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Dominican Rep.

CWS Emergency Appeal: Dominican Republic flood assistance

Appeal Number: 6741
Appeal Amount: $20,000
Situation Report

The northern Dominican Republic sustained severe flooding during late November following the heaviest rains in more than 20 years. Ten people died in the flooding. Some 12,000 families (more than 65,000 persons) were affected; approximately 47,000 persons were evacuated; and 1,250 lost their homes.

The flooding totally devastated agriculture in much of the affected area, and many impoverished families living on riverbanks lost their homes. In the affected province of Santiago, the greatest damage was sustained by families living on the riverbanks to the north of the Yaque River inlet. These families' homes were washed away in a torrent of floodwater and landslides.

Emergency Appeal

Church World Service is responding to this disaster by supporting its partner, the Social Services of the Dominican Churches (Servicio Social de Iglesias Dominicanas, or SSID in Spanish), a member of the Action by Churches Together (ACT) International network.

SSID is responding with a six-month program to be completed by the end of May 2004. SSID is distributing food and medical supplies, as well as providing assistance in construction and repair of homes. The SSID response is for 1,178 families - or some 5,000 people - in 30 affected communities. These include Monte Cristy and Dajabón, as well as the districts of the Yaque inlet in Santiago province.

CWS is supporting SSID by providing a shipment of 1,608 cotton blankets; 2,030 CWS "Gift of the Heart" School Kits and 5,000 CWS "Gift of the Heart" Health Kits. The total value of the shipment is $89,872.

In turn, SSID is providing 450 of the blankets and 450 CWS "Gift of the Heart" Health Kits to another Dominican-based NGO, the Interdenominational Group of Pastors (Grupo de Pastores Interdenominacionales, or GPI in Spanish), which is assisting a small group of Haitians affected by the disaster.

In this response, CWS is requesting $20,000 - $17,000 for financial support of SSID and $3,000 to help cover shipping and processing costs of the material aid shipment. SSID is seeking $93,714 from the ACT network for its response program, which includes $16,800 for food aid, $15,000 for housing construction, $37,500 for housing construction.

Contributions to support this work may be sent to your denomination or to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN, 46515. Please designate for appeal # 6741 (Reference #LADR-31).

For further information about disasters to which Church World Service is responding - or to make a credit card contribution - please visit the Church World Service Website at www.churchworldservice.org or phone (800) 297-1516.