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Date: Sept. 1, 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
September 1, 2005

Church of the Brethrenâs Emergency Disaster Fund gives $97,000 for disaster
aid

Sept. 1, 2005 (Elgin, IL) --  Eight allocations from the Church of the
Brethren General Board's Emergency Disaster Fund, totaling $97,000, have been  made
to help those affected by natural and man-made disasters in Afghanistan
and 
Pakistan; Ethiopia; Niger; Darfur, Sudan; India; Cuba; and following
storms in
 Wyoming and the southern US states.

An allocation of $40,000 has been made for Afghanistan and Pakistan, where
thousands of homes, crops, and livestock have been destroyed in severe
flooding.  The Brethren grant will support a Church World Service (CWS) Emergency
Response  Program appeal for emergency shelter, food, and medicine.

An allocation of $20,000 responds to a CWS appeal for food security in
Ethiopia, where drought and economic decline have put 3.8 million people
at risk
of starvation. The funds will assist CWS partners implement food relief,
agricultural rehabilitation, medical assistance, and veterinary care for  livestock.

A grant of $10,000 to Niger assists Swiss Interchurch Aid and Lutheran	World
Relief, who are working with people suffering critical malnutrition and
starvation. The money, funded through CWS, will help provide emergency food,
health services, and livestock feeding.

The EDF is responding to the situation of displaced people from Darfur,
Sudan, who have taken refuge in Chad with an allocation of $8,000. Given through
CWS, the grant will help build a new refugee camp for 20,000 people,
expand 
three existing camps, and assist with water and sanitation projects and
psycho-social support.

A grant of $7,500 supports a CWS appeal in the wake of two hurricanes in  the
southern states of the US. The money will help pay for local community
efforts to respond to the storms as well as shipments of blankets and Gift of  the
Heart disaster relief kits.

An allocation of $5,000 has been made to a CWS appeal for severe flooding  in
the Maharashtra area of India. The heaviest rain ever recorded in Indian
history fell in Mumbai, resulting in over 1,000 deaths and destruction of homes,
crops, and livestock. The funds are providing immediate food relief along
with  basic household and hygiene items.

Another grant of $5,000 responds to a CWS appeal in the wake of Hurricane
Dennis in Cuba. At least 120,000 homes were severely damaged and 50,000 people
are homeless. The money will assist with immediate needs of food, housing
construction and repair, household items, and psychosocial programs.

An allocation of $1,500 has been made for a seed-money grant to a local
recovery committee in Wright, Wyo., after a tornado devastated the town.
Ninety-one mobile homes were destroyed and two lives lost in the
low-income 
coal-mining community. The money also will help deploy CWS staff to the area for
training and capacity building, and support a shipment of blankets.

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 source.
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