Growing Crisis Along Somali Kenyan Border

Saturday, January 6, A.D. 2007

Heavy rains and flooding have combined with fighting to create a growing humanitarian emergency along the Somali Kenyan border, further threatening stability and security throughout the Horn of Africa. The flow of refugees fleeing the conflict between the Ethiopian Army and the Islamic Court Union into northeastern Kenya has increased to more than 1000 people a day. Unusually heavy rainfall has compounded the situation as floodwaters have destroyed refugee shelters, crops and local infrastructure.

Church World Service is among several members of the Action by Churches Together (ACT) alliance responding to the situation. CWS and 3 local church partners are assisting some 12,000 households (nearly 40,000 people) through the provision of relief food, blankets, agricultural inputs and reconstruction assistance for primary schools. CWS and its partners have particularly directed aid to widows, the elderly, children and the most economically impoverished.

Disciples through Week of Compassion are making an initial response of $10,000 to support CWS' efforts, as well as a $6000 gramt to ACT to support the efforts of Norwegian Church Aid inside Somalia.

Tsunami Recovery Efforts Continue

Beyond the enormous death toll from the December 26, 2004, tsunami in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and other southern Asia countries also lost their homes and livelihoods.

Members in the Action by Churches Together (ACT) alliance, such as Church World Service, Lutheran World Relief, Norwegian Church Aid, Yakkum Emergency Unit, Churches Auxiliary for Social Action and others, continue to provide crucial livelihood support, including job training for local workers, purchasing boats and fishing supplies, distributing tools and seeds to farmers, and making business grants to small entrepreneurs. ACT members are also training local residents to handle many recovery roles, including counseling and construction.

Church World Service-Indonesia (CWSI) recently touted a program implemented through a local partner in West Aceh that helps children cope with the emotions generated by the tsunami's impact. According to CWSI, the agency "has also facilitated support group activities such as cooking and home gardening, as well as sports. These programs have been regularly conducted in five locations for around 200 people."

CWSI is also helping a farming unit continue to thrive in one area of Nias. The farmers still live in tents, but have turned a once grassy area in Sirombu into productive farmland with the help of tools and seeds distributed by CWSI and its local organizations.

For more information on the response of CWS and other ACT partners, click here. An ACT report summarizing the work of its many member agencies has just been posted.

Since this terrible tragedy just over two years ago, Disciples through Week of Compassion have provided more than $1.75 millon to support the relief, and now recovery, efforts of our many church partners throughout the region, including the work of ecumenical partners such as CWS and others in the ACT alliance; Disciples church partners such as the Church of North India, Peace Trust and the Church of South India/Jaffna Diocese; and other partners like Habitat for Humanity. And because of the generosity of so many Disciples congregations, members and friends, WOC will continue to support the crucial long-term recovery/rehabilitation efforts for months, even years, to come.

Map for Congregations

For congregations using the WOC interactive map/poster, we will continue to make available the 2006 responses for a few more weeks, as well as list the '07 responses, which are currently as follows: under Disaster Response, two emergency grants for flood relief and refugee assistance in Kenya and Somalia; and under Development Response, one grant for long-term rehabilitation for tsunami recovery in India, two in Sri Lanka, and three in Indonesia, and a grant for a war recovery youth project in Bosnia. Complimentary copies of the map poster are still available for congregations. Call or e-mail Elaine Cleveland at 317.713.2442 or ecleveland@woc.disciples.org.