HOTLINE - week of October 22, 2007

This fall, tens of thousands of people are participating in CROP Hunger Walks. Your support for the CROP Hunger Walk is helping people around the world to achieve food security and improve their lives through gardening, building, water, and other projects.

In the Dominican Republic, for example, when Eloy Ramirez brought in his last crop, the harvest yielded a triple bounty: Food, income, and a better standard of living. Ramirez sold some of his produce for about $900, "in addition to what we were able to consume at home,” he says. “We even gave some to neighbors and friends."

A leader in the Yabacao community in the southwest region of the country, Ramirez is the head of one of nearly a thousand households participating in a Church World Service-sponsored program to improve food security among sugar cane cutters and their families.

With the help of agricultural experts provided by the program, Ramirez says the community brought in a generous crop of corn, yucca, sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes, green beans, and other fruits and vegetables.

Children are benefiting immediately--eating a nutritious diet of fresh foods, including eggs and chicken harvested through poultry farming.

When Hurricane Katrina hit, 16-year-old Orlando was poised to choose between a hopeful future and a street gang recruiting new members. "They were trying to get me to wear their colors and stuff," Orlando says. "But here, here they help me avoid the gangs."

Here, for the children in Gulfport, Mississippi's Forest Heights neighborhood, is the Boys & Girls Club of the Gulf Coast. Part of a $1.35 million grant through Church World Service allowed the Club's programs to continue even though three Club buildings were destroyed.

The Club attracts kids who want help with homework, sports programs, and life skills to four facilities in the Gulfport and Biloxi area.

"We knew these youth were vulnerable before the storm and Hurricane Katrina made it worse," says CWS Associate Director for Emergency Response Linda Reed-Brown. "These clubs had a good record of engaging kids in their neighborhoods, so if they didn’t do it, who would?"

Mathi Kanniyappan finds the house she lives in now--one of 93 new homes built in her village since the December 2004 tsunami--more solid, secure, and livable than the damaged home she and her family had to vacate. She particularly praises the new home’s flat, concrete roof--an improvement over the thatched roof that afforded little shelter in case of rain.

"It's a very good house," she says. “We can feel the breeze."

Nearby is the village's new community center and shelter, a structure that is being used most days for festivals, nursery school, family reunions, etc.

Down the road, the 53 new houses in a neighboring village are taking on individual character, with fencing, decoration, planted hedges, and new trees. Its young people have formed a disaster preparedness task force and are demonstrating newly acquired rescue and mapping skills.

The post-tsunami reconstruction and recovery efforts of CWS partner Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action includes the construction of 4,000 permanent homes in southern India. More on this story.

Some 18,000 families lost their homes in the Sept. 12 quake that hit the southwest coast of Sumatra. Also lost were about 2,000 schools and 620 medical facilities. An estimated 88,000 homes were damaged.

Church World Service is currently working in partnership to distribute 1,506 shelter kits for displaced families and medical equipment for 14 local health centers. CWS is also working with partners to provide disaster preparedness programs and psychosocial support. In the early days following the quake, CWS provided emergency relief of plastic mats, ropes, and tarpaulins to 1,891 quake-affected people in nine villages.

Contributions are urgently needed to assist these emergency relief efforts in Indonesia.

This past week, a tornado damaged or destroyed more than 200 homes and businesses in Nappanee, Ind. Three of Nappanee’s largest employers are recreational vehicle manufacturers. All three sustained damage, which may have long-term employment implications. CWS is in contact with Indiana Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, which is convening a long-term recovery group to respond to the needs of vulnerable families in Nappanee.

More than a quarter million people have evacuated their homes in southern California in advance of rapidly-spreading wildfires. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed. As the situation allows, CWS will assess need for long-term recovery training and project support in addition to responding to requests for assistance from member communions.

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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