11/17/2014

ELCA Receives Over $2.5 million for Typhoon Haiyan Relief Efforts

From the ELCA News Blog

Since Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines a year ago, impacting about 13 million people, members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and others have contributed more than $2.5 million for the ELCA’s humanitarian assistance for the storm's survivors. The funds are disbursed through Lutheran Disaster Response to support ongoing recovery efforts carried out by Lutheran World Relief and the National Council of Churches of the Philippines.

“It has been a year since typhoon Haiyan struck and there have been many natural disasters around the world in the intervening months, but God hasn't forgotten the people of the Philippines and neither has the ELCA,” said the Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, ELCA presiding bishop. “We continue to support relief work and will stay until the job is done.”

In observance of the first anniversary of the storm, Carl Stecker, ELCA director for diakonia, said “we pray for those who remember and mourn their losses. We remember those still struggling to recover homes and livelihoods; and in solidarity, the ELCA continues to provide funds for the ongoing recovery and rehabilitation efforts of Lutheran World Relief and the National Council of Churches of the Philippines.”

Stecker traveled to the Philippines in June with the Rev. Stephen S. Talmage, bishop of the ELCA Grand Canyon Synod, and colleagues from Lutheran World Relief to observe relief and recovery activities. The most recent disbursement of funds was in September, when the ELCA provided $400,000 to assist in relief efforts of the National Council of Churches of the Philippines. 

Since the days immediately following the disaster, funds from the ELCA have helped provide food, shelter repair kits, safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene materials, mosquito nets, kitchen sets and school kits. The assistance also helped in the implementation of cash-for-work activities that included debris removal and clean-up.

“Typhoon Haiyan, which is locally called Typhoon Yolanda, will be a day that no one in the Philippines will forget,” said Stecker. “They will remember where they were, what they were doing and who they were with when the typhoon struck – much like people of my generation do when they recall the death of President John F. Kennedy. Those in the areas most violently impacted will remember with tears the loved ones they have lost, and homes and livelihoods destroyed. Many in less affected areas will remember early Christmas parties cancelled and replaced by packing parties – packing food, water and other necessities to be sent to the affected areas. It was a time of national solidarity between those who escaped this typhoon and those who lost everything.” 

Information about Lutheran Disaster Response is available at http://www.elca.org/Our-Work/Relief-and-Development/Lutheran-Disaster-Response/Our-Impact/Pacific-Typhoon.