Much help still needed.
Baltimore, Dec. 23, 1999 -- Helping
survivors to recover from one disaster and prepare for the next are goals
of new LWR aid for Orissa, the state in India hard-hit by cyclones in late
October. A grant of $30,000 will support various activities-supplying building
materials for 1,000 families rebuilding homes that will be more solid than
the ones they lost, constructing 25 community shelters that double as schools,
planting coconut and other valuable trees lost in the cyclone, and sinking
100 deep tubewells. The new wells will have high platforms and be deep
enough so that well water stays clean even during major floods.
A second major goal in the area is to provide 30,000 homeless families with a disaster kit. The kits contain clothing, blankets, household utensils, dry rations, and a tarpaulin.
Much more aid is needed, however. Two months after the storm, LWR partner organizations in India-the Churches Auxiliary for Social Action and Lutheran World Federation World Service -find themselves well short of the $5 million required for these activities. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS World Relief) and Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod provided the funds for the current grant. This new grant brings LWR support to-date to $60,000.