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September 19, 2003: As Hurricane Isabel's winds diminished to tropical storm status, UMCOR began to work with conference disaster response coordinators to assess storm damage. The agency will provide support to the hardest hit areas-- especially those where persons already living on the edge suffer from "invisible disaster" that a storm like Isabel creates. Your generous gift to Hurricanes 2003 Advance #982438 will assist in these recovery efforts.
Disease emerges as the main problem facing the efforts of UMCOR and other relief agencies in India's eastern state of Orissa. Waters have inundated fields of vegetables, rice and other crops. You can help to restore the most basic of human services in Orissa through your gift to South Asia Emergency Advance #274305.
The sporadic fighting that has plagued Liberia since the ceasefire has driven thousands of refugees to Tobanda Camp in Sierra Leone. Teams from UMCOR/Sierra Leone, using a United Nations grant, are building laundry slabs, constructing wells and maintaining drainage systems, critical during the current rainy season. You can help extend these ministries to other projects, such as literacy, food self-sufficiency and HIV/AIDS education with your generous gift to the Liberia Emergency Advance #150300.
Curfews, road closures, checkpoints and military incursions all combine to spawn disaster for the Palestinian economy. Unemployment runs at 60 to 70 percent in many communities. Your generous gift to Middle East Emergency Advance #601740 will help underwrite projects of nutritional support, microenterprise, medical aid and psychosocial support for women and men, children and youth, throughout the Palestinian territories. Visit UMCOR online at http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/emergency/mideast.stm and click the link to see stunning photographs of the region, its people and projects that keep hope alive there.
Afghanistan remains mired in a prolonged humanitarian crisis as it struggles with issues of security and resettlement. UMCOR is providing assistance to meet urgent needs such as infrastructure repairs to wells, irrigation systems, household water systems, electricity, medical centers, clinics, schools and public buildings. You can help these reconstruction efforts with a generous gift to Afghanistan Emergency Advance #982353.
UMCOR provides emergency relief in many areas of the world. To find out more about UMCOR's ministries, please visit umcor.org. You can donate to any project by placing a contribution in the offering plate at a local United Methodist church; by sending a check to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087-9068; or by calling 1-800-554-8583, where credit card donations are accepted. UMCOR is exempt from tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States and qualifies for the maximum charitable contribution deduction by donors.
And, please pray for those who are hungry, displaced, sick or in poverty because of these and other natural and human-made disasters, and for the workers who minister to them.
