HOTLINE - week of April 24, 2006

"The people of this area, from the core of their hearts, are thankful to CWS," says Dr. Sardar Shabbir Ahmed, head of the Rawalakot District Health Department. The doctor, meeting visitors on April 20, conveyed thanks for the CWS response to the October earthquake that affected northern Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir (Azad Kashmir).

Key to the CWS response in Rawalakot has been the deployment of ongoing mobile health clinics in half a dozen remote locales to provide basic medical care to women and children. The health operation is in partnership with the Raiwindi Diocese, Church of Pakistan.

On April 20, the clinics had long lines of patients, as did a Basic Health Unit, which has been set up in a former school.

CWS also is continuing to provide counseling for many families as they look toward the future--whether the families are still in tent camps or if they have returned to their homes. CWS also helps to organize activities to relieve people’s anxieties. Most recently, a henna designing competition and a children's sports competition were organized in one of the tent camps, allowing the participating women and children to relax and socialize with others, putting their worries aside for a while.

Over the course of the winter, CWS distributed more than 24,500 winterized family tents (including ground cloths, plastic sheeting, and blankets) and more than 14,000 family food kits to survivors of the October quake. CWS also provided additional blankets, along with sweaters, hats, shoes, and socks purchased within the region with the support of partners.

The future for most of those returning to their home areas includes rebuilding, and CWS is working with partners to provide house reconstruction kits--containing cement, iron girders, windows, doors, tin sheeting, and other materials--for some 20,000 families.

Support the efforts in Pakistan.

In a groundbreaking partnership, Church World Service is receiving $3,038,000 from Habitat for Humanity International to help repair the homes of 500 low-income families who were affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"This collaboration is going to have a major impact where it counts most--at the community level, where people with very limited resources for recovery have had their lives upended by last year’s storms," says CWS Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough. "Over the past eight months, we have been helping the people, the schools, and the churches of the Gulf Coast recover and we will continue to accompany them on the journey back to normality for as long as it takes.

"Having a partner like Habitat for Humanity, with its demonstrated commitment to faith in action, backing our efforts is very important to us. We hope this will be the beginning of an ongoing collaboration."

Habitat's "Operation Home Delivery" program is helping to support home repair projects initiated by CWS member denominations and local long-term recovery committees. The collaboration joins CWS's 60 years of experience in disaster relief and community organizing with Habitat's expertise in making affordable housing available. The home repairs will be in coastal Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas.

Selection of low-income families for the repair program will be consistent with Habitat's income criteria for homeowner partner families. CWS and Habitat expect that 500 homes will be repaired over a two-year period.

A key feature of CWS's disaster response is its focus on helping existing community groups establish independent organizations dedicated solely to filling unmet disaster-related, long-term recovery needs of vulnerable people in their communities.

These local member organizations, with their close ties and deep commitment to the communities where they exist, will help identify homes to be repaired or rebuilt under the CWS-Habitat partnership. The partnership will provide grants for construction materials and repair assistance.

Support recovery efforts.

Some 1,080 farm families--more than half headed by women--are taking part in a three-year agricultural project to regain their lives following the disintegration of the country's infrastructure during a decade-long civil war.

The families, who live in eight communities in Kambia and Bombali districts in northern Sierra Leone, are receiving tools, along with seeds for growing vegetables, groundnuts, and rice, with the help of CWS and local partner the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone. The families are also learning how to use fertilizers, new methods of vegetable cultivation and marketing, simple accounting and record keeping--all to better equip them to achieve food security and to rise above the poverty line.

The loss of trees is leading to soil erosion and land degradation. Through workshops, the farmers are learning how to better manage their environment. Each of the eight communities also is receiving 1,500 fast-growing tree seedlings to help reestablish groundcover.

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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