More than 550 WV Korea staff members and
volunteers have busy packing 6,000 relief kits for the victims of Typhoon
Rusa in the gymnasium of an elementary school in Seoul. This relief operation
was conducted in coalition with a Christian business corporation and the
Christian Ethical Movement Korea (CEMK). The corporation, called E-Land,
donated 75,000 pieces of new clothes and US$83,000 in cash. CEMK mobilised
volunteers, while WV Korea coordinated relief efforts from organising the
network to identifying the recipients and delivering the relief aid.
Each relief kit contained 12 kinds of
commodities including underwear, outer wear, edible oil, hot paste, soy
bean paste, detergent, toilet-paper, anti-mould formula, etc. These relief
goods loaded on 28 trucks left for 5 different destinations across the
country.
WV Korea organised a relief team, which consisted of 17 staff members and 300 volunteers, who helped 1,200 families in Kim Hae County, in the southern part of the country. In this first round of relief work, WV Korea identified the list of urgent commodities not readily available to the food & typhoon victims.
Of the World Vision family one sponsored child had been missing for 3 days and was later contacted. About 34 houses of sponsored children were flooded and 4 staff members had their houses flooded. One pastor and his wife who are strong supporters of WV activities were seriously wounded after being trapped by their own house which had collapsed abruptly. They are in hospital.
Estimates of property damage affected by Typhoon Rusa, the worst storm to hit Korea in 40 years, amounts to US$4.5 billion.