lutheran World Relief
                      Church Street Station
                        P.O. Box 6186
                   New York, NY 10277-1738
                       1-800-LWR-LWR-2
                       1-800-597-5972

                 For information contact:
   John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
       http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html