Relief grant round-up

20/08/2009

 

BMS World Mission has made several relief grants over the last month to Uganda, Thailand and Asia Pacific.

 

Uganda

 

BMS has given a relief grant of £5,500 to help distribute emergency food supplies to families in Amuria. This district in north-eastern Uganda was heavily impacted by the war with the Lord's Resistance Army and many people were displaced from their homes into camps. Following the ceasefire, the government of Uganda initiated a resettlement programme to encourage people to return to their villages but, once resettled, severe flooding and a prolonged drought have completely destroyed crops. This grant helped 500 families, with the purchase and distribution of seven tonnes of maize and 2.2 tonnes of beans.

Thailand

 

With a small grant of £440, BMS has helped provide rice, sardines and chillies to feed around 50 families for a month in the Noh Bo refugee camp on the Burmese border. These 50 families arrived after the initial registration process and thereby missed out on the food authorised by the Thai government via the usual provider - the Thai Burma Border Consortium.

Asia Pacific

 

Following the tsunami of 2004, Asian and Pacific Baptist churches have run a series of disaster risk management workshops to help churches and para-church organisations who were plunged into relief and development work, many for the first time. This grant of £6,100 has helped the running of these workshops, four of which have already been held and two more are planned for this year, each one attended by 30 or so delegates.