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United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) — 624 found

By David Tereshchuk

March 5, 2011 — For much of the world, Japan’s triple disasters lie in the past. After all, an entire year has elapsed since the March 11, 2011, earthquake triggered a massive tsunami and a horrifying nuclear crisis.

But not for United Methodists. For them, it’s remained a priority to support the Japanese people’s recovery from last year’s physical devastation and its grim upheaval in human lives.

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SYRIA: HELPING DISPLACED PEOPLE

The ongoing conflict in Syria has displaced thousands who are fleeing violence to seek security in towns and cities. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is in contact with partners in Syria and the region to assess the needs of those individuals and families.

Initial assistance may include clothing, health kits, and household goods, such as a small stove or heater. UMCOR is preparing to respond in the most appropriate way.

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JAPAN: RECOVERING LIVES AND LIVELIHOODS

UMCOR is partnering with Global Medic to provide assistance to the people in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, which was heavily affected by last March’s tsunami. While much of the rubble has been removed and the area has begun to rebuild, many have lost their livelihoods and are unable to provide for their families.

HAITI: BUILDING HOMES

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and Eglise Methodiste d’Hait (EMH) are working together to build 40 homes in two communities that were heavily affected by the 2010 Haitian earthquake. World Hands Alliance and Homes for Haitians are also partners in the project.

Each home has 40 square meters of interior space, a toilet, shower facility, kitchen facility, and water storage capacity. Twenty will be built in each of the communities of Mellier and Carrefour.

January 5, 2012—Twenty-one years of war have limited opportunities for education, livelihoods and businesses in South Sudan. Life has been hard. We were poor without a future. After the referendum, there was a new life, we started to rebuild houses and cultivate farms. A program for fish farming was started in Yei County from the neighboring country of Uganda, but it failed due to lack of skill and experience in the community.

By Kathryn Paik*

December 22, 2011—Water and sanitation are key to good hygiene practices, and good hygiene practices promote good health. The Nyadire Connection and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) are working together to ensure both at Nyadire United Methodist Mission in remote and neglected Mutoko District in Zimbabwe.

December 21, 2011--Flash flooding in southern Philippines swept through Cayagan De Oro and Iligan cities on Mindanao Island, leaving more than 957 people dead and at least 1,582 injured. Typhoon Sendong (also referred to as Typhoon Washi), struck over the weekend, sweeping entire villages away and leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.

By Judith Santiago*

In 1974, Guy Kasanka experienced a major turning point in his life when he was hospitalized for malaria near his hometown of Bukama in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). That was when he decided to become a doctor. After receiving special medical care from hospital staff and witnessing firsthand the nurses’ attentiveness, Kasanka felt compelled to help others recover from malaria just as he had. The hospitality he received as a young man was a defining moment that seemed to lift the burden of malaria that had afflicted him time and time again.

By Muzaffer Baca*

Mogadishu, December 6, 2011—Eight-year-old Naima is one of many small children in Korson Camp, near the Somali capital, who undertake adult tasks to help their internally displaced families.

I met Naima on a recent trip I made to Korson Camp, where thousands of Somali families have sought refuge and relief from historic drought, hunger, and political violence. The drought is the worst in 60 years in this region and is affecting the entire Horn of Africa.

By Muzaffer Baca*

Mogadishu, December 5, 2011—Somali families living in camps for the internally displaced (IDP) in Mogadishu and elsewhere include, on average, seven children. All of these children lack education, food, and adequate shelter, and tens of thousands carry adult responsibilities on their small shoulders.

Foreign relief workers who visit Somali IDP camps encounter children who bridge the language gap by putting fingers to their throats to show they are hungry and to ask for food for themselves and their families.

TURKEY: KEEPING WARM

The distribution of 200 UMCOR-funded heaters came like a “miracle” to earthquake survivors in the villages of Ermisler, Akcift, and 17 remote settlements outside the city of Van in Turkey, according to UMCOR’s implementing partner there, International Blue Crescent (IBC).

Families who received the heaters had lost all their belongings, including livestock and harvests, when earthquakes rocked the region on October 23 and November 9. Most are living in makeshift barracks, tents, or prefabricated compounds near their destroyed or damaged homes.

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THAILAND: FLOOD RELIEF

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is supporting the efforts of Church World Service, who is working closely with the Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT) to provide relief in the wake of record-breaking floods in the country. The grant will provide immediate relief and recovery support to 22,400 flood affected by providing food, non-food items and shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene, and livelihood recovery.

By Linda Unger*

November 10, 2011—After a second earthquake in just over two weeks struck eastern Turkey last night, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is responding with partners International Blue Crescent (IBC) and GlobalMedic.

Muzaffer Baca, vice president of IBC, said that some survivors of the first quake, on October 23, already had returned to the damaged city of Van and were living in their homes or hotels when the second quake struck at 9:23 last night (local time).

By Linda Unger*

November 7, 2011—For the people of eastern Turkey, and especially the children, this year’s Eid-al-Adha feast, under way today, will be celebrated in tents and temporary shelters, after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake caused massive damage and casualties.

A prayerful and joyous occasion, the three-day Islamic feast marks the end of hajj and recalls the willingness of the patriarch Abraham to sacrifice his son, and Allah’s loving response.

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TURKEY: UMCOR SUPPORTS RELIEF EFFORTS

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is providing immediate relief to the survivors of the October 23 earthquake in eastern Turkey and helping to lay a foundation for longer-term recovery.

UMCOR partner International Blue Crescent will distribute blankets, medicines, food relief packets, tarpaulins, and other much-needed items among survivors of the 7.2-magnitude quake that so far has taken the lives of 523 people, with hundreds more still trapped beneath the rubble.

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TURKEY: FOOD, BLANKETS FOR EARTHQUAKE SURVIVORS

Since a catastrophic 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked eastern Turkey on Sunday, October 23, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has been in conversation with partner International Blue Crescent (IBC), seeking to get emergency supplies to survivors.

At least 270 people were known to have died in the earthquake, whose epicenter was in the town of Ercis. Some 1,300 people were injured in the quake and the 200 aftershocks that rattled the area through Sunday night. Many people remain missing.

October 24, 2011—Flooding earlier this month in El Salvador went almost unnoticed in the United States, yet thousands of Salvadorans lost their homes after seven straight days of torrential rain. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is helping families cope and rebuild.

According to UMCOR partner Evangelical Methodist Church of El Salvador, at least 14,000 homes and 1,000 wells were destroyed in the flooding, which was provoked by Hurricane Jova and Tropical Depression 12-E the week of October 9.

INDIA: RELIEF FOR EARTHQUAKE SURVIVORS

With the onset of winter this month in the Himalayan region of India, thousands of families left homeless and traumatized by the September 18 earthquake there are becoming increasingly vulnerable.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is working with partner Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA-India), a member of ACT Alliance, to provide urgently needed relief supplies to 1,000 of those families in Sikkim state.

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SOMALIA: FOOD FOR HUNGRY CHILDREN

As the Horn of Africa faces its worst drought in more than 60 years, fully 70 percent of children under five years old who are living in camps for the internally displaced near Mogadishu, Somalia, are severely malnourished.

In Somalia, the effects of the drought and the ability of aid agencies to reach those in need are further complicated by lawlessness and a violent rebellion.

August 31, 2011— As you drive east from Nairobi, the Kenyan countryside becomes progressively drier. Long grass becomes yellow and eventually disappears. Bare, reddish soil is all you can see in the barren fields.

This is the East African drought, a vast disaster stretching across Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, and beyond. Two years with scarcely any rain have withered fields and pastures, putting more than 12 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.