HOTLINE - week of August 08, 2005

Church World Service and partners are assisting with food security, health and nutrition, and livestock maintenance for some 50,000-plus people in 55 villages in the worst affected areas of Niger. A drought extending across the African Sahel (southern Sahara Desert), accompanied by locust infestations in many areas and years of economic decline, is causing severe food shortages for some 3.5 million people in Niger.

"Not only do people not have enough food, but there is little feed for livestock, and animals are also starving to death," says CWS Interim Director for Emergency Response, Donna Derr. "Farming families make up over 80 percent of the population, and they are facing difficulty in sowing crops for next year. They lack seeds, and many are so weakened by hunger that they are unable to work in the fields."

CWS support will include the provision of millet, 10 percent to be used for seed; milk powder (mainly for children); and the construction of 13 additional cereal storage banks (six already exist), as well as training and equipment to operate them.

Donate to Niger relief

This past week, Church World Service joined people of goodwill the world over in offering sympathy to the people of Sudan on the tragic and untimely death of Vice-President John Garang and others who perished with him in a helicopter crash on July 30.

As one of the leading architects of January's Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Dr. Garang helped to carry the hopes of the southern Sudanese for a new era of peace, dignity, and reconstruction. CWS has joined long-time partner the New Sudan Council of Churches in encouraging the people of Sudan, as well as the international community, to remain steadfast in commitment to the peace agreement signed in January.

CWS has begun to assist families returning to southern Sudan – helping to provide seeds, agricultural tools, and reconstruction assistance. In the Darfur region of western Sudan, CWS is helping partners to provide emergency shelter materials, cooking utensils, medical and hygiene supplies, and clean drinking water for families displaced by the conflict there.

The U.S. grassroots "Dear Sudan" campaign is responding to the needs of conflict-affected Sudanese families by raising awareness and channeling support through CWS.

Donate to Sudan relief.

Floods have recently devastated parts of Sindh Province, upper Punjab Province, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), and northern areas of Pakistan. Major rivers in NWFP, Punjab, and northern Pakistan have been at extremely high levels since mid-May due to heavy winter snowfall and unprecedented high temperatures in the region over the last months.

Over the next six months, the CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan office plans to assist 1,000 flood- affected families with shelter kits and food items and will further support the rehabilitation of 500 families with provision of reconstruction materials and livelihood kits.

"This year Pakistan has been affected by months of flooding, severely impacting numerous provinces," notes CWS Interim Director for Emergency Response, Donna Derr. "Existing local resources to respond are now diminished. So support is critical if we are to effectively help as flooding continues."

Donate to Pakistan flood relief.

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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