HOTLINE - week of December 12, 2005

When Amona Adam Osman came to the feeding center in South Darfur, she was a tiny skeleton. Her mother's milk was dry, and the baby could no longer take in food. Her weight was 60 percent of what it should have been. Amona was dying.

The monitor in charge of the feeding center immediately sent Amona to the nearby clinic, where she spent two months. She then returned to the supplementary feeding center. Her height-weight ratio was up to 75 percent of what it should have been.

The monitors gave her mother, Awatif Abdu-Rahman, a bag of food for two weeks so that she could stay healthy, feed Amona with solids and, by eating the food herself, provide good breast milk for her daughter.

"I'm very grateful to SUDO (Sudan Development Organization, a local CWS partner), to the people who fund this center, and to the people who work here," said Awatif. "They gave me a mosquito net and have given me extra food. If I had not come here, Amona could have died."

Genocidal violence in Darfur, western Sudan, has displaced more than 1.5 million people and destroyed entire villages. Awatif and her family fled their village 11 months ago. "The planes started bombing our village. I saw my house on fire, and I ran away," said Awatif. "We came here by donkey and slept on the way."

CWS is helping to support the work of Action by Churches Together-Caritas, which has saved the lives of numerous children like Amona, while supporting mothers like Awatif, across South and West Darfur. Since the start of the program in June 2004, more than a quarter of a million children have been assisted.

Fatima doesn’t know her age, but says she thinks she is in her 70s. She lives in the village of Empee Bata, in a rural area near Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Her home is in the upstairs portion of a building, the first floor of which serves as a supply room for seeds and tools for a CWS-sponsored agricultural project in her village. Asked what the CWS-supported chili and watermelon growing project means for her village, Fatima is philosophical. "Well," she says, "it depends on the price they bring when we sell them." CWS partner MAMAMIA (Masyarakat Makmur Mitra Adil--"for a prosperous and just society through partnership") is assisting the village in both the growing and marketing stages of the project.

More personal stories and photos of tsunami recovery --featured throughout December.

Church World Service is featured in a CBS interfaith religion special, After The Storm: Religions Respond to Nature's Fury, about Gulf Coast hurricane recovery. The special is scheduled for broadcast at various dates and times between now and December 25, on CBS television stations. Please check local listings. Visit the CWS Website for more about the program, along with broadcast dates and times for some areas.

The thirty-member Amani Women's Group, located in Mathare Valley, a slum area on the outskirts of Nairobi, is taking part in a year-long project to improve their reading and business skills. The women, whose small businesses include selling charcoal, cabbages, and water; tailoring and selling clothes; or building and selling furniture at a rented shop, were already involved in literacy classes when they decided that they needed more help to manage their business activities and earn more to support their families.

The group's furniture business is closed temporarily because it went bankrupt. What they needed was economic literacy and a seed fund. They found both with the help of CWS and two partners, Kenya Adult Learners' Association (KALA) and Organization of African Instituted Churches (OAIC).

The women meet twice a week with a KALA-supplied literacy teacher to help them build upon their literacy and writing skills with training on savings, loans, and small-scale business planning. KALA is a partner with ProLiteracy WorldWide–also a CWS partner–and has adopted ProLiteracy's literacy training for social change guidelines.

OAIC, experienced in small business programs, helps to motivate and train groups in creating their own savings and loan projects, and trains them in small-scale business planning and management.

CWS is providing the Amani Women's Group with $2,000 in start-up capital to jump-start their business enterprises and provide seed money for a revolving loan fund.

The literacy and business training is indirectly benefiting 350 family and extended family members. KALA’s policy on community and gender education is helping to bridge the gender gap and increase the women’s independence.

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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