HOTLINE - week of October 30, 2006

More than 38,000 families in Yanjin and Daguan counties, Yunnan Province--two of the poorest areas of the country--need continued assistance following July and August earthquakes and a series of aftershocks that caused damage to housing, crops, and infrastructure.

CWS is seeking support for the work of long-time partner the Amity Foundation. Amity is focusing primarily on rural women, children, and elderly people—farming families whose homes were destroyed or too badly damaged to live in, or who lost at least two-thirds of their crops.

Assistance includes 33 pounds of rice for some 5,000 people in 1,600 severely affected families; one quilt per family for up to 3,000 families; help in rebuilding 500 houses, repairing four clinics or hospitals, and rebuilding three potable water systems; and training 5,000 people in disaster preparedness.

Mohamad Siraj is a welder today, with his own shop in Dhodial, a village north of Mansehra, thanks to CWS-supported vocational training.

A farmer before, Siraj lost his house in the October 2005 earthquake in northern Pakistan. The quake left him, his wife, and their three children in a camp for the displaced. Siraj says he spent months doing nothing, just sitting around in front of their tent. And then came an opportunity to join the CWS training program. At his graduation, CWS provided him with a complete set of welding equipment.

"There's no end to the work to be done, and I work every day making shutters, doors, gates, and grills," says Siraj. "I'm making money, taking care of my family, and looking at where we can build a house," he says.

More than 1,700 quake survivors are taking CWS-supported construction trade courses.

"Recovery in Pakistan, despite all that's been done to date," says Donna Derr, CWS Director of Emergency Response, "may well take a decade." The upcoming winter will be a challenge to many families who have not yet rebuilt their destroyed or damaged homes.

As Siraj and other quake survivors work hands-on to rebuild their lives and communities, CWS continues to assist quake-affected communities with shelter kits, food packages, livelihood support through livestock development for widows, water and sanitation, environmental awareness training, basic health services, psychosocial care, health and hygiene training, and more than 100,000 native trees for communities to reforest hillsides.

Kakuze Mediatrice, 20, cares for three sisters, a brother, and an HIV+ foster child. Both of Mediatrice's parents died of AIDS, leaving her as head of the household.

Before the CWS-supported "Giving Hope" program came into their lives, the children were malnourished because of a diet of mostly sweet potatoes, which Mediatrice earned by working for the neighbors.

Two of the sisters dropped out of primary school because they lacked the necessary fees. The family was often sick. They needed schooling and a way to earn a living.

After the Giving Hope program came into their lives, Mediatrice learned about children's rights, life skills, household management, nutrition and food security, micro-business planning and management, health and hygiene, HIV and AIDS, and how to make animal feeds.

The sisters are back in primary school, and three of the sisters have taken classes in sewing, hairdressing, and postcard making. They combine their vocational skills projects with other money-making activities, such as selling cassava cakes, cassava flour, palm oil, and kerosene at the market and from their home.

They also raise pigs, goats, ducks, and vegetables for their own use and for selling in the market. They no longer suffer from hunger or malnutrition; they are healthy, and have started saving for the future.

More than 17,500 HIV/AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya are taking part in the CWS Giving Hope program.

Up to two feet of snow fell over western New York in a mid-October storm, damaging homes and knocking out power and phone service to some 392,000 homes, businesses, schools, and churches. Some 30 fires related to candles and portable generators broke out in the Buffalo area. CWS is providing 500 Clean-up Buckets for needs in Buffalo, and is assessing ways in which the faith community may be able to address recovery needs such as debris removal, repair of damaged roofs and basements, and the economic impact of loss of income and food due to power outages.

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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