wfn.org | ELCA Helps to Provide Aid for Civilians in Democratic Republic of the Congo

[<NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

Title: ELCA Helps to Provide Aid for Civilians in Democratic Republic of the Congo
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>January 20, 2009  

ELCA Helps to Provide Aid for Civilians in Democratic Republic of the Congo
09-020-MRC

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA) provided $75,000 Jan. 8 to help meet the basic
needs of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Months of heavy artillery fighting caused an estimated
250,000 people to flee their homes in Masisi and Rutshuru --
towns in the DRC's North Kivu province.  Between 1.4 million and
2 million people are displaced from their homes in North Kivu,
according to the United Nations' World Food Program, Geneva.

Although various armed groups in eastern DRC agreed to a
cease-fire in January 2008, full-fledged fighting broke out in
the fall between government forces and Laurent Nkunda's National
Congress for the Defense of the People, reported Megan Bradfield,
associate director for international development and disaster
response, ELCA Global Mission.  Fighting has spread to the
outskirts of Goma, she said.

It is now the rainy season in the DRC and the risk of
hunger, cholera, malaria and respiratory disease is threatening
the displaced population, Bradfield said.  "Health centers have
been looted and are unable to respond to the needs of people,"
she said.

The heart of the current crisis is in Rutshuru,
Kanyabanonga, Goma and Minova, said Bradfield.  Members of Action
by Churches Together (ACT) are working there to reach about
27,000 internally displaced people with food, clean water and
trauma counseling.  ELCA International Disaster Response sent the
funds to ACT to support this outreach.

ACT is a global alliance of churches and related agencies
working to save lives and support communities in emergency
situations worldwide.  It is based in Geneva with the World
Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF).  The ELCA is a member of the WCC and LWF.

Coordinated by ELCA Global Mission, International Disaster
Response channels its funds through international church
organizations and relief agencies.  Funds provide for food,
medicine, drinking water, emergency shelter and other materials
for survivors of disasters.

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
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog