HOTLINE - week of April 11, 2005

CWS is continuing to assist families affected by the tsunami in Aceh province, Indonesia, and has provided such items as food, water, medicines, tents, mattresses, and "Gift of the Heart" Health, School, and Baby Kits. CWS is also providing aid for earthquake-affected families on Nias Island, off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. More information on CWS tsunami and earthquake response in Indonesia, as well as tsunami response in other regions.

Women in rural Vietnam are learning new skills and taking on more responsibilities in their communities, with the help of Church World Service and our local partners.

In Vietnam, for example, more than 600 women students and some 90 supervisors are taking part in a CWS Vietnam program for social workers through the Women's Studies Department of Vietnam's Open University. The program is helping to strengthen the work of the supervisors, while enabling students to get field experience.

Through the program, social work students fill positions with agencies such as shelters for street children and vocational training centers, and with organizations working with drug addicts and people at high risk of becoming HIV-positive. Upon graduation, about 80 percent of the students find jobs related to their field of study.

Adding to the rolls of social workers is helping to address the growing social problems and issues that besiege Vietnam today. Women are becoming a part of the solution.

CWS Disaster Response and Recovery Liaisons are assessing needs in parts of the Northeast and South, where several severe weather systems caused tornadoes, flashfloods, hail, and high winds and have impacted thousands of households.

In New Jersey, at least 3,000 homes were affected in what officials are calling "a one-hundred-year storm." The governor is seeking a federal disaster declaration for some 20 counties. The same storm system also destroyed or damaged some 300 homes in Orange, Ulster, and Broome counties, New York. Many mobile home communities were affected, with one in Broome County reportedly underwater. Also, thunderstorms spawned tornadoes and flashfloods across central and southern Mississippi, where more than 125 homes were destroyed or severely damaged. Tornadoes also struck in the town of Aliceville, Alabama, near the Mississippi border.

CWS is seeking funds to assist with emergency response efforts in the storm-affected areas.

A delegation of Christian and Muslim academic, religious, and policy leaders from Middle East will visit the U.S. this month, hoping to counter prevailing U.S. stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs as pitted against Christians. Co-hosted by the CWS Middle East Forum, the eight Christian, Muslim, and Druze delegates from Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine and Syria will engage in dialogue and make presentations in congregational, academic, and public policy settings in Chicago, Charlotte, New York, and Washington, D.C.

More information on this visit.

"Global trade can either promote or hinder justice, peace, and sustainable economic development," says David Bower, Church World Service Michigan Regional Office Director. "Trade on unequal terms creates and maintains inequities and can lead to violence, conflict, and environmental destruction," he adds.

On April 8 and 9, CWS co-sponsored a conference in Michigan titled "A Better World Is Possible: Sustainable Globalizations and Economic Justice," coinciding with the Global Week of Action on Trade (April 10-16). More information.

Your prayers and support - and your participation in CROP WALKS and the TOOLS & BLANKETS Program - make possible these and other life sustaining programs. For information on how to get involved, please call your Church World Service/CROP Regional Office toll-free at 1-888-CWS-CROP, that's 1-888-297-2767.

For information about free loan videos, please call 1-800-297-1516, ext. 338, or e-mail us at: videos@churchworldservice.org.

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