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Church World Service Expedites Blankets, Kits to Central America

A Guatemalan woman looks at a mudslide that washed 30 houses away in the hamlet of Rincon Argentino in Tecpan, Guatemala, on October 5. Four children were killed and 15 people, missing. Photo: REUTERS/Mario Linares, courtesy alertnet.org

October 12, 2005

NEW YORK – Church World Service is responding to the emergencies experienced in recent weeks in the Central American nations of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua with shipments of blankets, relief kits, and medical supplies.

An estimated one thousand or more people have died as a result of flooding and mudslides from Hurricane Stan, which has also affected parts of southern Mexico; in addition an October 7 earthquake resulted in damage in El Salvador and Guatemala. El Salvador is also facing the after-effects of a major volcanic eruption on October 1. Finally, the northeast coastal areas of Nicaragua have been affected by a food crisis brought on by a plague of rats. Rain from Hurricane Stan has lashed the region since October 1.

Church World Service and its partners in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras are all on the scene, responding to the emergencies in multiple ways. The most urgent needs are potable water, food, and blankets.

Working through its long-time partner, the Conference of Evangelical Churches in Guatemala (CIEDEG), CWS is providing $392,790 in material assistance, including CWS Blankets; "Gift of the Heart" Baby, School, and Health Kits; and medical and sewing supplies. Partners in Guatemala report that the government has declared a red alert in some of the municipalities of Escuintla, Retalhuleu, and San Marcos. It is estimated that 23,300 people have been affected and that 25,320 more are at risk.

In El Salvador, partners will assist around 1,000 families where the flooding is the most severe. They had also monitored the situation for two weeks prior to the October 1 eruption of the Santa Ana or Llimatepec Volcano, the country's largest volcano, dormant for more than a century. The eruption killed at least two people and forced more than 2,000 to flee. The Lutheran Church in El Salvador is sheltering 25 families and providing food assistance to other shelters. They are planning to open another shelter in Santa Ana for other families displaced by this disaster.

Acción Médica Cristiana, in El Salvador, facilitated a session oriented to identify a strategic response to the emergencies in coordination with local and national government ministries and agencies: the Ministry of Health offices, the local Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Cattle Ranchers and Forestry office, the local Institute of Farming technology, the technical unit of the Mayor's Office, and the mission from the United Nations.

A food crisis has developed along the Coco River in Nicaragua's northern frontier with Honduras, affecting the largely indigenous Miskito communities that live along the banks of the river and survive by subsistence farming and fishing.

For months, these communities have been attacked by rats that have eaten and destroyed basic crops used to feed the communities. A plague of worms has also affected the basic crops and has severely curtailed the food security of nearly 50,000 persons.

For further information on the Church World Service response, or to donate, please visit us online at www.churchworldservice.org or call the CWS Hotline, (800) 297-1516.

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

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