The UMCOR Hotline
March 14, 2006
In Today's Hotline:
US: Midwest Tornado ResponseNiger: Threat of Famine Looms Wanted: Medicine Boxes UMCOR: One Great Hour of Sharing
Approximately 100 tornadoes touched down across the Midwestern section of the US on Sunday night, causing damage across five states. UMCOR is in contact with the affected annual conferences, offering assistance and emergency funding where needed.
UMCOR-trained disaster response coordinators in each annual conference give conference staff an in-house expert when storms like these happen. Following the tornadoes, Tom Hazelwood, director of UMCOR’s domestic disaster response, contacted each coordinator to support them in their efforts, ensure they have what they need to respond to their communities, and to offer assistance that can come in the form of funding and additional personnel if they are needed.
Your gifts to UMCOR Advance #901670, Domestic Disaster Response, allow UMCOR to respond immediately to the needs of people affected by these tornadoes and other disasters.
Officials predict that Niger will fall into a deeper food crisis in the next two to three months according to a recent report from UMCOR partner, ACT International. UMCOR has supported and will continue to support the work of ACT member agencies working in the region, Lutheran World Relief and HEKS, a Swiss aid agency. They not only are providing emergency food supplies but are also helping communities find new ways to sustain themselves during the seasons between harvests when food is scarce. They provide training on managing cereal storage banks and have introduced new agriculture techniques that provide off-season crops which supplement their diets.
By giving to UMCOR Advance #101250, All Africa Famine Relief, you are helping communities eat not only today, but long into the future.
“This Medicine Box will serve many people who would not be able to get medicine otherwise,” said a Medicine Box recipient in Angola. A Medicine Box contains 18 essential drugs and medical supplies-enough to treat illnesses and injuries in a population of 1,000 for three months. Medicine Boxes have proven to be of critical value from urban hospitals to rural and community health centers.
UMCOR’s stock of Medicine Boxes is running low! You can send a lifesaving gift to UMCOR Advance #982630, Medicine Box. The cost of one medicine box is $425.
UMCOR: ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING
Devastating tsunamis, monster hurricanes, life-altering earthquakes . . . your hearts and hands are there in the wake of these disasters and in others through UMCOR. Continue to be there by celebrating One Great Hour of Sharing Sunday on March 26.
OGHS makes all of the other UMCOR programs possible because it funds the cost of doing business for UMCOR. Any gifts that are over and above UMCOR’s administrative costs go to where they are most needed. Often they support under-funded programs. It’s not too late to order your OGHS envelopes, posters, refrigerator magnets and offering boxes. Call 1-888-346-3862 to order and visit UMCOR’s OGHS website for more information and additional worship resources.
