Southern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ

Quick News From Jane
Jane Fisler Hoffman, Interim Conference Minister

Dear Friends,

I know you continue in prayer for our sisters and brothers Myanmar and now in China. Thank you. You may offer financial support through your church to be sent to the Southern California Nevada Conference which will send them promptly to our national offices . Please mark your contributions "International Emergency" and your gift will be given by the United Church of Christ through Church World Service and our global partners. Note that contributions marked in this way make possible immediate response to future disasters (as below) as well as assisting in the current crises. Following are two brief updates.

Blessings,

Jane

CHINA: CWS RESPONSE (our UCC partner agency)

CWS supports the work of Amity Foundation in this disaster. Amity staff members are assessing the damage from Chengdu and other affected areas. Amity has already provided 1 million Yuan (approximately US$143,000) for the purchase and provision of drinking water and food for heavily-damaged Du Jiangyan. Working with local partners in each province, relief operations are expected to expand to include the areas of Gansu and Sha'anxi, especially Sichuan are being targeted as they are the most severely affected areas, which induced large losses. Amity will focus its relief on approximately 8,000 families whose homes are destroyed and are among the most-vulnerable communities.

In this crisis phase, Amity expects to ensure:

16,000 of the most vulnerable individuals have sufficient food (15 kilos of rice/person) for the immediate emergency period of food shortage.
8,000 poor families have sufficient added protection through the provision of a quilt.
8,000 homeless families have sufficient added protection to survive the bad weather conditions (weather forecast shows that heavy rains is expected in following two days in quake center areas) through the provision of a sheet of plastic cloth.

MYANMAR: a word from our UCC Team Leader, Susan Sanders, for Wider Church Ministries Global Sharing of Resources in reply to questions about funds reaching folk in Myanmar:

Thanks so much for your concern for the people of Myanmar. Yes, getting relief aid and personnel into Myanmar is a challenge. However, one of the gifts of being part of the wider church, and committed to ecumenicity, is that we are able to work with and through partners around the world when disasters strike. The UCC - as a member of Church World Service and Action by Churches Together, International and the World Council of Churches - is working with our partners to assess the situation and make plans for what we can do together to support the Myanmar Council of Churches and other local organizations in providing early relief and long-term rehabilitation.

~ Marvin Parvez, Church World Service Director for Pakistan/Afghanistan, arrived in Myanmar, May 7, to coordinate our common effort. CWS P/A program and communication staff will join him as soon as their visas are approved. Our partners in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Thailand have experienced disaster response staff ready to deploy in the week(s) to come. The Myanmar government is open to providing visas for persons from the region - so this is why we are looking to Asian partners to be the "on the ground" folks helping to support the Myanmar Council of Churches and other local organizations.

~ Church World Service has a license from the U.S. Treasury which permits the transfer of funds and relief items to Myanmar. CWS is sending in relief material which was pre-positioned in the CWS Bangkok warehouse with support from UCC One Great Hour of Sharing funds.

~ Our partner, The Christian Conference of Asia is also able to transmit funds to Myanmar.

Myanmar has experienced an overwhelming and devastating disaster. The United Nations, supported by gifts from the U.S. Government, which come from our tax dollars, is helping to provide immediate relief. The church, supported by gifts from members, is committed to both early relief and long-term rehabilitation. It is often said that when the TV cameras, Red Cross and the UN leave a disaster situation - the church stays. In order to make this come true for the people of Myanmar, we seek generous gifts from our UCC members and friends in support of the UCC's Myanmar Cyclone Fund. http://www.ucc.org/disaster/