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November 16, 2001: UMCOR is responding to the devastation caused by Hurricane Michelle in the Cuban municipalities of Jaguey Grande and Perico through the Methodist Church in Cuba and the Cuban Council of Churches. Most residents in these areas lost their homes and all their belongings. UMCOR grants will help provide food, medicine, and household and hygiene supplies. Long term recovery work will include assisting people as they repair or rebuild their homes.
In Honduras and Nicaragua the flooding and mudslides caused by Michelle are compounding the suffering caused by an extended drought. UMCOR will work with our Methodist and ecumenical partners in Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, and the Bahamas to provide emergency relief and long-term recovery assistance. Please give generously to Hurricanes 2001, Advance #982350. Your gifts to this advance will also be used to help people in Houston, Texas as they rebuild from the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Allison. Volunteers are urgently needed to help with the rebuilding. Please call the Volunteer Line at (800) 918-3100 for further information.
In Tajikistan, UMCOR and Mercy Corps are working together to provide shelter, household supplies, and hygiene items to 4,000 displaced families in northern Afghanistan. These relief efforts will give approximately 24,000 people the resources they need to endure the winter months. It costs $307 dollars to provide a shelter kit for a family of six, and $118.50 to provide a kit with kitchen, bedding, and hygiene supplies. UMCOR will continue to work with Church World Service to provide relief for Afghan refugees in Pakistan and deliver relief items to those who remain in Afghanistan.
In New York City, the much needed "listening posts" and counseling centers continue in different locations throughout the city. As in all of UMCOR's disaster response work, this response will be long-term. Hundreds of thousands of people have been and will be affected by this disaster. UMCOR specializes in working with the neediest people in the wake of emergencies, and we will keep that focus in this response, working with individuals on a case by case basis to help them find the resources they need to recover over the next several years. Your gifts to Love in the Midst of Tragedy, Advance #901125-3 enable UMCOR to respond to the long-term needs of people close to home and far away who are suffering from the events of September 11 and their aftermath.
Gifts may be made through local United Methodist churches, or by calling 1-800-554-8583. Credit card donations are accepted. (Read more about how you can help UMCOR's emergency responses.)
UMCOR is providing emergency relief in many areas of the world. To find out more about current UMCOR ministries, please visit the website: http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/
Please pray for those who suffer from hunger, poverty, natural and human-caused disasters.
Photos: Damage done by Hurricane Michelle in Cuba. Credit: Cuban Council of Churches, November 2001.
