| United Methodists launch long-term 9/11 response
By Linda Bloom, United Methodist News
Service
STAMFORD, Conn. — Using nearly $20 million
raised in donations, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR)
is launching a long-term plan to address the impact of the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks.
Specific proposals—ranging from the creation
of a New York-based program to assist the secondary victims of the
World Trade Center attacks to the establishment of a field office in
Kabul, Afghanistan—were approved by UMCOR directors during the April
15-18 meeting of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, its
parent body.
Bishop Lindsey Davis of the Atlanta Area, UMCOR’s
president, told board directors that $19.8 million had been raised to
date through UMCOR’s “Love in the Midst of Tragedy” Fund. He
said he has been “excited and humbled” by the generosity of United
Methodists in the aftermath of the attacks.
“We are committed to long-term recovery,” he
added. “We have chosen to focus our attention on those who sometimes
fall through the cracks.”
The gaping hole is the “unmet needs of those
who have been economically impacted,” said John Scibilia, director
of the Sept. 11 response for Lutheran Disaster Relief in the New York
area. At least 75,000 jobs have been lost in the New York area since
September. In addition to lower wage earners, those seeking help
include middle-class workers whose unemployment insurance and savings
have been depleted, Scibilia said.
On an international level, UMCOR is continuing
its efforts to assist vulnerable and displaced people in Afghanistan
and Afghan refugees outside the country. The largest financial
commitment, $1.5 million, will be used to start a field office in
Kabul, Afghanistan. That office will oversee the agency’s programs
for returning Afghans to their villages, including housing and social
development projects.
UMCOR directors allotted just over $16 million
from “Love in the Midst of Tragedy” fund, including:
 $5
million for a three-year New York-based program focusing on long-term
recovery for secondary victims of Sept. 11;
$4.4
million to the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference for pastoral care
and counseling, developing “family coping seminars” and work in
coordination with the New Jersey Interfaith Partnership;
$600,000
to “Justice For Our Neighbors,” an UMCOR immigration project that
will allow the program to expand its national network of immigration
clinics over the next three years;
$500,000
to Diakonie Werk, the main Protestant relief agency in Germany, which
is currently cooperating with a Swiss organization and Turkish agency
to provide emergency relief along the Afghan-Iran border and in
Kandahar (the United Methodist Church in Germany was a founding
partner of Diakonie Werk); and
$550,000
to Church World Service for its work with Afghan refugees in Pakistan
and internally displaced people in Afghanistan.
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