wfn.org | Church of the Brethren provides food for Guatemalan villages

[COBNews@aol.com]

Date: Oct. 27,	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 PROVIDES FOOD FOR GUATEMALAN VILLAGES
 
Oct. 27, 2005 (Elgin, IL) --  A grant of $7,000 from the Church of the	
Brethren Emergency Disaster Fund is providing food to three villages in 
Guatemala 
affected by Hurricane Stan and resulting floods and mud slides. Union  
Victoria, Chitaburuy Chimaltenango, and El Triunfo all have a relationship
with  the 
Church of the Brethren through mission staff working in Guatemala with 
Global 
Mission Partnerships and Brethren Volunteer Service. 
 
Funds will be handled and directed through mission worker Rebecca Allen and  
Latin America specialist Tom Benevento. Some funding will go directly to a  
community co-op. Additional grants are anticipated to carry out a larger  
response.
 
Benevento said that the three villages "are doing okay" except for many  
people who have fallen sick with chest congestion from the moisture and mold 

after days of rain. Union Victoria families have returned to their houses  fo
llowing an evacuation that stranded them on a hillside sheltering under 
plastic 
tarps and tents for some time. The community is now focused on repairing  a 
water turbine for coffee processing, and rebuilding the bridge that was
washed	
out, said Benevento. The bridge is crucial to transporting the community's  
coffee crop. 
 
It also has been difficult to get the funds to Allen and the communities  
through rural banks in the area. "It's more complicated than one would
think,"  
Benevento said, giving the example of the "fairly big trip" to a bank from an
 
area where roads and bridges have been destroyed.
 
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) 
 
*****************************************************************
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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