Action by Churches Together (ACT)
Appeal Liberia
Emergency Relief - AFLR-21 Appeal (Revision 1)
Appeal Target: US$ 860,535
Balance Requested from ACT Network:  US$ 801,124
Geneva,  1 February  2002


This appeal proposal by the Concerned Christian Communities (CCC), a
member of the Liberia Christian Council (LCC) is to address the
psycho-social needs of mostly women and children who have suffered sexual
abuse in the ongoing fighting in the North West county (Lofa) of Liberia.
A number of women and children have been victims of aggressive rape by the
fighters in this war. These criminal activities have caused not only
physical harm to the victims but also serious psychological harm.

CCC will work with Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in
sawmill-Tubmanburg where over 15,000 are camped. CCC is also proposing to
work with IDPs in CAR1 and 2 camps in central Liberia in Bong County where
over 8,000 people are settled.

The assistance will include basic emergency health care to the rape
victims, material assistance and also small grants for income generating
activities to enable them re-establish their livelihood.

This proposal constitutes a revision of the original AFLR21 appeal issued
on 24 January, 2002.  For the sake of brevity, proposals in the original
appeal document will not be repeated here.


Project Completion Date:
LWF 	31 December 2002
LCC/CCC   31 December 2002

Summary of Appeal Targets, Pledges/Contributions Received and Balance
Requested

                 Total          Less:  Pledges/   Balance Requested
                 Appeal Target    Contr Recd       from ACT Network

LWF/DWS            676,325           49,411            626,914
LCC/CCC            184,210           10,000            174,210
Total Target US$   860,535           59,411            801,124


Thor-Arne Prois
Director, ACT



REQUESTING ACT MEMBER INFORMATION

Liberian Council of Churches (LCC)  ACT LIBERIA NETWORK



IMPLEMENTING ACT MEMBER & PARTNER INFORMATION

The National Council of Churches (LCC) comprises about fifteen church and
para-church organizations in Liberia. LCC has been involved with providing
emergency relief assistance to displaced and refugee people in the
shelters around the country since the inception of the Liberian civil war.
During 2000, LCC distributed about two and half tons of rice to refugees
in Sinje, Grand Cape Mount County. LCC structure includes a General
Assembly, an Executive Committee and a Secretariat which manages programs
in Theological Education, Evangelism, Agriculture and Development,
Refugee, Emergency and Relief, Mass Media, Youth and Peace Commission.
Since 2000, LCC has been re-structuring to become more effective and
provide her partners the opportunity to implement programs in her behalf,
as an umbrella organization.

Description of ACT Member's Implementing Partners

The Concerned Christian Community (CCC) is a local Christian organization
founded in 1990 in response to the suffering and anguish caused by the
civil war at the time to the inhabitants of western Liberia. CCC is a
partner of the LCC and a member of the local ACT network in Liberia, which
comprises eight Christian relief organizations and churches including LCC,
UMCOR, LWF, CHAL, UMC, LCL, YMCA and CCC.  CCC and LCC have collaborated
on programs of mutual interest since 1992 in areas of peace-building,
relief and training, etc. During the last three years, CCC and LCC have
co-operated in the training of CCC field staff at the ARI in Japan. The
scholarship, which is worth more than US$ 60,000 has been supported by the
World Council of Churches and the Asian Rural Institute in Japan since
1999.  CCC has comprehensive experience in emergency relief intervention
including the 1996 humanitarian crisis in western Liberia when about four
thousand persons, particularly women and children, died from hunger, and
the assistance to women and girls abused in the crisis in Liberia and
Sierra Leone.

During 2000, CCC implemented more than thirty-five community based
agriculture programs, provided about two hundred tuition scholarships to
grade students in four rural counties, rehabilitated about four hundred
abused women and girls through trauma programs and hiv/aids counseling,
medical and relief assistance, skills training and income generation,
among others. During 2001 about six hundred sexually abused women and
girls have been treated with aid from ACT International, Dorcas Aid and
the United Nations, amongst others.



DESCRIPTION OF THE EMERGENCY SITUATION

Background

At the height of both the Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars thousands
of both countries' citizens sought refuge in safer areas of Liberia. Among
the number were amputees and rape victims. The Concerned Christian
Community, through the Liberian Council of Churches, obtained ACT support
for the rehabilitation of the sexually abused women and girls, both
internally displaced and refugees. The latest ACT support is for the rape
victims and vulnerable women and children of the upsurge in fighting in
Lofa and Gbarpolu Counties of Liberia. ACT inputs to date for 2001 amount
to US$ 31,000.

The present fighting in northwest Liberia is a result of dissident attacks
led by a group calling itself the "Liberia United for Reconciliation and
Development" (LURD), which seeks to apparently remove the current
government by force of arms. This is causing unnecessary suffering for the
People of Liberia.



Current Situation

The war, which started 3 years ago is now intense in the Belle, Gbarma,
Kolahun and Foya Districts, all along the Liberian borders with Sierra
Leone and Guinea. People continue to pour into the displaced shelters of
Gbarnga Bong County, Bopolu sawmill, Gbarma, Tubmanburg and Jenemana,
Bomi, Gbarpolu and Cape Mount Counties respectively.



Impact on Human Lives:

The crisis has caused the movement of over 37,950 persons made up of
approximately 7,500 families. The gender distribution of this number is
30% women, 45% children and 25% men (mainly aged).  Loss of life figures
are not easy to come by because mostly they occur at the front lines!

All life support needs are presently grossly inadequate with insufficient
and inappropriate food.  Shelter (single roomed) in most cases covers an
area of 5ft x 8ft and housing an average family of 5 persons (husband,
wife and children); water, sanitation and medical care are also
insufficient.



Description of Damages

Not only homes, schools and churches/mosques were destroyed, but whole
villages and towns were razed to the ground by fire.  Rivers and creeks
used by villages or towns are sometimes transformed into arrival grounds
for the dead. Some roads and highways are currently blocked by heavy
foliage.

Farms have been over run by rodents, overgrown by weeds and ravaged
disease.



Location For Proposed Response:

CCC will work with the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in
Sawmill-Tubmanburg where over 15,000 persons sleep in an open field.
Sawmill is the nearest "safe" city to Gbarpolu County where fleeing
civilians could reach without much difficulty.  CCC is also targeting IDPs
in CARI 1 and 2 in central Liberia in Bong County where about 8,000
displaced persons are sheltering.

CCC has worked in the area of psychosocial healing with refugees and IDPs
since November 1994 in Bo Waterside Tubmanburg, Bomi County and Sinje in
Cape Mount County and Brewerville-Montserrado County, in southwestern
Liberia.

There are other NGOs in the targeted locations providing food/clothes,
water/sanitation and medical services, all of which are inadequate.



Disaster and Emergency Statistics

Reliable statistics are difficult to get while IDPs and or refugees are on
the move.  However, it has been recently estimated that between 10,000 -
15,000 persons, who fled recent northwest dissidents-government fire
power, have been temporarily sheltering at Sawmill - Tubmanburg while
another eight to ten thousand could be scattered around the Jenemana areas
in Grand Cape Mount.  In Sinje, Grand Cape Mount, where CCC also have a
very active presence, between 10 to 15,000 refugees are lodged while CARI
1 and 2 in Bong County have about eight thousand IDPs.



Current Security Situation

The security situation in CCC target areas is relatively good with
military activities being some miles away.  Fighting has been reported
near the Sawmill area but far away from the displaced and accessibility is
easy by air or road.




GOALS & OBJECTIVES

Goal

CCC goal is to assist with psycho-social assistance those female Liberians
and refugees who were raped or harassed while fleeing the military
activities in the North West county (Lofa) of Liberia as well as to
conclude the work with Refugees in Cape Mount.



Objectives

The provision of immediate emergency material relief aid to victims and
their children

The provision of counseling services to women and girls in target response
locations

The provision of basic emergency health care to female victims including
children and elderly in the target response locations

Craft training in tie-dyeing, bakery/cookery, soap and grease making,
sewing, etc.

The provision of small grants, seeds and tools to traumatised victims
undergoing counselling to enable them re-establish their livelihood.

The eradication of prostitution and idleness amongst target beneficiaries



Capacity Building Objectives

To sharpen the working skills of volunteer workers (Organization)\

To improve the coping skills of the traumatized victims of violence.




TARGETED BENEFICIARIES

750 sexually abused IDPs women and girls from the IDP & Refugee Camps
along with the elderly victims of the military activities in Liberia.
All targetted beneficiaries are rural farmers.


Criteria utilized in beneficiary selection

All beneficiaries will be selected from lists of registered victims who
will be interviewed and screened for collaborative information.



PROPOSED EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE & IMPLEMENTATION

Activities
Tauma Counseling Services
Limited Medical Assistance
Limited Material Assistance (food, clothing, utensils, slippers)
Basic empowerment training and termination allowance.



Trauma Counseling

The counseling activity will be in two phases of 4 months each. Each phase
will consist of 2 months of training and termination exercises, thus in
all each phase will cover 6 months.



Medical & Material Assistance

Medical assistance speeds up the process of trauma healing and runs
concurrently with the counseling; material assistance takes place twice in
a phase.  Basic skills training cover the two months of the 6 months.  To
facilitate the healing process the victims of indecent assault will be
trained in home economics skills to encourage industriousness.

Required Personnel & Volunteers:
5 Trauma Counselors
2 Nurses (general and midwife)
1 Driver
2 Volunteers (Unskilled services)

Field offices and a vehicle shall be required.

LRRRC/Government and the United Nations will provide independent
co-ordination services.



Transition From Emergency:

The skills training attached to the counseling services is the first step
in the long process of rehabilitation. Since 99% of the women CCC works
with are from the rural areas of the country and depend on the land for
their livelihoods, CCC structures long-term rehabilitation activities
along agricultural lines.




ADMINISTRATION, FINANCE, MONITORING & REPORTING

Administration:

Counselors and nurses along with the administrative officer and monitor
form the direct project workers.



Finance:

CCC business and finance office shall be responsible for keeping account
of all ACT Appeal funds. Results of independent auditing will be included
in the financial reports, which normally form the general report to ACT.



Monitoring:

CCC has an efficient internal monitoring unit (Project Monitoring and
Development Unit - PMDU) responsible for all projects. The Unit has as its
head the Programme officer who is strictly assisted by the finance
officer. Four other persons in management complete the team.




IMPLEMENTATION TIME TABLE

January  - December 2002



CO-ORDINATION

There currently exists a very effective project implementation
co-ordination structure. Every Thursday all NGOs working in all shelters
in the Emergency meet to appraise the security situation and activities of
participating UN agencies and NGOs (Local and International). The meeting
is chaired by the government agency and convened at the European Union
offices in Monrovia and the field (on Wednesdays). Participants include
United Nation agencies, international and national NGOs and
representatives of the donor community.


BUDGET

INCOME	US$
Mennonite Central Committee	10,000
TOTAL INCOME	10,000

ESTIMATED EXPENDITURE

Description	Type of	No of	Unit Cost	Budget
	Unit	Units	US$	US$
DIRECT ASSISTANCE
Pre Crisis Assistance
Emergency response training 	Workshop	1	1,000	1,000
Contingency relief supplies	Lumpsum			5,500
Sub Total				6,500

Crisis Phase Assistance
Health and medical inputs	Month	12	2,083	25,000
Seeds and tools inputs	Set	100	75	7,500
Psychosocial support	Month	12	1,000	12,000
Income generation (600 beneficiaries)	Session	300	100	30,000
Small skills training	Session	3	4,000 	12,000
Sub Total				86,500

Total Direct Assistance				93,000

MATERIAL TRANSPORT, STORAGE, WAREHOUSING & HANDLING
Truck rental and related costs	Lumpsum			3,000

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT
Office Equipment
Computer  and printer	Set	1	4,500	4,500
Photocopier	Unit	1	1,000	1,000
Mimeographing machine (for field office work)	Unit	1	750	750
Typewriters	Unit	2	500	1,000
Communication Equipment
High frequency (HF) radios	Set	2	1,000	2,000
VHF radios	Set	2	600	1,200
Hand sets (office coordination)	Set	3	500	1,500
Vehicles
4W pick-up for high forest area	Unit	1	24,000	24,000
Motorbikes for field monitors	Unit	2	3,000	6,000
Other Equipment
Portable generator for field office at Sinje	Unit	1	1,000	1,000
Total Capital Equipment				42,950
 Description	Type of	No of	Unit Cost	Budget
	Unit	Units	US$	US$




PERSONNEL, ADMINISTRATION, OPERATIONS & SUPPORT
Staff Salaries and Support
Project staff salaries	Month	12	1,583	19,000
Project staff insurance	Month	12	270	3,240
Staff Travel
Local and regional travel	Lumpsum			2,000
Office Operations
Office rental	Month	12	260	3,120
Office utilities	Month	12	200	2,400
Stationery and supplies	Month	12	150	1,800
Communications
Telephone and fax	Month	12	150	1,800
Electronic mail	Month	12	100	1,200
Vehicle Operation
Fuel (gasoline and diesel)	Month	12	267	3,200
Maintenance (labor and parts)	Month	12	125	1,500
Insurance 	Vehicle	2	600	1,200
Total Personnel, Administration, Operations and Support			40,460

AUDIT AND EVALUATION
Audit of ACT appeal funds	Lumpsum			2,400
Program evaluation	Lumpsum			2,400
Total Audit and Evaluation				4,800

TOTAL ESTIMATED EXPENDITURE				184,210
Less Income				10,000
Balance Requested from ACT Network					174,210



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Action by Churches Together (ACT) is a worldwide alliance of churches and
their related agencies, meeting human need through co-ordinated emergency
response.  The ACT Coordinating Office is based with the World Council of
Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Switzerland.
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   Ecumenical Centre                          Phone: ++41-22-791.60.33
   150, route de Ferney                         Fax: ++41-22-791.65.06
   P.O. Box 2100                             E-Mail: act@wcc-coe.org
   1211 Geneva 2                              Telex: 415 730 OIK CH
   Switzerland                                 http://www.act-intl.org


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