|PIC1|New partnerships recently announced by the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) have enabled support to be extended to an additional 6,000 families and several hundred individuals left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.

UMCOR Awards totalling US$5million will be distributed to the Katrina survivors after sixteen local voluntary organisations joined UMCOR’s Katrina Aid Today initiative.

The privately funded grants, which range from US$47,000 to US$500,000 will be used for long-term recovery in the Gulf Coast states and other regions that have taken in large numbers of Katrina evacuees.

The funds will support special populations in particular, including those that do not speak English as a first language and also the homeless.

|TOP|With the 16 organisations now on board, the Katrina Aid Today programme can now expand into four additional states, covering 34 states and more than 107,000 families.

The money will be used to support family-by-family recovery and problem solving and may also be used to provide cash assistance.

Staff and volunteers specially trained by UMCOR will help survivors identify sources of support, develop personal recovery plans, acquire access to services and take appropriate actions to bring them to self-sufficiency.

The 16 additional organisations come from across the US and include the Texas Interagency-Interfaith Disaster Response, the Asian Social Services Centre in Phildelphia and Accepting Challenges to Improve Our Nation (ACTION), also based in Texas.

UMCOR put forward US$5million of its own private funds to augment a US$66million two-year grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in October 2005 to support the long-term recovery of 100,000 families.