wfn.org | UMNS# 05012-UMCOR allocates $750,000 in tsunami relief

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UMCOR allocates $750,000 in tsunami relief

Jan. 6, 2005	 News media contact:   Linda  Bloom * (646) 3693759*  New
York {05012}

NOTE: Related resources are available online at http://umns.umc.org.

NEW YORK (UMNS) - The United Methodist Committee on Relief has provided
about $750,000 in relief to the tsunami stricken Indian Ocean region as
of Jan. 6.

Additional aid will be forthcoming, according to the Rev. Paul Dirdak,
UMCOR's top staff executive.

A truckload of health kits valued around $500,000 is on its way from
UMCOR, along with kits from other denominations. Church World Service is
coordinating that effort.

The remaining $250,000 is being used for grants to Churches Auxiliary
for Social Action in India, Christian Medical Association of India, the
Methodist Church of Singapore and Church World Service.

CASA plans to serve as many as 50,000 families and is distributing food,
emergency supplies and tarpaulins. Crisis teams in five regions are
assisting with emergency feeding programs and shelter distribution.

Christian Medical Association of India has deployed 12 health teams to
remote regions. An UMCOR grant is helping the teams provide acute health
care and longer-term trauma counseling for affected families. As
villages regain their capacity for health services, the teams will move
on to the next area.

A grant to Church World Service is supporting a first shipment of
shelter kits to Sri Lanka on Jan. 9. Additional airlifts are planned to
provide commodities for immediate needs and long-term recovery,
according to CWS press reports. The agency is establishing a regional
emergency staging area to support its Southern Asia recovery efforts.

Another UMCOR grant to the Methodist Church of Singapore will assist in
delivering antibiotics to the stricken region.

UMCOR expects to mount a campaign for medicine boxes and health kits in
addition to continuing its emphasis on cash donations. "We'll be able to
use every health kit our congregations can make," Dirdak said.

The Rev. Kristin Sachen, UMCOR's head of international disaster
response, said she expects recovery from the Asian tsunami to take
several years. "Right now, we are assisting our ecumenical partners with
delivery of desperately needed food, emergency shelter materials,
medicines, blankets, clothing and cooking utensils," she added. "But
that's just the beginning."

Sachen and another staff member met Jan. 6 with ecumenical leaders in
Geneva to evaluate the effectiveness of the response to the South Asia
tsunami disaster and determine the next steps.

The meeting was the first of several planned assessments that may lead
to UMCOR providing more direct services, according to Sachen. Millions
from Asia to the East Coast of Africa have lost homes and livelihoods,
and much rebuilding will be required. The agency is planning an
assessment mission in Sri Lanka, for example.

In many coastal areas, the land will need major cleansing, reclamation
and rebuilding efforts. UMCOR has acquired expertise in large-scale
rebuilding projects from its missions Turkey, Afghanistan and Bosnia.
The scale of the South Asia disaster will require long-term
food-for-work programs to help families recover their livelihoods,
Sachen said.

Donations to UMCOR's "South Asia Emergency" relief efforts can be placed
in local church offering plates or sent directly to UMCOR, 475 Riverside
Drive, Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Designate checks for UMCOR Advance
#274305 and "South Asia Emergency." Online donations can be made by
going to www.methodistrelief.org. Those making credit-card donations can
call (800) 554-8583.

# # #

Information for this report was provided by Linda Beher, communications
director for the United Methodist Committee on Relief in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service
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