Baptist World Aid Appeals for South Asia Flood Relief Funds

|PIC1|Baptist World Aid (BWAid), the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), has launched an appeal for funds to help bring relief to up to 20 million people affected by the South Asia floods.

India, Bangladesh and Nepal have been left devastated by floods over the past few weeks, and BWAid has already sent initial grants of US$5,000 each to the Bengal Baptist Union and the Bengal Orissa Bihar Baptist Churches Association in India.

BWAid Director, Paul Montacute said: "It is the poor who suffer so much in these situations. The poor live on low lying ground or on land that is easily swept away as waters descend from the mountains."

BWAid is working with and through members of the BWA in programmes to bring immediate relief.

In Bangladesh, Baptist Aid, a ministry of the Bangladesh Baptist Church Fellowship, is already engaged in emergency relief operations. Six teams are at work providing flood victims with some dried food, but funds to purchase the food are already running out.

Baptist World Aid is just one of a number of Christian organisations providing relief to the region. Members of the worldwide coalition Action by Churches Together International are continuing to provide emergency aid.

"While the massive amount of water is slowly withdrawing, the damage and emergency need is showing its true colours," said Arne Grieg Riisnæs speaking from Bangladesh with ACT member Norwegian Church Aid (NCA).

The ACT coalition members have made the most vulnerable their aid priority, particularly those in out-of-the-way communities. Thousands of crops have been destroyed and homes washed away.

"When you lose everything it is very hard to recover," said Sushant Agrawal, the director of Churches Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA). "People have lost their houses and belongings. The standing crops are gone. The flood has destroyed the total source of their livelihood."

Many families are also struggling to cope amid food shortages.

"We are constantly hungry. I do not have enough food to feed my children," said Shifa Begam from Jithkar, a village near the Harirampur-district in Bangladesh.

Nripen Baidya, the Bangladesh programme director for Baptist Aid, has visited the most badly affected areas, providing support for their six relief teams.

Baidya said: "Children and old men and women are suffering the most. Baptist Aid would be happy to meet some (more) of the needs of these suffering people. We are in prayer. We also need the prayer support from our friends all over the world."

BWAid said it was awaiting relief proposals from other Baptist groups in the region, so that assistance could be given to those in most need.

To see how you can give to Baptist World Aid please click: HERE


[Source: BWA]