MCC relief through CASA continues

Mennonite Central Committee
Tuesday, 13 February 2001

AKRON, Pa. -- "Flourishing towns and villages have been reduced to rubble," said J.K. Michael, director of the Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), after a tour of six villages in Gujarat State. The villages in western India were hit by a devastating earthquake Jan. 26.

MCC has provided $500,000 Cdn./ $330,000 U.S. to rural families affected by the earthquake. Through Canadian farmers' donations to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, most will go toward reconstruction efforts administered by CASA, the relief and development organization of the Indian Council of Churches.

CASA workers are helping supply some 35,000 families with food, drinking water, relief kits and tarpaulins. They are targeting at least 70 villages.

"Already a three-year drought in the region decimated [residents'] food and cash reserves," said Michael. CASA workers reported the quake also destroyed factories and other sources of employment, adding to people's desperation. The quake left an estimated one million in Gujarat homeless.

Through food-for-work programs, residents will receive locally-purchased grains for their help with reconstruction over a six- to nine-month period. CASA will use at least $450,000 Cdn./$300,000 U.S. of MCC's contribution for these programs.

"We are pleased to report that the international community reacted in a most heartening way," said Michael. "We seek your prayerful support."

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org