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Date: June 23, 2005
Contact: Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
V: 847/742-5100 F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL: _CoBNews@AOL.Com_ (mailto:CoBNews@AOL.Com) 
 

CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN NEWSLINE
June 23, 2005
 
Church of the Brethren disaster relief continues work, issues grants
 
June 23, 2005 (Elgin, IL) -- Recent grants from the Emergency Disaster Fund  
(EDF) of the Church of the Brethren General Board totaled $155,000 for 
disaster  relief and rebuilding work in Indonesia, Sudan, Florida, and
Nebraska.
 
A grant of $75,000 supports Church World Service (CWS) work in the wake of  a

devastating earthquake on the island of Nias in Indonesia on March 28. Nearly

 700 people were killed and 75,000 displaced. The funds will help provide 
food,  water, shelter, sanitation, and medical supplies. This is a separate 
appeal from  those for the tsunami disaster of last December, but the work is
being 
 coordinated with all the emergency response activities in Indonesia 
following  the tsunami.
 
An allocation of $50,000 has gone to CWS's appeal for those affected by  
violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. More than two million people have
fled  
their homes to escape looting, house burning, crop destruction, and killings,
 
reports staff of the General Board's Emergency Response and Service
Ministries. 
 The funds will assist in providing food, medicine, water, sanitation,	
agricultural help, and counseling to 500,000 people in refugee camps. In the 
past 
18 months a total of $181,500 has been given from the EDF for relief work  in

Darfur and in southern Sudan, reports Emergency Response director Roy 
Winter.
 
A grant of $25,000 supports a continuing hurricane recovery project in	
Florida, being carried out by Brethren Disaster Response. The project, which
is  
expected to last three to five years, is currently doing rebuilding and
repair	
work in Pensacola and neighboring Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties. It is  
considered a longterm project because of the magnitude of the hurricanes that
 
hit the state in 2004, said Jane Yount, coordinator of Disaster Response. She
 
added that Escambia County is the poorest in Florida and the 17th poorest in 
the  nation.
 
The amount of $15,000 continues support of a Disaster Response tornado	
recovery project in Hallam, Neb. The project is scheduled to close Aug. 6. 
"We'll 
need adequate numbers of volunteers to finish four homes that are in  various

stages of completion," reported Yount.
 
For the next two months, Disaster Response will be running three rebuilding  
projects simultaneously, those in Nebraska and Florida and a newly opened  
project in Ohio. "Our challenge is to secure volunteer teams and project  
leadership through the summer and beyond," Yount said. "Persons skilled in 
drywall 
finishing and finish carpentry will be helpful." The project in Belmont  
County, Ohio, opened this month, doing repair and rebuilding following three 
severe 
floods between Sept. 2004 and Jan. 2005.
 
The Disaster Response program also is looking for volunteers to join a Tool  
Coordinator Team to standardize tools in tool trailers used at disaster
sites, 
 and to test and replace tools as necessary. The work will be done at the  
Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md.
 
To volunteer at a disaster site or on the Tool Coordinator Team contact a  
district disaster coordinator or the Disaster Response program at 
800-451-4407.
 
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 about 130,000 members across the United	
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Brazil, the  
Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nigeria.
 
# # #
 
For more information contact:
 
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
Director of News Services
Church of the  Brethren General Board
1451 Dundee Ave.
Elgin, IL 60120
847-742-5100  ext. 260
_cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org_ 
(mailto:cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org) 
 
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The  Church of the Brethren Newsline is produced by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford,

 director of news services for the Church of the Brethren General Board. 
Newsline  stories may be reprinted provided that Newsline is cited as the
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