wfn.org | Church World Service Responding to Devastating Haiti Quake

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Church World Service Responding to Devastating Haiti Quake

Agency assessing needs, persisting to reach all partners across
affected region

NEW YORK -- January 12, 2010 -- In the still-chaotic aftermath of the
7.0 earthquake that struck Port au Prince, Haiti, today, humanitarian agency
Church World Service reports it is sending initial funding to its local
partners in the country and is prepared to provide CWS Kits and CWS
Blankets to people in need.

"We're continuing to assess the situation," said the agency's Emergency
Response Director Donna Derr. "CWS staff here in the U.S. and in the region
are attempting to contact our long-time partners in Haiti, Service
Chrstien dÌ?Haiti, Christian Aid SKDE, and the Ecumenical Foundation
for Peace and Justice."

Derr said preliminary information they've received indicate that EFPJ¹s
House of Hope day school in Port au Prince, which CWS supports, is
damaged.

"Some EFPJ staff are trying to determine the well-being of the children
and other staff members, but we just don't know yet. The communications
are still very difficult, very spotty."

The European agency Christian Aid, a key partner of Church World
Service, has offices in Port au Prince. CWS's Derr said, "Christian Aid colleagues
have reported that their office is damaged and they are still trying to
reach unaccounted-for staff."

With ongoing sustainable development programs across Haiti and the
Dominican Republic, Derr said CWS partners in the Dominican Republic
"have been contacted and accounted for. We also contacted Cuban missionaries from our
partner the Cuban Council of Churches, which works with people with
disabilities in Haiti. We understand that Cuban Council staff are
currently in the border city of Dajabon trying to account for a dozen of the
volunteers they work with in Port Au Prince, but no reports have come in
yet."

HOW TO HELP: Contributions to support Church World Service emergency
response and recovery efforts may be made online at
www.churchworldservice.org/donate; by phone (800) 297-1516; or sent to
Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515.

Media Contact:

Lesley Crosson, Church World Service, (212) 870-2676,
lcrosson@churchworldservice.org

Jan Dragin -- 24/7 -- (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net
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