| UMCOR Hotline Archives 1998- | UMCOR Hotline Free Email Edition |Please note the addendum to this week's hotline.
A new crisis has arisen for Sierra Leone refugees in Guinea who have been forced out of camps and homes, beaten and robbed of all resources. Thousands are stranded. The United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone has requested financial assistance from UMCOR to repatriate these refugees and provide them with food and other essential supplies. Please give generously to Advance #181205-1 "Sierra Leone Emergency."
UMCOR is sending two grants to assist with disaster recovery in Ohio following flooding in Toledo and the tornado in Xenia. UMCOR has also sent a grant to Wisconsin for recovery from the flooding in Eau Claire. Your gifts to UMCOR's Domestic Disaster Response, Advance #901670-1 make it possible for UMCOR to respond to these and other disasters within the United States.
Florida Annual Conference disaster workers are assessing damage from the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Gordon. Tropical Storm Helene arrives in the panhandle of Florida today and is expected to drop several inches of rain in Florida and South Georgia. There is a special Advance for Hurricanes 2000, #982350-4. Your gifts will help people recover from this year's hurricanes and tropical storms.
Millions of people have been left homeless by floods in India, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Lives, homes, belongings, land, crops and livestock have been lost. UMCOR works through our ecumenical and interfaith partners to provide humanitarian assistance. Please give to UMCOR's International Disaster Response, Advance #982450-8.
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.)
Please pray for all who suffer from natural and human-made disasters, hunger, and poverty.
September 22, 2000
The attached letter was received by the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) last evening from Bishop Humper of The United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone.
UMCOR now has four projects in Sierra Leone all of which need your support. They are:
The UMCOR Advance Special number for the Sierra Leone Emergency is 181205-1.
Please contribute through any local United Methodist Church or directly to UMCOR at 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10015. Or you may call (800)554-8583 to make a donation using your credit card.
Sincerely,
Paul Dirdak
Deputy General Secretary, UMCOR
September 20, 2000
THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, SIERRA LEONE AREA
JOSEPH C. HUMPER, Resident Bishop
31, Lightfoot Boston Street
P.O. Box 523
Freetown, Sierra Leone
West Africa
Paul Dirdak, Executive Secretary
United Methodist Committee on Relief
General Board of Global Ministries
475 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10115
Dear Dr. Dirdak,
Re: Request for Emergency Grant of $25,000 for Repatriation of our Refugees Stranded in Guinea
I salute you in the most precious name of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, even as I write to you from Geneva, Switzerland.
I am writing to request for an emergency grant in the sum of twenty-five thousand US Dollars ($25,000) to enable us respond to the President, Alhaji Dr. Ahmed Tegan Kabba's call for national and international community to assist in the repatriation of over four thousand Sierra Leonean refugees in Conakry, capital of the neighboring Republic of Guinea.
An alleged fight ensued between rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the Guinean soldiers along the Sierra Leone-Guinea border. Consequently, the President of the Republic of Guinea went on the air ordering the security forces to drive all Sierra Leonean residents (some having spent four to seven years in Guinea) and refugees from Sierra Leone (some dislocated since 1997) as well as Liberian refugees from the country.
The military forces went into action. They entered the homes of all Sierra Leonean refugees and residents, looting, raping indiscriminately, beating all they could lay hands on, leaving them helpless - some at the point of death. They carted away all their properties and asked them out of their homes. Whatever monies the people had they took away from them.
Almost all of the refugees in Conakry in particular converged at the Sierra Leone Embassy totaling between three and four thousand people. Children, pregnant women, youths and young adults, helpless old men, and women sleep outside on the Embassy compound, some along the streets near the Embassy.
Their situation is critical and deplorable. Thousands have no money to return home, no food to eat, and nowhere to sleep. And worse still, the Ambassador and his staff do not have the resources to repatriate them. The problem is compounded by the fact that humanitarian agencies or UNHCR are nowhere to help in the repatriation of our people.
With the inability of the government and UN to assist our people, I feel it is my duty to send and SOS ("Save Our Souls") message now on behalf of these refugees. It is a Macedonian Call. It is a matter of urgency. Otherwise hundreds of our people will die of starvation, epidemic diseases due to overcrowding and our infants too will die.
Immediate needs to be addressed are: repatriation of our people on boats; provision of immediate relief items such as rice and condiments, health kits, cooking utensils, blankets, essential drugs; trauma healing and counseling services; and tracing and helping refugee children and re-uniting them with their parents or finding homes for them.
Please treat this matter with the urgency it deserves. The nation is looking up to us to come to the rescue of our people.
May God so guide and enable you get these very badly needed emergency funds to enable us to continue to be in ministry to our people.
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely Yours,
Joseph C. Humper
Resident Bishop