Emergency Response

September 16, 2008

In response to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti, Cuba, and other Caribbean countries provoked by a series of hurricanes, The United Church of Canada is appealing for donations to its Emergency Response Fund. The church has already committed $50,000 to relief efforts by partners in the region. Download a bulletin insert [PDF: 1 p/38 KB] describing the appeal.

Members of the Fraternity of Baptist Churches in Cuba visit a "house-church" destroyed by Hurricane Gustav.

Hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and most recently Ike have left as many as one million Haitians homeless and more than 500 dead. Serious flooding was reported in many areas, and the country's agricultural capacity is again weakened.

In Cuba, because of strong civil defence capacity, only seven people were killed. But houses and other buildings, together with the agricultural sector, were seriously damaged. Cuban news agencies report that the path of destruction stretches for more than a thousand kilometres across the island. At least 30,000 families have lost their homes; another 320,000 homes have suffered serious damage. Agriculture has been severely affected. Preliminary reports indicate "colossal losses" in the production of bananas, corn (maize), sugar cane, coffee, yucca, guava, avocados, and poultry.

In addition, serious damage was reported in Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, and along the Gulf Coast of the United States.

The United Nations has appealed for more than US$100 million in aid for up to 800,000 evacuated people in Haiti. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs is calling for donors to pledge almost $108 million to support relief efforts over the next six months. Nearly one-third of the aid is for food, and the rest for shelter, agriculture, health, water and sanitation, education, and other requirements.

In response, Canada has pledged $5.6 million in humanitarian aid to Haiti since the storms hit, and deployed a reconnaissance team to the region to determine whether to send the military's Disaster Assistance Response Team, known as DART.

ACT (Action by Churches Together) has issued a preliminary appeal for US$1,160,426 for relief work in Haiti. ACT members Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe (DKH), and Christian Aid (CA) have been responding to the needs and are working together on a joint response.

The United Church of Canada has partners in all of the affected territories, and has pledged to work with them and ecumenical partners through ACT in relief and reconstruction efforts.

United Church Partners Affected

Several partners are affected and are responding to the humanitarian crises provoked by the hurricanes:

• Caribbean and North American Council on Mission
• Caribbean Conference of Churches
• Cuban Council of Churches
• Karl Lévêque Cultural Institute, Haiti
• Methodist Church of the Caribbean and the Americas (including the Haiti District)
• Presbyterian Reformed Church of Cuba
• United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands

How United Church Members Can Help

Pray

From the General Council Office, our thoughts and prayers go out to our sisters and brothers who have been affected during the 2008 hurricane season. United Church members across Canada are urged also to pray for the people who live in affected communities.

Give

The United Church of Canada has committed $50,000 from the Emergency Response Fund as an initial contribution to the relief work in the regions. Please consider making a donation through the Emergency Response Fund to "Caribbean Hurricane Relief."

As always with United Church emergency appeals, 100 percent of all donations received will be committed to support relief and reconstruction work for people in need. There is no administration fee deducted. This is made possible thanks to the generous ongoing support of United Church members to the church’s Mission and Service (M&S) Fund. Contributions to M&S allow the United Church to absorb the staffing and operating costs of processing donations for emergency appeals.

In the case of designated gifts for emergency appeals such as the Caribbean Hurricane Relief, the church does allocate 15 percent of your donation to replenish the Emergency Response Fund. These monies are used exclusively to enable the United Church to immediately respond to current and future emergency needs of people in crisis around the world.

Cheques and online donations should be made payable to The United Church of Canada and marked “Emergency Response: Caribbean Hurricane Relief." The funds will be treated as "designated gifts." Please note: Designated gifts cannot be counted as M&S Fund credits. However, they are eligible for tax receipts. Congregational treasurers may receive and receipt individual cheques and then forward one congregational cheque to the United Church.

Please continue to support the Mission and Service Fund. The ongoing work of partners in the region is supported by M&S and makes possible the United Church's long history of connection with the people of Haiti and Cuba.

For further information, please contact:

• Jim Hodgson
  Caribbean/Central America Regional Program Coordinator
  Justice, Global and Ecumenical Relations Unit (JGER)
  Tel: 416-231-5931 ext. 4013
  Toll-free: 1-800-268-3781 ext. 4013
  E-mail: Jim Hodgson