Episcopal Press and News
PB's Fund Responds to Devastation from Turkish Earthquake and Other Disasters
Episcopal News Service. March 20, 1992 [92070]
The Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief has provided $10,000 in emergency grants for survivors of the recent earthquake in Turkey, according to officials of the fund. The devastating earthquake, which struck eastern Turkey on March 13, measured 6.2 on the Richter scale and was the most serious in the region since 1939. An estimated 1,000 people have died, and thousands more were injured, according to reports from the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC).
"Around 200,000 people are affected by this earthquake one way or another," said MECC General Secretary Gabriel Habib in a letter to the PB's Fund. "Damages to the property is high. Buildings of four or five stories were reduced to layers of concrete."
Habib reported that the MECC has already arranged to buy blankets in Beirut and transport them by sea for distribution to quake victims. Nan Marvel, grants administrator of the PB's Fund, said that the grant would help to purchase tents, cots, and food in support of the work of the MECC and the International Red Cross.
Marvel reported that the fund has provided additional emergency grants to victims of domestic and international disasters, including
- $5,000 to the Church in the Province of Tanzania for emergency food assistance in drought-stricken areas;
- $5,000 to the Diocese of Kirinyaga in the Church of the Province of Kenya for famine relief, restocking of cattle lost during the drought, and replacement of seed;
- $5,000 to the Diocese of Vermont for victims of flood;
- $5,000 to the Diocese of Mississippi for victims of flood and tornadoes; and
- $5,000 to aid victims of the recent flood in Southern California.