HOTLINE - week of February 18, 2008

Women and children forced from their homes into makeshift camps by post-election violence are the focus of relief efforts of Church World Service partner the Kenyan Evangelical Lutheran Church. More than 5,000 families in Mathare have received flour, cooking oil, vegetables, salt, and sanitary supplies from CWS through KELC.

Church World Service is working in coalition to provide food, water, and sanitation supplies, tents and plastic sheeting, blankets and mattresses, supplementary feeding for children and elderly people, support for economic recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction, and psychosocial care for some of the most traumatized among those uprooted in the violence.

Church World Service is planning a three-part housing initiative for families who continue to be displaced from wars of the 1990s in the Balkans.

In Canton 10 province of Bosnia, the initiative will allow 42 families (200 people) to reconstruct their war-destroyed homes with the help of Church World Service in the municipalities of Bosansko-Grahovo and Glamoc, and the Canton 10 government, all of whom are contributing toward the cost of this project.

In the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, 80 families in 18 municipalities will receive new homes constructed with the help of Church World Service and RRS.

And, in the Belgrade, Serbia, area, an initial ten displaced families will receive housing construction loans through CWS local partner MicroFinS. The loans will benefit the marginalized Roma community and others. As funds are repaid, loans will be available to additional families for livelihood and small business assistance.

The rash of violent tornadoes that swept across the south-central U.S. in early February, killing at least 57, was the deadliest U.S. natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Still more tornados swept parts of the South over the Presidents Day weekend.

Church World Service emergency response specialists are coordinating with denominational and disaster response partners. CWS is also providing material resources (CWS Blankets, Clean-up Buckets, and Hygiene Kits) to fulfill partner requests, deploying staff to assist in training and project development, and issuing emergency response grants to long-term recovery groups forming or re-activating.

CWS has sent 600 CWS Blankets and 200 Emergency Clean-up Buckets to the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Mount View, Ark., to meet emergency needs of families affected by tornadoes earlier this month. CWS is also providing 495 Hygiene Kits to Catholic Charities, in Clinton, Ark. A shipment of 1,035 CWS Hygiene Kits, 200 CWS Blankets, and 200 CWS Clean-up Buckets was provided to the church the week before. Also included earlier were 200 CWS Blankets and 585 CWS Hygiene Kits for distribution by partner Adventist Community Services, in Clinton, Ark.

Effects of January storms and flooding are also still being felt. "There are people who had just replaced new furnaces in their basements or new sheetrock in their homes after the first flood and now they’re ruined again," says CWS Emergency Response Specialist Lura Cayton, of two separate January floods in Watseka and Pontiac, Illinois. Damage reports are still coming in from Pontiac. In Watseka, at least 500 homes are affected.

Community leaders in Watseka have banded together to provide emergency assistance, dividing responsibilities among area churches. Following the first flood, CWS provided 420 CWS Blankets, 405 CWS Hygiene Kits, and 200 CWS Emergency Clean-up Buckets to First Christian Church in Watseka. Long-term recovery groups are forming in both Watseka and Pontiac, with ministerial associations taking active leadership roles. CWS staff will likely provide training to the groups.

Donate for February tornado recovery efforts.

Donate for January storms and floods recovery.

More than 720 women in 34 communities in Ziguinchor and Kolda, Senegal, are gaining the skills to better provide for their families, thanks to income-generating activities and training supported by Church World Service and partners in communities in southern Senegal's Casamance region. The communities are recovering from more than two decades of conflict.

Activities also include constructing and rehabilitating wells, constructing houses and schools, and assisting with health care basics. Church World Service has also provided School and Hygiene Kits.

Niarra Diedhiou, 52, has three boys and a girl. Widowed once, Niarra's second husband had an accident and is incapacitated. Niarra received about $39 in credit and started selling oil from palm tree fruit. She also buys and sells a local condiment called "garmi." Niarra says she wants to build a new house with her earnings because the existing one, built in 1979 with traditional techniques, is not safe. She also wants to earn more to support her children's education.

Satou Ba Diedhiou, 39, is married and has eight children. Before she joined the program she sewed clothes and sold donuts. With a loan of about $68, Satou started a business selling palm oil and lemon juice. She has repaid her loan, and is hoping for another one that will enable her to diversify her business. By making more money, she will be able to fund her children's education.

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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