UMs commit to long-term recovery work

Church relief agency
keeps helping people
years after disasters hit

United Methodist News Service
NEW YORK—How well do relief operations follow through with rehabilitation after “mega-disasters” such as the earthquake and tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean Dec. 26?
The New York Times posed that question in a front-page story Jan. 11. The article reported on recovery efforts after the 1998 hurricane Mitch in Honduras, the 2000 floods in Mozambique and the 2003 earthquake in Iran.
The story described unfinished housing dotting the Honduran landscape and uncompleted projects in Bam, Iran.
“We are abandoned,” a resident of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, was quoted as saying.
United Methodists, however, continue helping disaster victims put their lives back into order long after the emergency is over, said the Rev. Kristin Sachen of the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
“In big, complex recoveries from mega-disasters, we plan to be in place for a long time—for years,” she said. “I do not doubt that more rebuilding is needed in Honduras, Mozambique and Iran.
“Though a number of organizations have left those three countries, UMCOR is still at work, just as we will be in the Indian Ocean region long after the media and dignitaries leave.”
United Methodist volunteers are still rebuilding houses in the Honduran towns of Tegucigalpa, Subriana and LaCeibita, said the Rev. Paul Dirdak, chief executive of the United Methodist relief agency.
“We sent 45 teams to Honduras in 2004 and have even more scheduled for 2005,” he said. “In Iran, through grants to our partner, the International Blue Crescent, UMCOR continues to minister to children in Bam.”
The relief committee has built housing units in Cuba with funds donated for Hurricane Mitch recovery. In 2004, 20 families in a small fishing town at the west edge of Havana moved into new apartments, and another 100 received upgraded water service as a result of United Methodist work there—six years after the hurricane hit.
United Methodist donations are still at work in Mozambique, another country mentioned in the Times. Floods in 2000 devastated whole villages.
The United Methodist relief committee helped build houses in the new village of Mangoanine for 70 families that lost both their homes and land. A second project begun later in Bantu involves building 138 flood-resistant brick homes using a brick-making machine purchased by the committee. Landmine removal and school construction are ongoing projects across the country.
“United Methodists are extremely generous in responding to disasters,” Sachen said. “This means we can stay with people as long as it takes to get them back on their feet. It’s the way United Methodists do things—having the patience to stay with the most vulnerable, however long it takes. We don’t quit.”