HOTLINE - week of October 17, 2005

October 16 is World Food Day. CWS is working to alleviate hunger and poverty, helping families and communities around the world to provide for themselves the food necessary for good health.

"This is going to be the one remembered as the earthquake that killed the children," says Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan director Marvin Parvez, of the Oct. 8 earthquake that devastated villages in northern Pakistan and parts of India and Afghanistan.

"It's a horror story that doesn’t end," says Parvez. "You find yet another village that has been flattened by this earthquake."

"In Abbottabad, a girls' high school of 1,100 students was destroyed," says Donna Derr, CWS Associate for Emergency Response, "and only a few students could be evacuated. At a primary school in Balakot only 25 of its 175 students could be saved."

In Pakistan's Mansehra district, however, teacher Mushtaq Ahmad was able to help save students and teachers at his school when the quake hit, thanks to what he'd learned just days before in a CWS-sponsored Disaster Preparedness Teachers Training.

"Because of the training, I was able to help save not only my own life but those of our students and fellow teachers," Ahmad says. CWS trained more than 2,000 teachers in disaster preparedness this past year.

CWS is assisting 15,000 of the worst affected families with food packages and shelter kits, and providing medical assistance to 100,000 through two health centers. The food packages include wheat flour, rice, lentils, cooking oil, sugar, tea, salt, a match box, and soap. A shelter kit includes a family-size tent, ground sheet and plastic sheet, two iron poles, and four blankets. CWS also is providing house reconstruction kits consisting of five bags of cement, two iron beams, two windows, and one door.

CWS has had relief and development operations in Pakistan for more than 50 years. For more information on CWS response to the South Asia / Pakistan earthquake, please visit www.churchworldservice.org. Your support is urgently needed.

CWS continues to assist people affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which hit along the U.S. Gulf Coast. To date, CWS has provided more than $1.4 million in CWS Blankets, "Gift of the Heart" Health, School, and Kids Kits, and Emergency Clean-up Buckets, medical supplies, and UNICEF recreational/educational kits to assist uprooted families and individuals in ten states. CWS has also provided seed grants to ten local long-term recovery programs in four states, and is supporting trauma care for both caregivers and survivors.

Working through affiliate offices in ten states, CWS is assisting people who have relocated to new areas. Your help is urgently needed to support this work.

Remnants of Tropical Storm Tammy and other weather factors have caused heavy rains and flooding from Pennsylvania to Maine. New Hampshire has experienced its worst flooding in 25 years. CWS is in contact with emergency and religious leaders in the affected region to assess needs.

A recent CWS Interfaith Trauma Response Training for New Hampshire pastors should help them respond more effectively to needs resulting from the current emergency.

Though El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua have all experienced emergencies in recent weeks, the worst situation is in Guatemala, where flooding and mudslides from Hurricane Stan caused widespread devastation. In some areas, whole villages have been covered in mud.

CWS is working through partners to assist the most vulnerable families. To assist affected families, CWS is providing 10,000 CWS Blankets; 9,300 "Gift of the Heart" Health Kits, 3,000 Baby Kits, and more than 5,000 School Kits, and medical and sewing supplies through the Conference of Evangelical Churches in Guatemala.

"We want to alleviate the situation of the poor families who are the ones that always suffer the most from natural disasters like these," says a staffer from another partner, the National Coordination of Guatemalan Widows.

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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