22/01/2009
BMS World Mission has made several relief grants over the last month, to Palestine, Peru, Sri Lanka and Uganda.
Palestine
BMS partners, Bethlehem Bible College, received £6,700 to assist in relief work with those hurt and made homeless by recent Israeli incursions into Gaza. The money was used in early January to pay for essential relief items such as medical equipment, food, blankets, clothes and temporary shelters and will also go towards the costs of transporting the supplies to Rafah in the south of Gaza and distributing them.
Peru
The Peru Baptist Convention and BMS worker Margaret Swires are working together with a Christian disaster response group that exists to provide support in responses to disasters as well as provide essential training in disaster preparedness and mitigation. This organisation would pray a crucial role in future disaster relief work and BMS is helping to fund a base of operations and training seminars as well as practical necessities like protective clothing and radio equipment. The BMS contribution will be £5,100.
Sri Lanka
BMS has given £10,000 to assist in flood relief in Sri Lanka. Following the worst flooding in half a century in the Jaffna Peninsula, caused by unusually heavy monsoon rains and Cyclone Nisha, 20,000 homes were either destroyed or damaged.
With waterborne diseases on the increase, BMS partners in Sri Lanka have established four mobile medical camps and have provided food, mosquito nets and water purification facilities. Fifteen villages have benefited from the intervention, which was partially funded by a BMS relief grant.
Uganda
Conflict in northern Uganda has displaced 1.6 million people from their homes and, though the fighting has largely stopped and people have started to leave aid camps, many challenges still face them. In Amuru district, BMS partners are helping 500 households to return to their homes in villages that, in some cases, have been ravaged or destroyed by the conflict. Farming tools, seeds, food, clothing and mosquito nets are among the supplies that will be provided and transported to where they are needed most, in a holistic programme that will also assist local churches and pastors.
If you would like to support BMS relief work, click here.