The Amity Foundation, a partner of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, is expanding its relief efforts to earthquake survivors in China’s Sichuan Province.

Amity staff members have been on the ground since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Ya’an, including Lushan and Baoxing counties, on April 20. Nearly 200 people were killed and almost 2 million affected by the disaster, which also damaged roads and hundreds of thousands of houses.

By David Tereshchuk*

April 30, 2013—For two decades or more, violent conflict has wreaked immeasurable harm upon life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Despite a formal agreement last February to bring an end to what had been called “Africa’s World War” (since it drew in nine African countries), the effects of the violence have not been lifted from the Congolese people’s daily experience.

By David Tereshchuk*

April 16, 2013—As Syria’s bloody fighting shows no imminent sign of ending, families who flee the conflict are in desperate need wherever they seek refuge.

And the neighboring countries that provide safe havens are inevitably getting more hard-pressed themselves.

By David Tereshchuk *

April 2, 2013—Among the many ways that UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief) has been helping the Japanese people recover from their 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis, few can be quite as heartening as its support for the Horikawa Aiseien Children’s Home.

Since 2008, The United Methodist Church has made significant advances in the area of Global Health. That year, the church defined its Four Areas of Focus and gave birth to the Imagine No Malaria (INM) initiative. Church leaders chose malaria as a lens through which to view health issues around the world holistically in order to develop a strategic response. It was then that I joined the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), first as the director of the Malaria Initiative and more recently as director of Global Health.

By David Tereshchuk

February 25, 2013—Since it split off from Sudan in 2011 after a long and brutal civil war, the new country of South Sudan has found its young life fraught with challenges.

But in one state at least, Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBEG) on the new international border, which has taken in a heavy number of returning South Sudanese refugees, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is making progress in the vital area of water and sanitation.

By Mehu Josny*

February 7, 2013—UMCOR has had a strong collaborative partnership with Muslim Aid in relief and development projects around the world. In 2011, the organizations came together in Haiti to support food security and hygienic meal preparation.

Since the January 2010 earthquake, it has become even more important to ensure the safe preparation of meals in order to prevent the spread of cholera. UMCOR and Muslim Aid sought to address this threat among one of the most vulnerable populations in Haiti: school children.

by David Tereshchuk*

January 28, 2013—As the world looks on at a troubled Middle East, there is agonizingly little change for the vulnerable Palestinian communities.

UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, recently sent vital supplies to Palestinian families who’ve been doubly displaced from refugee camps in Syria by that country’s civil war. Already made homeless and living for decades far from their native land, they suddenly have had to flee further into neighboring Lebanon.

January 21, 2013—It is now nearly two years since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, a massive tsunami and a horrifying nuclear catastrophe combined to create Japan’s worst natural disaster in modern history. Much recovery has been achieved, but for many people of Fukushima, where nuclear reactor plants exploded, the crisis is far from over.

More than 160,000 people are still displaced. Many who remain in the area are exposed to low-level radiation on an ongoing basis, and anxiety remains high. The effects of devastation linger, and the pace of rebuilding shattered livelihoods is slow.