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UMCOR works with churches on India tsunami relief

 


UMCOR works with churches on India tsunami relief

LINK: Click to open full size version of image
Photo by Peter H�vring, Aid/ACT International

Houses in Ininthakarai, India, show damage caused by the tsunami.

May 12, 2005
 
By Michelle Scott*

NEW YORK (UMNS)—Methodist Churches in southeast India and Andaman Island are paving the way for long-term recovery in their regions following last December’s tsunami. 

The Madras Regional Conference raised about $100,000 to serve tsunami-affected communities, the largest disaster response offering the conference has ever received, according to the Rev. Kristin Sachen of the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

Sachen visited the region at the end of April to find ways to support relief efforts that the churches there have already mounted.

UMCOR is partnering with the Churches Auxiliary for Social Action and the Christian Medical Association of India to operate mobile health clinics through a grant of $320,000 to be delivered in installments over the next four years.

One congregation making a difference is Wesley Methodist Church, near the city of Chennai in southeast India. The church is providing assistance to the residents of the surrounding slum, which was flooded by a backwash of sewage into their shacks. Goals include providing school fees for 100 children whose families lost all of their belongings in the flood. 

LINK: Click to open full size version of image
Photo by Peter H�vring, Aid/ACT International

Fishermen return from their first trip to sea after the Dec. 26 tsunami hit India's eastern coast.

The tsunami damage is severe on Andaman Island, which sits in the Bay of Bengal. The fishing community was particularly hard hit, Sachen reported, and boats are still submerged in the water. Fishing families can no longer sleep in their houses because the permanently altered coastline allows the night tide to wash into their homes.

Farmers were also severely affected. The waves of salt water ruined the rice patties, and desalinating the soil will take about three years, she said. Four churches on the island are organizing to serve the hardest-hit populations with UMCOR’s help.

Besides India, UMCOR is funding tsunami work in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Somalia and Thailand, after receiving unprecedented donations of $32.4 million.

*Scott is a communications specialist for the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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