HOTLINE - week of August 28, 2006

"Humanitarian needs in Lebanon far outstrip available resources," says Donna Derr, director of Church World Service Emergency Response, in the aftermath of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict that displaced more than one million people there.

As families return following the ceasefire agreement, many are finding their houses and communities destroyed or heavily damaged.

Civilians in both Israel and Lebanon have suffered. Because the humanitarian crisis is broader in Lebanon, CWS is seeking recovery assistance for civilians there. CWS is providing material and financial support for the emergency assistance work of long-time partners the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) and International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC). Both are providing food, non-food relief items, water and sanitation, and psychosocial care.

CWS has helped to provide emergency supplies, and is also also providing 10,020 CWS School Kits and 8,595 CWS Health Kits to be delivered this week.

"We work with a hugely active and highly skilled MECC staff. They live there. It’s their community. When other organizations left Lebanon, the MECC stayed," Derr explains. "MECC makes a strong effort to work collaboratively across faith traditions."

"A third of the population of Lebanon is Christian," notes David Weaver, director of CWS Mission Relationships and Witness.

The Joint Christian Committee for Social Service (JCC), a local organization of the MECC in Lebanon, works with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Its facilities are located within or near the Palestinian camps. During the bombing in south Lebanon, a JCC school hosted 160 displaced families, and provided their children with some entertainment to relieve the trauma they were experiencing. The JCC center in Sabra has been providing relief supplies, and the Sidon center has been assisting health care.

CWS and partners are also assisting families affected by the continuing humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza.

"Keep everyone in your prayers," urges CWS's David Weaver. "When you’re in Gaza, it’s easy to feel isolated and forgotten. The community needs a sense of spiritual and moral support. The Christians here exemplify some of the best in Christian witness," he says. "Pray as well for the Israelis, who have also been traumatized. Their sense of threat has increased."

CWS is seeking funds for humanitarian relief for Lebanon, as well as for needs in Gaza and the West Bank.

One year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast, recovery efforts focus on rebuilding.

In McComb, Mississippi, for example, Elizabeth Mills remained in her home following Hurricane Katrina even though its interior had been destroyed. She had nowhere else to go. Nearly a year after the hurricane, hazardous black mold covers large portions of the walls.

Elizabeth Mills: thankful for the home repair assistance. Photo: Jim Hackbarth for CWS

Now, thanks to a CWS-funded recovery group, Mills and others in McComb and surrounding areas are receiving much-needed home repairs.

"The ruined areas such as ours," says Rev. Judy Powell Sibley, a United Methodist minister who heads the recovery organization, “have become places of grace where we have seen God's commandments come to life.

"We are forever grateful to CWS and [others] which have helped us and put our love for our neighbors into action."

Eighty-two low-income individuals and families in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas will soon be returning to homes damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita thanks to a grant for housing repairs from Habitat for Humanity to CWS.

For more glimpses of ongoing recovery efforts.

Support hurricane relief.

Violence continues among the villages and displaced persons camps in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Reports of rape and attacks on women and girls by armed men outside of camps for internally displaced persons have increased many-fold in the past five weeks. In addition, humanitarian organizations in Darfur have been attacked, forcing a suspension of humanitarian activities in certain areas.

Displaced people in Darfur are calling for an increased presence of troops to stop the violence. Sudan’s leaders say, however, that they will oppose any UN force that is brought into Darfur to keep the peace.

CWS is working in partnership to help families affected by the violence in Darfur through the provision of water, seeds and training, school materials, and other essentials.

Support this effort.

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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