| LOUISVILLE —
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
(PDA), responding to last month’s devastating earthquake
in Iran, has distributed $100,000 in humanitarian assistance.
PDA also has issued a churchwide appeal for money in support
of its continuing relief efforts.
The money is part of $150,000 earmarked for the quake-torn region.
A tremor that measured 6.6 on the Richter scale of ground motion
struck the ancient city of Bam on Dec. 26, leveling most of the
town, killing an estimated 30,000 people and destroying a historic
2,000 year-old fortress near the city in southeastern Iran.
PDA is sending $50,000 to the Middle
East Council of Churches (MECC), and $50,000 to Norwegian
Church Aid (NCA). Most of the money will be used to buy food,
tents and other shelter and relief supplies, said Susan Ryan,
the PDA coordinator.
PDA and both those groups are partners in Action
by Churches Together (ACT), an alliance of churches and relief
agencies whose headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland. Ryan said
PDA is working closely with its partners in the area as they continue
assessing the needs of the people in the affected area, where
80 percent of the mud-brick and straw buildings are believed to
have been destroyed.
Thousands of Iranians have been sleeping outdoors or in tents
because of aftershocks that raised fear of further disasters.
Temperatures have dropped to near freezing most nights since the
earthquake.
PDA coordinates the Presbyterian
Church (USA)’s disaster-response operations in the United
States and around the world.
“There has been extensive sharing of information and trip
reports among all of the ACT alliance members, allowing us to
be effective and strategic in our response,” Ryan said.
“PDA has been asked to take the lead in doing the psychosocial
assessment. This will be done jointly with Norwegian Church Aid
and the Middle East Council of Churches.”
Ryan said money going to the MECC will be channeled through Church
World Service (CWS). Some will be used to pay for an earlier
CWS shipment of medical supplies.
CWS is the relief, development, and refugee-assistance ministry
of 36 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations in the
United States.
Of the PDA money, $50,000 will come from the One Great Hour of
Sharing offering and $100,000 from designated funds in PDA’s
general relief account, Ryan said. The MECC was originally to
receive $10,000, she said, but the amount was increased on the
basis of revised needs assessments.
On Jan. 6, MECC delivered 15,120 cans of jam and other canned
food to the area, according to its Web site. It also sent 13,664
cans of cooking oil and 3,812 tins of canned fish, and expects
to have 500 tents ready for delivery on Jan. 10.
Norwegian Church Aid recently dispatched a shipment of stoves
and 400 large tents from Jordan to the Bam area.
Iranian-born Mehdi Abhari, Presbyterian liaison to church partners
in Iran, is expected to leave for the region on Jan. 15 to join
the international relief effort.
Presbyterian Ann Huntwork, a retired missionary who served in
Iran, may visit the affected region to assess survivors’
psychosocial needs. PDA is trying to secure a visa for Huntwork,
72.
Ryan said Huntwork, whose background is in social work, would
work in partnership with the MECC. She and her husband, Bruce,
worked as missionaries in Iran for 10 years between 1957 and 1972.
“I’m really grateful for that opportunity,”
said Huntwork, a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church in
Portland, OR. “Anything that I could ever do to make life
easier for people in Iran, I would do. I love the country very
much.”
Financial contributions for Iranian earthquake relief can be
made through congregations or mailed to the Presbyterian Center,
Central Receiving Service, Section 300, Louisville, KY 40289.
Specify designated account number #9-2000077. To make a gift with
a credit card, call PresbyTel toll-free at (800) 872-3283, or
visit PDA’s
secure Web site.
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