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January 25, 2005
Sudan: UMCOR Team Receives License
UMCOR's Sudan team has secured its Office of Foreign Assets Control license from the U.S. Treasury Department. The registration is a requirement for doing business in Sudan. We are about to name the team that will begin work in the Nyalla region of southern Darfur. UMCOR is already providing aid to Sudanese families in refugee camps in Chad. Contributions to UMCOR Advance #184385, Sudan Emergency, will support these ministries in Darfur in a meaningful way.
South and Southeast Asia: UMCOR Focuses on the Future
Amid region-wide mourning, communities that lost everything to the December 26, 2004, earthquake and tsunami have begun to assess their futures with a degree of optimism. In its first assessments of two of the stricken countries, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, UMCOR has proposed continued short-term response and a longer-range recovery plan. UMCOR is delivering aid in India as well.
UMCOR's Preliminary Program Design for Sri Lanka:
In all recovery efforts, UMCOR expects to partner with the Methodist Church of Sri Lanka. UMCOR's initial plan emphasizes activity leading to replacement of lost income. For example, debris cleanup can provide employment for the able-bodied as well as prepare damaged building sites for rehabilitation. We anticipate using a community-based approach. In this model, residents of the community rebuild each other's houses free of charge. In other initiatives with the Sri Lanka Council of Churches, UMCOR has provided relief supplies to more than 12,000 people.
UMCOR's Preliminary Program Design for Indonesia:
Indonesia's Methodist Church will partner with UMCOR in recovery efforts in the Banda Aceh and Meuleboh regions. Debris and toxic water cover large blocks of both cities, which were near the earthquake's epicenter. One project will provide operators and heavy equipment to augment manual cleanup. Another will deliver medicines to 8,600 residents of displaced persons camps. In a third, UMCOR will oversee a pilot house replacement program that could result in larger-scale housing rehabilitation. Another project will provide grief counseling and other forms of pastoral care.
UMCOR's Emergency Response in India:
By the end of January, some 50,000 families in India will have received emergency food and supplies from UMCOR's partner Churches Auxiliary for Social Action. CASA teams will build over 800 temporary shelters. Aid workers for CASA will also focus on procurement of boats, fishing nets, and other agricultural assistance for 3,750 families. CASA has applied for approval to rebuild housing in twenty-four villages. Initial UMCOR grants funded these initiatives. "CASA is extremely thankful to Northern partners for the great support and solidarity we have received at this challenging time," wrote CASA's director Sushant Agrawal.
Get Involved!
You can get involved through giving to UMCOR Advance #274305, South Asia Emergency. UMCOR is also accepting online donations at MethodistRelief.org. Cash gifts continue to be most meaningful during the first months of the response. Today United Methodist contributions to tsunami relief reached $6 million, a figure that incorporates online giving and telephone credit card donations but only a portion of individual checks received so far. The Internal Revenue Service will allow donors to decide whether to apply their tsunami relief contributions to the 2004 or 2005 tax years, as long as the gift designated for 2004 is made by next Monday, January 31.
One Great Hour of Sharing: Sunday March 6, Essential to UMCOR
Within days of the Indian Ocean disaster, UMCOR was providing food, clothing, shelter, and medical help to survivors. We will stay in the region for years-- rebuilding, returning people home, giving comfort, helping to create replacements for lost livelihoods. For UMCOR, the first few weeks are only the beginning. Such works of recovery and life-changing ministry don't happen without the broad support of congregations and individuals.
Once a year, during One Great Hour of Sharing, you and your congregation can join other United Methodists worldwide by making a special offering to support UMCOR. You can help assure that, when catastrophes cause suffering, your church, impelled by Jesus' love and compassion, will be in the lead to ease the pain.
Gifts to this offering underwrite UMCOR's "costs of doing business," so that 100 percent of every other dollar you donate to a specific UMCOR project can be spent on that project, and not on administrative costs. UMCOR receives no World Service funds or any other apportionments. Offering gifts over and above those used to cover administrative costs are channeled where they're most needed-to assist the most vulnerable people whose need is greatest.
Don't delay! Order your free One Great Hour of Sharing materials today. Call toll free, 1-888-346-3862 and then receive the offering on March 6. Your generosity means UMCOR will be your open hearts and hands in current and future catastrophes.
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.
Get the free UMCOR Hotline
Telephone: 1-800-841-1235; Web: http://gbgm-umc.org/UMCOR-Hotline/
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Featured Photos
United Methodist Committee on Relief
A displaced woman walks through a camp that houses over ten thousands displaced Sudanese people in the southern Darfur region of Sudan. UMCOR will open an office in Sudan early in 2005. Credit: REUTERS/Antony Njuguna, September 21, 2004.
The Rev. Paul Dirdak, head of UMCOR, surveys the damage in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, following the Dec. 26 tsunami. A United Methodist delegation visited areas of Sumatra early in January. Credit: Mike DuBose/UMNS, January 12, 2005.
About 700 people who were displaced by the Dec. 26 tsunami are living
in this camp in Bateilik, Indonesia. The Methodist Church of Indonesia is helping support programs at the facility. Credit: Mike DuBose/UMNS, January 13, 2005.
The theme for One Great Hour of Sharing for UMCOR, which will be on March 6, 2005 is "Be There." Order your free One Great Hour of Sharing materials today. Call toll free, 1-888-346-3862 and then receive the offering on March 6.
More Information About UMCOR's Work
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