List of recognized aid groups includes UM agency

United Methodist News Service
NEW YORK—The United Methodist Committee on Relief is among the humanitarian agencies recognized by the U.S. government as providing assistance to tsunami-ravaged countries.
The United Methodist agency has had a “long-standing cooperative relationship” with the United States Agency for International Development, said Jim Cox, executive director of the committee’s nongovernmental organization.
“USAID and UMCOR have jointly funded programs in both emergency and development programs worldwide,” Cox said. “We work together on programs from the Congo to Afghanistan. We will be in coordination with USAID as we look at UMCOR’s response to the tsunami.”
The federal agency has a list of “Relief Organizations Working in the Disaster Area” for Tsunami/earthquake relief at www.usaid.gov. Others include Church World Service, relief arm of the National Council of Churches, and Stop Hunger Now.
President Bush announced Jan. 3 that two former presidents—his father, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton—would lead an effort to raise funds from U.S. businesses, individuals and foundations for tsunami relief. The USAID list provides options for those donors.
That private money is to provide additional support to the $350 million already pledged in U.S. government funds.
About 150,000 people were killed and millions were left without basic services after the Dec. 26 tsunami affected 12 countries, mostly in South Asia.
As of Jan. 1, the United Nations reported more than $2 billion in pledges for aid from some 40 countries. That amount is more than all pledges to all humanitarian appeals in 2004 combined, said Jan Egeland, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator.