United Methodists assisted secondary victims of 9/11 attacks
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A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin Some 26,000 people have received assistance through the UMCOR New York 9/11 Program.
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Assistance
for people suffering the long-term effects of the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks has come through United Methodist Committee on
Relief's New York 9/11 Program. Church members generously donated more
than $20 million in the aftermath of the tragedy to finance these
ministries. A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin. Photo #061055. Accompanies UMNS story #539. 9/12/06 |
Sept. 12, 2006
By Linda Bloom*
NEW YORK (UMNS) — Some victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New
York never made the news.
They were the people who worked at small businesses near the World Trade Center
or were hired to help with the cleanup downtown. Some were left unemployed
when factories in Chinatown closed in the aftermath or were simply unable to
find a job after the economic downturn. A number were undocumented immigrants
who were ineligible for government assistance.
Using donations from church members, the United Methodist Committee on Relief
was able to assist these secondary victims as well as some of those directly
affected by the 2001 attacks.
From May 7, 2002, through April 29, 2005, UMCOR estimated that 5,346 individuals
and their families, or a total of some 26,000 people, received direct assistance
through the UMCOR New York 9/11 Program. Indirect services, such as referrals
to food pantries, legal assistance and medical and mental health care, were
provided to another 2,000 people.
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The Rev. Ramon Nieves |
Additional assistance to New Yorkers and local
church members also came from the disaster response program of the denomination’s
New York Annual (regional) Conference.
Case management The Rev. Ramon Nieves, a United Methodist from
Illinois with social service experience, was hired to run the UMCOR program. “When I got to New York,
my task was to move quickly,” he recalled.
The Rev. Paul Dirdak, UMCOR’s chief executive, acknowledged that the
program “was an innovation and we had to see whether it would work.” He
was pleased with the end result.
Supported by the UMCOR staff, Nieves said he developed
a case management system “that
would geographically cover those persons impacted by 9/11 directly and indirectly.”
With assistance from other faith groups, he set
up 10 satellite offices around New York. The idea was to go where the needs
were and to be “as compassionate
as possible and as sensitive as possible,” he said.
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A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin Jenny Crystal Ip (right), a caseworker for the UMCOR New York 9/11 Program, assists Yuk Fan Chan.
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Jenny
Crystal Ip (right), a caseworker for United Methodist Committee on
Relief's New York 9/11 Program in New York, visits with Yuk Fan Chan,
who is seeking assistance from the United Methodist Church following the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin.
Photo #061056. Accompanies UMNS story #539. 9/12/06 |
“I had to hire people who really knew the communities,” Nieves
explained. In some areas, Muslims were afraid to come forward for help, “so
we went to them.”
The Twin Towers had a lot of businesses both inside
and outside the buildings. “When
all these businesses closed in lower Manhattan, you had collateral damage,” he
pointed out. The economic impact was so great that “some moved to other
states.”
An estimated $2 million of the UMCOR 9/11 program’s
$5 million budget went to rental assistance, he added. At least 60 percent
of the clients were
undocumented and had no health insurance or benefits.
Near the end of the program, new clients came in who were suffering from health
problems after being hired for the cleanup process downtown. Others who lived
in lower Manhattan also developed health problems that were thought to be related
to the thick smoke and scattered debris that spread after the collapse of the
World Trade Center.
At UMCOR’s downtown satellite offices at Metropolitan-Duane United Methodist
Church and Chinese United Methodist Church, Nieves said, “We were seeing
a lot of people, especially Chinese children, who had developed asthma and
chronic respiratory problems.”
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The Rev. Paul Dirdak |
Post-traumatic stress
He estimated that 80 percent of the clients suffered
some type of post-traumatic stress to the point where some would not come
to the
program’s main offices
at 475 Riverside Drive, where UMCOR is based, because the offices are in a
19-story building. He also was struck by the high burnout rate among case managers
at other agencies. “You’d go home and you’d have all these
stories (about the attacks) on your mind,” he said.
On a personal level, “I don’t think I’ve ever worked so
hard in my life,” added Nieves, who now is executive director of Tuesday’s
Child, a social service organization in Chicago.
Counseling for stress was an issue for the New York Annual Conference, which
used a grant from UMCOR to fund a partnership with Blanton Peale Institute.
That arrangement allowed any clergy member to refer people with trauma-related
distress to professional pastoral counselors and psychotherapists.
About 1,000 individuals were assisted, according
to the Rev. Charles “Chick” Straut,
program administrator for the conference’s disaster response task force,
which became known as DART.
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A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin Jenny Crystal Ip (right), gets a hug from Siying Shea.
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Jenny
Crystal Ip (right), a caseworker for United Methodist Committee on
Relief's New York 9/11 Program in New York, gets a hug from Siying Shea,
who is seeking assistance from the United Methodist Church following
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin.
Photo #061058. Accompanies UMNS story #539. 9/12/06
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“My overall impression is it was highly effective,” Straut said. “It
was handled very professionally, and I think it probably made a difference
in the lives of a lot of people.”
But not everyone is quick to seek counseling after
a disaster, he pointed out. Some refused to recognize the stress and “used
every defense mechanism available to avoid seeking counseling.”
In some cases, Straut believes that by providing
training to clergy so they could help their congregations deal with stress, “we
got them to deal with their stresses as well.”
DART provided some initial case management until the UMCOR program was up
and running. The task force did advocacy work among the working-class poor,
immigrants and undocumented workers; dispersed 87 grants to local congregations
for 9/11 recovery projects and cooperated with partners throughout the city.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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