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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
January 2006 |
Regional refugee programs help hurricane evacuees
By Carol Fouke
Resettlement agencies train participating congregations on ways they can provide moral and material support. |
NEW YORK (UMNS) - Partnerships between local congregations and refugee resettlement agencies are key to the support Church World Service is providing in 10 states to people displaced by the Gulf hurricanes.
CWS, the humanitarian agency, is working with its Miami Office and eight of its local resettlement affiliates in communities across the United States to provide comprehensive, individualized services to Gulf Coast residents who have relocated.
National church bodies that support the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program stepped forward with special funding for the hurricane evacuees, and additional money is being raised as part of public appeals for funds to support a broad CWS program of assistance to hurricane survivors.
Participating denominations include: The United Methodist Church, as well as the American Baptist Churches in the USA, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Reformed Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ.
Resettlement agencies train participating congregations on ways they can provide moral and material support in order to assist these uprooted people as they recover their dignity and regain self-sufficiency in their new communities, whether their stay is short or long.
Giving priority to people most in need, the Church World Service program is helping hurricane evacuees sort out the myriad disaster relief programs; find jobs, health care, and affordable housing and furnishings; get their children enrolled in school; and get oriented to and integrated into their new communities.
"This privately funded program takes the professional case management and congregational co-sponsorship model that CWS uses to help refugees - people fleeing persecution in their home countries for safety in the United States - and applying it to help meet the particular needs of Americans displaced by the Gulf hurricanes," explained Erol Kekic, associate director of the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program.
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008