CHURCH WORLD SERVICE: EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM
UPDATED CWS EMERGENCY APPEAL: 2008 Caribbean Hurricanes
September 25, 2008


SITUATION: Recovery efforts continue in both Cuba and Haiti following 
hurricanes Gustav and Ike earlier this month. In Cuba, CWS partners 
report that while casualties were kept to a minimum due to civil defense 
actions, that at least 9 million persons were affected by the storms. 
Moreover, according to the UN, preliminary damage figures range as high 
as $5 billion. One of the worst impacts of Gustav and Ike was on homes: 
more than 444,000 houses were damaged, and more than 63,000 houses were 
completely destroyed.

Meanwhile, in an assessment of the situation in neighboring Haiti, 
Lorenzo Mota King, the director of long-time CWS partner Servicio Social 
de Iglesias Dominicanas (SSID) in the Domincan Republic said this week 
that the situation in northwestern Haiti remains poor. "The picture is 
devastating," he said, following a trip to the region near Gonaive. Mud 
is everywhere, he said, with water and mud having destroyed homes and 
farm fields. "And I imagine it is far worse in the areas where we could 
not visit."


CWS RESPONSE: As noted earlier, the CWS response includes several 
components:

++ The initial CWS response includes having sent a $10,000 rapid 
response grant to our partner Christian Center for Integrated 
Development (SKDE) in Haiti for immediate relief efforts.

++ Action by Churches Together partners in Haiti requested 4,000 CWS 
Hygiene Kits;1,000 baby kits; and an CWS Blankets, which CWS sent via 
airlift.

++ CWS also plans to provide material resource assistance (CWS Blankets, 
Hygiene Kits, Baby Kits, and medicine boxes) to our partner church in 
Cuba, Iglesia Bando Evangelica Gedeon.

With this appeal update, CWS also plans to support efforts in Cuba of 
Action by Churches Together members for a larger response to assist 
approximately 5,000 families with the supply of food relief and hygiene 
kits, 2,000 families with psycho-social care, and 1,000 families with 
supplies of agricultural tools, seeds and fertilizers. The focus will be 
on six affected municipalities.


For further information about disasters to which Church World Service is 
responding please visit www.churchworldservice.org or call the CWS 
Hotline, (800) 297-1516.

CWS Emergency Response Program special contacts: (212) 870-3151
Program Director: dderr@churchworldservice.org


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