October 2, 2009

NEW YORK – In the wake of this week's rolling disasters across the Asia Pacific region and recent serious flooding in regions of the U.S., global humanitarian agency Church World Service calls on its donors and the public nationwide for increased support, as the agency responds to the latest events and begins to assess longer term recovery needs.

The agency is also heightening its appeal for contributions to support the increasing food crisis and famine in Kenya. "We are urgently asking for help," says Church World Service Executive Director, the Rev. John L. McCullough. "There's never a good time for one, or two or four disasters but this year's crises, and the latest Pacific island emergencies, are coming at a really bad time.

"It's a triple whammy. Numerous emergencies happening at once, in some cases exacerbated by the effects of climate change, and on top of that, charities and responders globally are strapped because of the economy," he said. "CWS asks that people do what they can. We know from the past that, all together, we can make a difference, starting with what is before us." On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, struck by two earthquakes within a 24-hour period, more than a thousand are now believed to be dead or buried in the rubble. CWS Indonesia staff and local partners are on the ground, distributing initial non-food aid to those affected by the quakes, including family tents, blankets, tarpaulins, plastic mats, relief kits and baby kits.

"With pre-positioned supplies, we've been able to expedite getting initial relief to survivors," said Church World Service Indonesia Director Michael Koeniger speaking from Jakarta. CWS has worked in Indonesia for nearly 60 years.

On the islands of American and Western Samoa, where people were swept to sea in a tsunami following Wednesday's magnitude 8.0 earthquake in the Pacific, the death toll has risen to 150. On the American Samoa side, CWS's domestic response unit is interacting with FEMA and assessing how best the agency and its U.S. member denominations can assist in that emergency.

Concurrently, CWS is monitoring conditions and needs in the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam, following Typhoon Ketsana. The region is now preparing for an even stronger storm. In Cambodia and Vietnam, where CWS has offices, the agency's assessment teams are now participating in joint assessment missions with United Nations organizations and will determine after those assessments what CWS support may be needed.

In the Philippines, CWS is working with its partners the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and Christian Aid, who are planning an initial response. CWS, the Philippines church council and international NGO Christian Aid work collaboratively, as members in the global alliance Action by Churches Together-International.

As families in the U.S. struggle to recover from serious flooding, particularly in the south, CWS has sent initial material aid shipments to Georgia and other states. The agency issued a formal appeal this week in support of training opportunities with local organizations that address long-term recovery for those with unmet needs in the region.

On the drought side of weather related disasters, CWS also asks for further support in responding to the critical food crisis and water shortages in Kenya. Some 12 million Kenyans are suffering thirst, hunger, famine and death, in a region where climate change-influences have created protracted drought and crop failures. On top of injury, the severe rains being predicted for Kenya's imminent rainy season – normally a cause for farmer celebration-are forecast to produce destructive flooding as the rains fall on hard, now-barren lands.

'Boundaries blur between cause and effect, emergency aid and adaptation'

"The Pacific earthquakes are being reported as not connected, though both Sumatra and Samoa sit within the volatile ‘Ring of Fire' area," said Donna Derr, Director of Emergency Response for CWS. "And, while certainly not every storm or natural occurrence or disaster can be blamed on climate change, the fact is that countries and people and the organizations that respond to them are confronting increasingly unpredictable and more extreme weather occurrences – from Kenya's droughts to the tsunami of 2005, to the unprecedented drought last in the U.S., in northern Georgia, followed by the most recent record-breaking rain and flooding there."

"We're having to shift our traditional ways of putting problems in neat boxes," Derr said. "The boundaries between cause and effect, between climate change, food security and water resources, are blurring.

Emergency response and recovery – as world bodies and NGOs had come to think of them-are merging with our notions of ‘development' and ‘adaptation,'" she said.

For more information about the current emergencies-and development programs-that Church World Service is supporting, visit http://www.churchworldservice.org/.

How to Help: Contributions to support this CWS work can be made online at http://www.churchworldservice.org/donate, by calling 1-800-297-1516; or by mail to Church World Service, 28606 Phillips Street, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515.

Church World Service