Episcopal Press and News
Grants Meet Emergency Needs
Episcopal News Service. July 9, 1981 [81193]
NEW YORK -- Emergency funds were approved in mid-June by the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief to assist earthquake victims in Mexico and victims of civil strife in El Salvador and Lebanon.
A grant of $8,600 has been forwarded to the National Counci1 of Churches' relief agency, Church World Service, to assist in the purchase of a pick-up truck and to buy material to repair houses which were damaged during an earthquake last October. Immediate assistance was provided for victims in the urban sections of the affected area but it is only now that attention is being given to needs in the peasant zones.
The Episcopal Church grant is for 10 percent of Church World Service's emergency appeal for the disaster area. Bishop Jose Saucedo is Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central and South Mexico where the earthquake struck.
The Fund has also forwarded $5,000 to assist the Green Cross of El Salvador in ministering to the thousands of refugees in that country which has been torn by civil civil strife for many months. The grant was made at the request of the Rev. Luis Serrano of St. John the Evangelist Church in Cuilapa, El Salvador.
The funds will assist the Green Cross in providing food and medicines, especially antibiotics. There are at least 56,000 displaced persons in El Salvador fire stations set up by the Green Cross and only the personnel of that organization have been able to minister to the refugees because they are located in "war zones," according to Bishop G. Edward Haynsworth, acting bishop of El Salvador and a member of the staff at the Episcopal Church Center in New York.
Funds will be sought later, according to Haynsworth, to purchase ambulances which are needed in the relief work.
The Primate's Fund of the Anglican Church of Canada has made a grant of $3,000 for the same relief work in El Salvador.
A third emergency grant by the Presiding Bishop's Fund will assist in the rehabilitation program in Lebanon in the wake of tension and conflict. A $7,000 grant, channeled through Church World Service, will help the Middle East Council of Churches take care of current needs and prepare for emergencies that may arise later in that tense area.
The World Council of Churches' relief agency has made an appeal for $250,000 for Lebanon and Church World Service is attempting to provide $50,000 for that concerted effort.