wfn.org | Church World Service aid to Haiti, Dominican Republic

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

CONTACTS:

Ann Walle/CWS/New York
Phone: (212) 870-2654
e-mail: awalle@churchworldservice.org

Jan Dragin/New York/Boston
Phone: (781) 925-1526
e-mail: jdragin@gis.net

MEDIA ADVISORY

CHURCH WORLD SERVICE IN HAITI, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC,
COORDINATING EMERGENCY FOOD AID

Global NGO Will Issue Emergency Appeal for Countries9 Flood Victims

     NEW YORK, NY- Sat 5/29/04- Responding to devastating flooding and rising
death tolls in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, global humanitarian agency
Church World Service announced today that it is immediately responding to
flood victims in the two countries by reallocating food shipments originally
designated for response to Haiti's recent social and political unrest.

Church World Service (CWS) Disaster Liaison Don Tatlock, who has been in
Haiti since May 15 assisting local partners there with the ongoing
humanitarian crisis, is coordinating emergency reallocation of one food
shipment for flood survivors in Haiti and a portion of another food shipment
for emergency response in the Dominican Republic.

CWS9 Martin Coria is also in the Dominican Republic this week conferring
with long-time CWS partner Social Service of Dominican Churches (SSID) about
other needs and possible responses.

New York-based Church World Service will shortly issue an appeal for
immediate needs and long-term recovery efforts based on further assessments
by local partners in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Some 950 deaths have been confirmed in both countries, the Associated Press
(AP) reported today. But as many as 1,000 may have died in the Haitian town
of Mapou in southeast Haiti, about 30 miles southeast of the capital of
Port-au-Prince.

The worst flooding occurred in border areas in eastern Haiti and in the
western section of the Dominican Republic.

Officials are saying deaths may easily exceed 2,000 in both countries, one
of the worst natural disasters in Caribbean history.

Lorenzo Mota King, head of SSID, reported earlier this week that the Soleil
River, on the Haitian side of the island Hispanola, grew rapidly due to
rains and that the river, known as Rio Blanco in the Dominican Republic, had
been essentially dry for more than 100 years - which is why the storm and
resulting flooding stunned residents in affected areas.

CWS partners in Haiti - Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Service Chritien
d'Haiti (SCH)- urgently requested reallocation of the food supplies as an
initial response to the crisis.

SSID is coordinating distribution of the CWS food aid in the Dominican
Republic and sending clothing, medicines and potable water to affected
areas.

Today SSID is conducting  an assessment in affected areas in the Dominican
Republic and is meeting with members of the Commission of Haitian-Dominican
Dialogue, who are conducting their own assessment on both sides of the
border.

A total of at least 11,200 families are displaced by the flood in both
nations and thousands of dwellings destroyed in villages so remote and poor
that aid workers say no one knows exactly how many people lived there before
the flooding.

Deforestation of Haiti9s hillsides is being blamed in part for devastating
mudslides in that country.

The CWS partners in Haiti are also seeking support from the Action by
Churches Together (ACT) International network from the ACT Rapid Response
Fund to support immediate needs.  CWS is a member of ACT.

***EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE FOR HAITI RESPONSE LISTINGS:

Contributions to support the Church World Service emergency appeal may be
sent to your denomination or to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart,
IN, 46515. Please designate: #6743 - Haiti/Dominican Republic Floods.

For further information about disasters to which Church World Service is
responding -- or to make a credit card contribution -- please visit the
Church World Service Website at www.churchworldservice.org or phone (800)
297-1516.

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