HOTLINE - week of November 26, 2007

Several thousand people were killed when Cyclone Sidr hit the southern coast of Bangladesh on Nov. 15. Needs among survivors are urgent for food, shelter, and medicine.

Church World Service is supporting the efforts of partners in providing rice, pulses (e.g., lentils, beans), salt, oil, and rehydration salts for more than 35,500 people, focusing on the most vulnerable people--widows, children, elderly and disabled people, and those without land.

Prior to the storm, long-time CWS partner the Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB) reported that people on the island of Moheshkali were evacuated to cyclone shelters, including 44 shelters constructed by CCDB following a 1991 cyclone.

Contributions are urgently needed to support this relief effort.

Families in the western Pacific region of Nicaragua are suffering from serious flooding caused by record October rainfall. Chinandega Province was particularly hard-hit.

The people of Villa Nueva municipality lost acres of corn, sorghum, sesame, and plantains, along with many domestic animals. Homes are damaged, wells contaminated, and access to food and safe water is now difficult.

Through CWS-supported partner efforts, some 624 families in 15 rural communities in Villa Nueva are receiving immediate food relief; medicines to fight respiratory illness, diarrhea, malaria, and dengue fever, and nutritional deficiencies; and psycho-social assistance. The families are also receiving laundry and bath soap, shampoo, sanitary napkins, toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and combs.

The 15 communities are also being provided with shovels, wheelbarrows, and other tools so they can begin to help repair damaged roads.

Following the emergency phase, 897 Villa Nueva families will receive seeds for replanting and assistance in cleaning wells and constructing 60 fertilizer-producing latrines.

Church World Service is helping to provide many Pakistani families with tools to help improve their lives, following summer 2007 flooding.

In Turbat, southwest Balochistan Province, Gohar Bibi, a 60-year-old widow who lives with her daughter and grandchildren, lost all her belongings and her house when flood waters swept through her village. She and six other members of her family now live in one room at a relative’s home. Food is cooked in the open and the family sleeps outside at night. And, after the floods, the family had to use polluted water for household needs, and the children suffered from skin allergies and fevers.

After attending CWS-organized hygiene training sessions, Bibi is now applying simple, cost-effective methods to sterilize water before using it, a small preventive step to help protect her family from disease that has a huge positive health impact.

Providing safe drinking water is a first step towards recovery. Together with your support, the CWS-supported water and hygiene project is making a difference in the lives of more than 50,000 people.

Southern California's Native American community was hard hit by recent wildfires, including the La Jolla tribe, which suffered burned-down power lines.

Many reservation homes are without electricity to power well pumps, refrigerators, and other necessities. CWS is helping to provide basic tools such as portable generators and shovels to equip volunteers working to restore electrical power and providing other assistance to tribe members most in need.

Contributions are urgently needed to assist the most vulnerable Native American families affected by the wildfires.

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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