THE CHURCH WORLD SERVICE: EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM
REVISED EMERGENCY APPEAL:
SIERRA LEONE RELIEF AND REHABILITATION
#6445 for $100,000
July 24, 2002


SITUATION:  At least 25,000 Liberians have crossed into neighboring Sierra
Leone since January, seeking to escape increased military conflict between
the rebel group known as Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy
(LURD) and Liberian government forces.  LURD is seeking to oust Liberian
President Charles Taylor, a former warlord who was elected in 1997.  On
June 20, a rebel attack on the Sinje refugee camp forced more than 8,500
people to flee from the camp in Liberia into neighboring Sierra Leone,
according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  UNHCR has
reported as many as 500 documented border crossings an hour into Sierra
Leone, a country recovering from its own 10-year civil war that has
already displaced hundreds of thousands of people.  The UNHCR also reports
some 11,000 Sierra Leonean refugees were still in Liberia.

Reflecting the cyclical nature of this conflict, thousands of Sierra
Leoneans have been displaced several times in the course of the 10-year
war and many fear that the recent border crossings may, as in the past,
lead to another war.  Other reports indicate many Liberian refugees and
Sierra Leonean returnees are ill and require medical attention, as well as
a need for HIV/AIDS awareness in the camps.  Children are particularly
vulnerable in this situation and make up a large number of the displaced
population.


RESPONSE:  CWS is processing a shipment valued at $107,348 of blankets,
"Gift of the Heart" baby kits and health kits, as well as other donated
items by CWS partner Lutheran World Relief, to the Council of Churches of
Sierra Leone for distribution to refugee camps in and around Freetown.

CWS is re-issuing this appeal #6445 for $100,000 to strongly encourage
needed support for the efforts of CWS partners, the Council of Churches of
Sierra Leone (CCSL) and the United Brethren in Christ (UBC) to care for
this new influx of refugees, as well as for continued program support for
the original appeal.  This appeal, originally issued in March, is
significantly under funded.

Details of the response outlined in the original appeal, including full
budget figures, are available at the Action by Churches Together (ACT)
International website: www.act-intl.org


CHURCH WORLD SERVICE, Sierra Leone Relief & Rehabilitation, #6445, P.O.
Box 968, Elkhart, IN, 46515. Phone pledges or credit card donations:
1-800-297-1516.

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


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