wfn.org | ELCA Grants $2 Million to Lutheran World Relief (CORRECTED)

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

October 18, 2005

ELCA Grants $2 Million to Lutheran World Relief for Sri Lanka
05-197-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) awarded Lutheran World Relief (LWR) a $2 million grant to
support rehabilitation and recovery work in Sri Lanka, one of the
countries hardest hit by the December 2004 tsunami.  LWR is the
overseas relief and development ministry of the ELCA and Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod.
     "The generous gifts from ELCA members and congregations to
the Southeast Asian Tsunami disaster response have enabled our
sustained support of our key hunger and disaster partner,
Lutheran World Relief," said Kathryn Sime, director for the ELCA
World Hunger and Disaster Appeal.
     "We are grateful for the abundant generosity offered
throughout the ELCA that has ensured our long-term commitment to
our partners and companions throughout Southeast Asia following
last December's tsunami," Sime said.  As of Oct. 18 the ELCA
received donations from its members totalling $10 million toward
tsunami relief efforts.
     "We are thrilled to forward $2 million to Lutheran Word
Relief, our partner in ministry, to continue the work of recovery
as we walk and work together with those most in need following
the devastation of the tsunami," said the Rev. Donald M.
Hallberg, executive director, ELCA Foundation.
     "We are ever grateful to the response from members and
congregations of the ELCA that ultimately make this grant
possible.  This truly is the church in mission," Hallberg said.
     "We are incredibly grateful for the ELCA's commitment to our
response in South and Southeast Asia," said Kathryn Wolford, LWR
president, in an Oct. 14 news release.	"This $2 million grant
will allow us to engage in the kind of long-term work in Sri
Lanka that LWR is known for -- addressing the underlying
conditions of chronic poverty and providing lasting change," she
said.
     "As a ministry of the ELCA, we treasure our relationship
with the church body and its members.  This grant is just one
more example of the great things we can do together to help those
we are called to serve," Wolford said.
     Sri Lanka is an island nation of almost 20 million people in
the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of India.  A massive
Dec. 26 earthquake near Indonesia triggered a tsunami -- a series
of immense ocean waves -- that killed more than 30,000 Sri
Lankans.
     LWR and its partner agencies in Sri Lanka immediately
provided more than 45,500 survivors with food, water, tents,
cooking utensils, clothing, medicine, school books and uniforms.
     "The magnitude of this disaster compels us to support one
another in our relief efforts and to build on each other's
competencies," said the Rev. Rafael Malpica Padilla, executive
director, ELCA Global Mission.	"LWR has been a trusted and
faithful companion through which our churches have maximized and
extended our response to international disasters and development
work."
     The ELCA gave LWR a grant of $100,000 in January 2005.  "The
ELCA's initial support was vital in helping LWR respond during
the emergency phase when saving lives was the priority," said Tim
McCully, LWR vice president for international programs.
     "This new donation is equally important as we shift from
relief to longer term rehabilitation efforts," he said.
     "This grant will allow LWR and our local partner
organizations to work with more families in more communities.  It
will expand our work to increase peoples' ability to earn an
income through their own skills, assist them in protecting and
managing their natural resources and help them reduce their risks
to future disasters," McCully said.
     In the months since the disaster, LWR has helped repair
damaged houses and schools.  It has provided loans and training
to restore and diversify livelihoods.  It has also offered
counseling for those most affected by the disaster.
     LWR is in the second phase of a three-phase plan,
transitioning from relief to rehabilitation.  The rehabilitation
phase is to last through 2005, when long-term projects will take
over.  The LWR news release said the ELCA grant will help meet
long-term needs for permanent housing and steady, reliable
sources of income in Sri Lanka.
_ _ _
INTERNATIONAL DISASTERS:
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:
ELCA International Disaster Response, PO Box 71764,
Chicago, IL 60694-1764, 1-800-638-3522 and
http://www.ELCA.org/disaster/idrgive on the Internet.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org 
http://www.elca.org/news