Newsline: Disaster grants announced for Haiti, Angola, summer storms in US

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl 
Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

Disaster grants announced for Haiti, Angola, summer storms in US

(Aug. 10, 2012) Elgin, IL -- Several grants have been given recently by the 
Church of the Brethren's Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF). Heading the list is a 
grant continuing the post-earthquake work of Brethren Disaster Ministries in 
Haiti.

The EDF grant of $48,000 continues funding for earthquake recovery work in 
Haiti by Brethren Disaster Ministries in cooperation with L'Eglise des Freres 
Haitiens (the Church of the Brethren in Haiti).

The response is nearing completion, with the current need in Haiti less related 
to the 2010 earthquake and more a problem of pervasive poverty and 
unemployment, said the grant request.

"Long-term recovery programming has focused on lifting earthquake survivors 
into a sustainable living situation," the grant request explained. "Building 
homes for the many homeless has been an important part of the story, but is far 
from the whole response. By focusing on systemic issues in Haiti that were 
brought to light by the disaster, we are building capacity--meaning caring for 
people emotionally and spiritually, encouraging and equipping Haitian 
leadership to lead in social ministries, creating work for unemployed 
construction workers, and creating a physical location for the Haitian Church 
of the Brethren to expand and continue service ministries in partnership with 
the US church."

This grant will support continued home construction and repair for earthquake 
survivors, completion of a guesthouse for volunteers and a manager's house at 
the Ministry Center of L'Eglise des Freres Haitiens, provide volunteer support 
and staff salaries for security and maintenance, support work groups needing 
housing in Haiti, continue to expand the Wozo program providing emotional and 
spiritual care through STAR Haiti--Seminars on Trauma Awareness and Resiliency, 
and develop reports summarizing the work of Brethren Disaster Ministries in 
Haiti.

Previous allocations to this project total $1,300,000. The funds have been 
given in seven grants between Jan. 14, 2010, and Oct. 12, 2011.

In Angola, the EDF is giving a grant of $3,500 to support the work of the 
Church World Service (CWS) Development and Humanitarian Assistance Program. 
More than 114,000 refugees from the decades of civil war are returning to 
Angola, the grant request reports, and they are finding a country in drought 
and without resources to support the re-establishment of their livelihoods and 
households.

In the United States, an EDF grant of $3,000 responds to a CWS appeal following 
summer storms and wildfires in multiple states.

For more information about the work of Brethren Disaster Ministries go to 
www.brethren.org/bdm . See photos from recent disaster rebuilding projects at 
www.brethren.org (click for BDM and CDS albums).

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 celebrated its 
300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 123,000 members across the United 
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, 
Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
>Director of News Services
>Church of the Brethren
>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>800-323-8039 ext. 260
>cobnews@brethren.org