HOTLINE - week of November 28, 2005

December 1 is World AIDS Day. Church World Service is helping partners in many areas around the globe to respond to and educate people and communities affected by HIV/AIDS.

"We are heartened by the generosity of the world's major donors and particularly by the U.S.'s expanded pledge," says Donna Derr, Church World Service Disaster Response Director, of the pledges made at a recent donor conference in Pakistan, "but historically, following major disasters only about half of the pledges made by donor countries ever materialize.

"It would be a sign of hope for the future to break from that tradition with this disaster," she says.

CWS Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Director Marvin Parvez reports, "Approximately 68 percent of the pledges are loans--although donors are calling them soft loans. But," he adds, "the hard reality is that Pakistan already has $32 billion in debt and is paying billions more in interest on the principal.

"I don't know how we can help the children of Pakistan by adding to the national debt," he says. "As a generation, as a population, our children were so mortally affected by the disaster itself. So many have died, lost parents, are injured and traumatized. The deepened burden of debt just makes the future a bit darker for them."

Derr adds, "So many who have visited the disaster areas have commented that they've never seen destruction and access complexities of this magnitude. Because of those challenges, we are still deep into the emergency relief state. If it's taking this long for rescue and relief, we surely know that rehabilitation is going to take a long, long time.

"From our fifty years of service and partnership in Pakistan, CWS is also urging that world bodies stay in for the long haul with the people of Pakistan."

CWS is working to provide material aid to more than 20,000 families in northern Pakistan. CWS is continuing to work in conjunction with partners to deliver vital winter-insulated tents and heating equipment and to repair damaged water and sanitation systems.

In Balakot, CWS and our partner Norwegian Church Aid are laying a galvanized water pipe and repairing 2.5 kilometers of remaining pipeline. CWS and NCA are working in ten locations across four districts to provide 59 water taps, more than 275 latrines, 56 baths, and 830 tents.

CWS is also assessing more remote areas, hoping to reach the most vulnerable survivors: widows, woman-headed households, orphans, and disabled people. Because of cultural sensitivities, CWS female team members are being employed to reach the women in those areas.

In this season of thanksgiving, many evacuee families are hopeful for the future because of assistance they’ve received from the Church World Service affiliate office network. Partnerships between local congregations and refugee resettlement agencies are key to the support CWS is providing in ten states to people displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

In Chicago, Illinois, for example, Kelley Johnson, of Interfaith Refugee & Immigration Ministries' (IRIM) evacuee assistance program, assesses clients’ needs, matches them with congregational sponsors, and provides follow-up support.

"When I met Lois," Johnson says, "she looked me in the eye and said, 'This is God giving me a chance to create a new life for my son.'" IRIM connected them to First Congregational Church of Western Springs (United Church of Christ), which helped them locate and furnish a Housing and Urban Development apartment in Maywood.

"Lois and her son were transported from New Orleans… to Chicago, with no advance notice of where they were going," says David Heinz, Urban Ministries Subcommittee chair on First Congregational Church's Outreach Ministries Committee.

The hospitality upon arrival in Chicago was "beautiful," Lois said. "I'm just thanking God that I am living and that my child and I made it through to have this Thanksgiving together and in a home," said Lois, who shared her Thanksgiving Day menu: a mouth-watering offering including ham, poultry, sweet peas, mustard greens, cornbread, and sweet potato pie. "I'm thankful for everyone who helped me get where I am."

"A lot of congregation members pulled together to make this work," Heinz says. "Some got food, others got a van, others found furnishings for the apartment. The couple who helped move them brought their two sons along, and they played with the woman's son during the move."

Johnson says that congregation members "struck a very good relationship with the two. What thrills me is that relationships are being created among people of different backgrounds who otherwise would not have gotten to know each other."

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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