HOTLINE - week of November 05, 2007

Tropical Storm Noel (now a category-1 hurricane as it tracks north along the U.S. East Coast) "has been the most catastrophic disaster of recent years, not necessarily by the devastating forces of the winds, but by its ample range, … heavy rainfall, and the slowness in speed moving across the island," says Lorenzo Mota King, director of long-time Church World Service partner Social Service of the Dominican Churches (SSID), in the Dominican Republic.

Some 116 people died from floods and landslides in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where the storm hit hardest. The storm also dumped rain on the Bahamas and Cuba.

Impoverished bateyes--sugar cane worker communities--in eastern Dominican Republic are among those hard-hit by the storm. Sugar cane workers--the majority of them Haitians or Dominicans of Haitian descent--face discrimination and are among the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable.

Some 679 people in 15 storm-affected bateyes are receiving beans, oil, canned fish, sugar, rice, and locally-purchased hygiene items that include soap and toothpaste, through CWS partner Grupo de Pastores Interdenominacionalis. They are also receiving bedsheets and drinking water.

In addition, SSID teams are assessing damage and planning for a response that will be supported by CWS.

Many families in Zimbabwe, including rural subsistence farmers, affected by economic decline, drought, and infertile soils, are suffering serious food shortages.

Church World Service is supporting efforts to make food immediately available to poor vulnerable households in several districts of southern Zimbabwe, and helping families restart farming, as well.

More than 51,000 people are expected to receive maize meal, beans, and cooking oil through the emergency program. Many households will also receive maize, millet, and sorghum seeds, fertilizer, rabbits, guinea fowl for re-establishing farming activities, and materials to fence their gardens. Families receiving small livestock will be asked to pass on new animals born from their rabbits and fowl to others in need.

In addition, the project will help to alleviate the impact of HIV/AIDS by providing training for caregivers, home-based care kits, HIV/AIDS awareness education to decrease stigmatization, and psycho-social support for affected households.

The program will also focus on care and support for orphaned and vulnerable children, providing supplementary feeding for nearly 3,000 HIV/AIDS-affected individuals with supplementary vitamin and protein fortified corn-soya blend.

Contributions are urgently needed to assist food security efforts in Zimbabwe.

More than 2,000 families in southern California have lost their homes to wildfires.

CWS is providing 400 Emergency Clean-up Buckets to Fallbrook Presbyterian Church, in Fallbrook, San Diego County. Fallbrook is part of a five-church coalition engaged in helping vulnerable communities recover.

Some 350 Turkana families (about 3,500 people) in two communities in the Lodwar area of arid northwestern Kenya are gaining clean water and sanitation facilities, with the help of the CWS Water for Life/Water for All program and local partner the Anglican Church of Kenya.

Unhygienic conditions are one of the root causes of illness in the communities of Katilu and Naipa, particularly among women, children, and the elderly. In addition, women and girls spend much of every day walking long distances to fetch water for the household, leaving little time for school or activities that could boost family incomes.

The communities are providing labor and some materials to construct shallow wells, along with latrines and bathing cabins to improve sanitation, with help from the CWS-supported project.

The communities are also learning environmental conservation and water resource management, which will help the families ensure their water supplies are more sustainable into the future. And, some members of the community are training to become community health workers, who will implement and monitor group sanitation activities.

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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