May 3, 2005
United States: Hurricane Recovery Continues
Last summer three hurricanes ripped through the United States leaving a swath of destruction in Florida, Alabama, North Carolina and as far north as western Pennsylvania. More than six months later, recovery efforts remain in full-swing and additional needs continue to be identified. UMCOR is there supporting the reconstruction of people's homes and lives in these devastated areas through more than three million dollars in grants and contributions of flood buckets, school kits and health kits to help those affected by the storms restore their lives.
United Methodists have assisted thousands of people in Florida, including Marcelino Diaz and his nine children. High winds ripped the roof and porch off of their house. Without insurance or the financial resources for repairs and suffering from terminal liver cancer, Marcelino turned to the Disaster Relief Office at Trinity United Methodist Church in Arcadia, Florida. They made repairing his house a top priority so that he and his family could return home for the last months of his life. He succumbed to the illness this past March.
Recovery Efforts to Date
Even after six months of reconstruction, much more work is needed to restore these communities. You can contribute financially to the continued recovery by giving to UMCOR Advance #982410, Hurricanes 2004. You can also give the gift of your time. All of the affected areas are still in need of volunteer help. To find out how you can volunteer, call 1-800-918-3100.
Worldwide: Health Kits, School Kits
Twenty-five volunteers from Grace United Methodist Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, packed school and health kits at UMCOR Sager Brown this spring. For a week in March, these volunteers served in Baldwin, LA, making and shipping the kits that top UMCOR's wish list right now. New UMCOR operations in Indonesia and Sri Lanka have placed demands on supplies of kits. Elderly refugees and children displaced from their homes in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia are also beneficiaries. The health kits provide much needed supplies for daily hygiene for vulnerable people who have little to call their own. The 2005 requests for school kits is also at a record high - some 78,000 school-age children will receive school kits, but only if supplies allow. Health kits and school kits are fun to assemble and can introduce even young children to the satisfaction of hands-on mission. See our web site for specifications and shipping information. Please consider these in-kind gifts as expressions of your care for the most vulnerable. Or let a cash gift "say it for you" - to UMCOR Advance #901440, Material Resource Ministry. Be sure to designate "Health Kit" or "School Kit" in the memo line of your check.
South Asia: Check Out UMCOR's New "Report to Donors"
Permanently altered coastlines - total loss of belongings - the backwash of flooding - salt-contaminated fields. These are the sights in regions where a magnitude 8.7 earthquake under the Indian Ocean sent a tsunami inland, killing tens of thousands in December 2004. But the visitor also notices the human capacity to adjust. Thanks to your generous gifts (as of March 31 over $32 million), UMCOR has opened recovery centers in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Talks are in progress for support of additional rehabilitation in India. UMCOR sent emergency aid to Somalia and Thailand as well. Read all about it in UMCOR's new "Report to Donors." A fresh report will show up on our web site every month. Thank you for your gifts of love. They are at work, comforting, providing shelter, and sustaining people as they adjust to life after the tsunami.
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.