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In Today's Hotline:
- US: Assisting Flood Survivors
- DRC: Educating Boys
- GHANA: An Increasing Harvest
- RESOURCES: Protecting the Innocent - New Church Bulletin
As overflowing river banks continue to threaten the Midwest, UMCOR is at work assisting affected annual conferences, remaining in contact with on-the-ground disaster coordinators to bring relief where it is needed most. UMCOR domestic disaster response executives, Catherine Earl and Sandra Kennedy-Owes are in Wisconsin and Iowa to support the annual conferences as they assess the damage and begin long-term recovery plans. Earl and Kennedy-Owes will travel to Indiana and Illinois later in the week.
More than 3,000 flood buckets from UMCOR Sager Brown have been sent to the flood-ravaged region to help homeowners in the cleanup. Funds, personnel and support are coming together to assist all the affected annual conferences in establishing their disaster response ministry.
"The annual conferences and local churches have done tremendous work in these initial days of the disaster," said Tom Hazelwood, head of UMCOR's domestic disaster response. "As always, United Methodists have responded with incredible generosity and compassion to this wide-spread disaster."
Your gifts as well as flood buckets are needed to aid in the clean-up and recovery process. Visit UMCOR's Relief Supplies web page to learn about flood bucket contents and shipping requirements. Giving generously to Domestic Disaster Response, Midwest Flooding, UMCOR Advance #901670 will help UMCOR respond to those most affected.
In the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, 310 boys are attending school through an education scholarship provided by UMCOR through the Academy for Education Development, a non-profit organization working globally to improve education, health, civil society and economic development.
The boys, who are mostly orphans, extremely poor or displaced, will attend eight different schools throughout the region. The children were selected based on a number of criteria that include - boys with no parents, boys from single-headed households, families who can not afford school fees, and boys who are physically disabled or with parents who are disabled. Through this program, UMCOR will supply the children with uniforms, pay their school fees, perform medical check-ups and provide mentoring.
Support programs like these and help fulfill the children's desire to learn and provide them with the necessary tools to do so. Please continue to give generously to Democratic Republic of Congo Emergency, UMCOR Advance #198400.
Margaret Oduno, a maize farmer in Jeduako, Ghana is up to her ears in corn - and that's an encouraging sign. Before participating in UMCOR's Sustainable Agriculture & Development (SA&D) Program, she earned very little from her farm to support herself and her two children. After applying her newly-learned UMCOR skills, Oduno's crops increased each season - while she harvested eight bags of maize in her first season, more recently she harvested 13 bags of maize. Oduno's future is brighter because she applied the farmer training techniques she received from UMCOR. Today, she is planning to build her own home and will soon send her two children to school.
Most farmers who receive direct training through UMCOR SA&D programs improve their livelihoods. They are able to build better homes and support their families' health and education needs. UMCOR-trained farmers are encouraged to pass on their newly-acquired skills to other farmers so that entire communities can reap the benefits.
Help farmers like Oduno earn wages to support their families and send their children to school by sending your gifts to UMCOR's Sustainable Agriculture & Development Program, UMCOR Advance #982188.
RESOURCES: PROTECTING THE INNOCENT - NEW CHURCH BULLETIN
In many parts of the world, women, young girls, boys and men fall prey to luring promises of financial opportunities to "sheep in wolves' clothing" - traffickers who betray their trust. Many find themselves in slavery-like conditions of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation unable to free themselves.
Through UMCOR's Vocational Training for Vulnerable Youth project in Armenia, young girls and boys are no longer ignorant of their rights and are learning how to avoid possible trafficking dangers while learning a practical trade. The project was created to prevent trafficking in humans by empowering at-risk youth through various vocational trainings while helping students meet the workforce requirements in Armenia.
Learn more by downloading our new church bulletin and sharing this information with your church community or congregation. Help raise awareness of trafficking dangers and protect vulnerable girls and boys from being trafficked with your gifts to Armenia Emergency, UMCOR Advance #250225.
UMCOR provides emergency relief in many areas of the world. To find out more about UMCOR's ministries, please visit umcor.org. You can donate to any project by placing a contribution in the offering plate at a local United Methodist church; by sending a check to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087-9068; or by calling 1-800-554-8583, where credit card donations are accepted. You can also give online at givetomission.org. UMCOR is exempt from tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States and qualifies for the maximum charitable contribution deduction by donors.
United Methodist Committee on Relief
General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church
Room 330, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115
Voice Phone: 1-212-870-3816; FAX: 1-212-870-3624
Email: umcor@gbgm-umc.org
Web: http://www.umcor.org
UMCOR. Be There. Be Hope.
UMCOR's mission is to alleviate human suffering-whether caused by war, conflict, or natural disaster-with open minds and hearts to all people.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
