May 13, 2008

BANGKOK – Ten days after cyclone Nargis devastated parts of Myanmar (Burma), as tens of thousands of people still wait for assistance, global humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) reports that its support is reaching survivors in need. Meanwhile CWS continues to expand its fundraising to support relief in the country.

CWS first provided humanitarian assistance in Burma in 1959 and has long-term partnerships in the country.

In the face of aid shipment and distribution challenges facing international sources, CWS reports that local organizations are distributing food, water and emergency shelter supplies throughout affected areas with commodities either purchased elsewhere within Myanmar, or purchased regionally and transported through channels that are still open into the country.

Myanmar maintains open land-trade routes with Thailand and India that allow for importation of supplies, "o local markets still have commodities available," says Donna Derr, director of Church World Service's Emergency Response Program.

"And local organizations have the advantage of knowing how best to obtain and distribute those goods, to where they're needed most," she said.

CWS holds an appropriate license from the U.S. government to provide financial help to Myanmar for emergency aid purposes. The agency's Asia Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok is organizing response among faith-based, non-governmental organizations that are members of the Action by Churches Together International Alliance.

CWS, whose initial fundraising appeal issued the day following the disaster, surpassed its goal in hours and has been expanded a third time to address the scope of needs as they are being assessed.

Church World Service and ACT member agencies are warning against an impending and longer term food security crisis: "If communities don't get rice seeds in the ground within the next month, there may not be rice crops for years to come," says Derr. "It's critical that we ensure that this major disaster doesn't turn into an ongoing catastrophe."

Exacerbating the problem of getting rice for food and for planting quickly into the hands of survivors, experts report that flood waters have corrupted planting fields in the affected areas of Myanmar with salt.

CWS and ACT member agencies in Bangkok said in communiques today, "Now is the time to support local organizations who are on the ground providing much needed urgent assistance. The commitments made to survivors now will help them ensure that they can rebuild their lives."

Church World Service and its Asia-Pacific Region offices are particularly suited to respond in this kind of crisis, given CWS's 60-year history of engaging local organizations to meet humanitarian needs. The agency's Indonesia offices were among the first responders to the 2004 tsunami and continue to work through local groups in that country's ongoing rehabilitation.

In the U.S. in addition to public donations and other grants received by Church World Service to date, CWS has received support from faith organizations including the United Methodist Church/UMCOR, the Presbyterian Church USA/Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the United Church of Christ, the Church of the Brethren, and Episcopal Relief & Development, among others.

Church World Service provides relief and recovery, sustainable development, and refugee resettlement and protection services worldwide and is funded through public donations, grants and by the support of 35 U.S. Christian denominations.

Contributions to Church W orld Service's Cyclone Nargis response may be made by: telephone, at (800) 297-1516; by mailing a check to Church World Service, 28606 Phillips Street, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515; or through secure online contribution at https://secure.churchworldservice.org/catalog/display.php?sid=1.

Church World Service