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Church World Service Continues Hurricane Recovery; Response Nears One-Year Mark
Houma, Louisiana--A member of the Sunnyside Presbyterian Church work team helps clear rubble so a new house can rise from the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Photo: Linda Robbins/CWS
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NEW YORK -- Working in the Gulf Coast since just after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck, Church World Service responders have developed more than 30 new community recovery organizations to manage cases and coordinate volunteer and skilled labor for home rebuilding. Church World Service (CWS) will continue to mentor, train, and channel financial support for these groups, now an important part of the long-term recovery effort, into 2007.
People of the Gulf Coast, including ethnic communities like African American, Latino, Native American, and Vietnamese are continuing along the road to full recovery with the help of some $2.6 million in grants, resources, and other assistance from Church World Service thus far.
Clergy and caregivers who are shouldering the burden of care for people traumatized by the devastating storms of 2005 are receiving valuable instruction in self care through CWS-sponsored Interfaith Trauma Response Trainings workshops. So far, Church World Service has conducted eight workshops providing support services for these caregivers.
The agency, along with the United Church of Christ and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, also is reaching out to local Gulf Coast communities with trainings and publications that advocate strongly for health and safety for workers and residents exposed to disaster related environmental contamination as the cleanup and rebuilding continues.
Church World Service replacing Gulf school equipment, helping youth at risk
As a unique response in its public disaster work, Church World Service has used a $1.35 million grant from its German ecumenical partner Diakonie Emergency Aid--made possible by an anonymous multinational corporate donor--to replace computers, audiovisual equipment, books, and supplies in thirteen damaged schools, and to fund ten community training programs for at-risk teens in Louisiana and Mississippi.
CWS Partnering with Habitat for Humanity
With funds from a $3 million two-year grant from Habitat for Humanity, Church World Service is enabling nine organizations in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas to undertake home rebuilding projects, many to be completed by September 2006--one year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed communities throughout the Gulf Coast.
This collaboration joins Church World Service's 60 years of experience in disaster relief and community organizing with Habitat's expertise in making affordable housing available as CWS member denominations and local long-term recovery committees also begin home repair projects in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas.
Helping the Houma Nation in Louisiana's bayous
A $100,000 gift to Church World Service from an Indiana church is laying the foundation for hurricane recovery among the United Houma Nation in the Louisiana bayous.
The grant is being utilized to purchase building materials to repair or rebuild houses destroyed or severely damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The tribe estimates that their rehabilitation costs alone could total nearly $2 million. Rebuilding more hurricane-resistant structures to replace 250 homes will require another $7.5 million.
Rev. James Miller, senior pastor of Sunnyside Presbyterian Church in South Bend, Indiana, said that the gift is the "first commitment in what members of this congregation hope will be a significant and long-term friendship."
The church's plan includes periodically sending work teams to assist with rebuilding projects. Team efforts are being coordinated in the region by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, whose "Presbyterian Village" will house and field volunteer work teams in the Houma area.
Church World Service Hallmark: Establishing Local Long-Term Recovery Organizations
A key feature of Church World Service's disaster response is to help existing community groups establish independent, nonprofit organizations dedicated solely to filling the unmet disaster-related long-term recovery needs of vulnerable populations in their communities.
In New Orleans, the response includes the establishment and support of long-term recovery groups and work with the Greater New Orleans Disaster Recovery Partnership; the Louisiana Interchurch Conference; and the Louisiana Interfaith Disaster Response Network. Church World Service is also supporting the efforts of historic African-American churches and the Hispanic community in conjunction with the Hispanic Apostolate of the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans.
In Mississippi, CWS continues to support the formation of recovery groups and to provide long-term mentoring and training for groups in devastated coastal areas.
In addition to issuing a $9.5 million appeal to help fund recovery efforts, Church World Service has sent more than 70 shipments valued at nearly $2 million to seven states. The shipments have included over 25,000 blankets, over 80,000 health kits, nearly 10,000 school kits, plus 22 Interchurch Medical Assistance medicine boxes which serve a population for multiple months.
More on the recovery effort is available at http://www.churchworldservice.org/news/katrina.
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;
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