Church World Service
Emergency Appeal: India Drought Assistance
#6948 for $100,000
October 24, 2002


SITUATION: While two states in India -- Assam and Bihar -- are recovering
from severe flooding, the country is now also experiencing a severe
drought situation; at least 12 of India's states have seen little or no
rainfall during this monsoon season--close to a 100-year record. The
states worst hit by sparse and deficient rainfall have officially been
declared drought-affected. These states are Uttar Pradesh, Himachal
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan,
Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and parts of Tamil Nadu.


RESPONSE: CWS is responding through long-time partner Church's Auxiliary
for Social Action (CASA), which is responding in the states of Uttar
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The CASA response includes a food/community development program;
employment generation through construction of water gathering;
distribution of seeds and fertilizer for farmers; provision of safe
drinking water, which includes drilling of wells and installing hand
pumps. CASA also plans to conduct conducting six state-level workshops on
drought response and emergency preparedness.

CASA, working with its regional partners, is targeting communities most
affected by the drought, with priority given to the most vulnerable
sections among those affected such as women, children, the elderly,
various ethnic groups and castes and agricultural laborers, share croppers
or small and marginal farmers comprising the bulk of the poor and the
marginalized sections of Indian society. Beneficiaries will include some
52,000 families, and is the response is expected to last 10 months.

BUDGET includes $2 million in direct assistance (food, seed, handpumps)


CWS-ERP is seeking $100,000 in denominational support for this appeal. For
more specific information, including budget and partner information
contact CWS ERP or go to the ACT web site: www.act-intl.org

CHURCH WORLD SERVICE, INDIA DROUGHT ASSISTANCE, Account #6948 (ref.
#ASIN24), P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN, 46515.  Phone pledges or credit
card donations can be made by calling 1-800-297-1516.

On-line contributions to: www.churchworldservice.org

Call the CWS HOTLINE for updates: (800) 297-1516.

For further information about disasters to which Church World Service
is responding, contact CWS Emergency Response.

Telephone: (212) 870-3151
E-mail: donnajderr@aol.com
After-hours emergency pager: (800) 780-0853
Web site: www.cwserp.org


distributed by
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International Disaster Information
Volunteers in Technical Assistance
                                          web: www.cidi.org
                                     listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
comments/suggestions/requests to incident@cidi.org