Volunteers, donations still needed for Mitch recovery

   Creating bricks for houses with a high-compression block-making machine sent by UMCOR.

Dozens of volunteer teams, many of them composed of United Methodists, have participated in Hurricane Mitch-related rebuilding efforts in Honduras and Nicaragua, but more are needed. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) also is continuing to collect donations for its recovery efforts through Advance # 982515-0, Hurricanes '98.

Responding to the devastation wrought last year by Hurricane Mitch, UMCOR and its parent agency, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, helped develop an ecumenical volunteer project in cooperation with Church World Service. A coordinating office was established at the UMCOR Depot in Baldwin, La.

In Honduras, 57 teams will have been placed through the Christian Commission for Development (CCD) in 15 villages between May and the end of the year. Another 15 teams have worked in four villages under the sponsorship of the Board of Global Ministries' Honduras Initiative, a program aimed at developing local United Methodist congregations in the country. Forty-seven teams have been scheduled so far for 2000.

"Total villages were needing to be relocated," said Bob Walton, the board's executive for mission volunteers. "It was a massive rebuilding job."

   Inspecting one of the bricks after it has been made

In Nicaragua, volunteer coordination has been through CEPAD, a church-based community development organization that has served as an UMCOR partner for 20 years, and with United Methodist missionaries working in San Francisco Libre, one of the hardest-hit areas. Between May and the end of the year, 29 teams will have worked in 11 villages. Another 37 teams have been scheduled so far for 2000.

Walton estimated that at least 70 percent of the team members have been United Methodists. Presbyterians represent the second-largest group of volunteers. Other volunteers have come from the Church of the Brethren, Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ.

Those displaced by Mitch are doing much of the rebuilding work themselves.

"The communities are building the houses year-round," Walton explained. "As the volunteer teams go, they just work alongside the community people."

Volunteers are still needed for next year. Information is available by calling UMCOR's Volunteer Line at (800) 918-3000. Walton said volunteers must pay $22 a day for food, water, shelter and in-country transportation.

Donations to UMCOR's relief work for Hurricanes '98 can be dropped in church collection plates or mailed directly to 475 Riverside Drive, Room 330, New York, NY 10115. For credit-card donations, call 1-800-554-8583.

Photo credits: Paul Jeffrey/CCD. Click on any photograph above for a larger version.