Church World Service Steps Up Urgent Katrina Aid Appeal

The Church World Service has raised its aid appeal target to US$9.5million in response to the massive immediate and long-term recovery response needed to restore lives in the wake of the Katrina tragedy.
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The CWS announced Saturday it will expand its recovery response to cope with the unprecedented material and spiritual needs of the hundreds of thousands evacuated from the hurricane-affected areas.

Already 20 Interchurch Medical Assistance Medicine Boxes have reached evacuees in Louisiana with enough medical supplies to serve one thousand people for up to three months.

The Rev John L. McCullough, Executive Director of the CWS, said: “Given the enormity of the need now and for a long time to come, we are increasing our efforts in our core strength as domestic disaster responders, that is, long-term recovery for the poor, elderly, disabled, for children, the impoverished, Native Americans and others.”

He added: “We’ll also be providing trauma and spiritual care and assisting Katrina’s thousands of displaced throughout especially Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and nationwide.”

CWS Associate Director for Emergency Response Linda Reed Brown has been working with community-based long-term recovery organisations in Houston where she described the scene: “Thousands are lined up outside the (George Brown) Convention Centre, waiting to go through FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) processing. People are calm, subdued, though there’s a lot of anxiety. They are cognizant that ‘we just have to wait’.”

According to Brown, some of the long-term recovery groups are still working with survivors of last year’s hurricane season.

CWS is working with not just community-based agencies but also dozens of local church groups across the countries. “We’ll be bringing our many years of expertise in helping displaced people,” says McCullough confidently.
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“We’re now working with our network of community-based affiliate agencies and local church groups across the country to adapt and enlist the longstanding resources and systems already in place to help evacuees who resettle in a given city tap resources they need to re-create their lives.”

McCullough predicts the long-term emotional damage of Katrina to be massive. “Trauma for those directly and indirectly victimised by this hurricane may reach epic proportions and affects not only the survivors but also thousands of relief and rescue personnel and case management care-givers,” he said.

“They’ve exposed themselves physically, psychologically and spiritually to the grief, frustration, and hopelessness of the overwhelming demands on their lives. Suicides within the New Orleans Police Department have already attested to this,” he added.

The CWS is helping survivors in numerous ways, beyond shipments of medical and material supplies.

The CWS has also announced it will give seed grants to developing long-term recovery organisations, sustainability grants over three to five years for long-term recovery staff and administration, and home reconstruction grants to long-term recovery organisations.

The CWS relocation programme will also support around 165 displaced families over an initial three-month period.

The spiritual care is one of the most important areas in which the CWS will be working over the coming months.

Rev McCullough said: “Spiritual and emotional care will be of primary concern in coming months – and for years – for those who are affected. We intend to give particular support to clergy and lay caregivers who are ministering in the early days of relief and rescue, to those churches who are helping the relocation operations in their communities and states, and faith houses that will provide a continuum of care for long-term recovery.”

So far, more than US$300,000 worth of CWS-donated material has been shipped to affected areas, including 18,100 CWS Blankets and 14,335 “Gift of the Heart” Health Kits.