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Taken from The Herald July/Aug 2008
RCWS Responding to Needs in Asia
With announced death tolls expected to surpass 100,000, the United Nations estimates that the May 3 cyclone in Myanmar?s Irrawaddy delta region has impacted more than 2 million people.
Reformed Church World Service (RCWS) and Church World Service (CWS) have worked with partners in the Southeast Asia country to provide aid to survivors and serve specific community needs. A shortage of clean drinking water continues to raise concerns as younger and older citizens die of cholera and dysentery. Field conditions also prompt concerns about food shortages in coming years.
RCWS has been working with an RCA mission partner, the Reformed Evangelical Church of Myanmar (RECM). According to the Rev. David Salthangvunga, RECM ecumenical officer in the United States during the storm, a newly constructed church in Yangon had evidence of only minor damage. The building served as a shelter for area survivors. He remained concerned for the potentially great needs of four other village church plants.
In China, RCWS is working with the Amity Foundation and CWS to provide aid and support to those affected by the May 12 earthquake and its aftershocks in China?s Sichuan Province. The Amity Foundation, an independent Chinese organization and RCA partner, provided a grant of $143,000 toward relief efforts.
More information about RCWS relief efforts in Myanmar and China is available online (www.rcws.rca.org). Contributions can be made online, by telephone (800-968-3943), or by check (designated ?Myanmar Cyclone? or ?China Earthquake,? payable to Reformed Church in America, P.O. Box 19381, Newark, New Jersey 07195-1938 or Regional Synod of Canada, 1985 Beke Road, R.R. #4, Cambridge, Ontario N1R 5S5).
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