Title: ELCA Disaster Response Sends $50,000 for Venezuela Relief
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

December 23, 1999

ELCA DISASTER RESPONSE SENDS $50,000 FOR VENEZUELA RELIEF
99-321-JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) will make $50,000 available for flood relief efforts in
Venezuela, the ELCA Division for Global Mission announced Dec. 22.
     The ELCA will send $25,000 to Lutheran World Relief (LWR), an
overseas Lutheran development and relief ministry of the ELCA and 
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and it will send $25,000 to Church World 
Service and Witness (CWS), the development and relief ministry of the 
National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCC).  The ELCA is 
one of 35 member churches of the NCC.
     The ELCA's international disaster response effort is coordinated
through the ELCA Division for Global Mission.
     The Venezuelan government said at least 10,000 have died from
flooding and mudslides, and the death toll is expected to rise
considerably.  The government also says tens of thousands have been
displaced by the disaster. The flooding and mudslides resulted from
unseasonably heavy coastal rains that lasted 10 days in mid-December.
     CWS said it has provided funds for blankets and mattresses for
2,000 people being sheltered in Barquisimeto and Caracas
after they were evacuated from coastal areas devastated by flash floods
and mudslides.
     LWR is helping to provide emergency supplies for three shelters
served by the country's small Lutheran Church, it said in a news
release.  An initial $5,000 grant will help with meals and bedding for
some of the 3,000 homeless families now gathered at a parish in Caracas
and for 112 people who have taken refuge in a church and a hospital in
the disaster zone of La Guaira, LWR said.
     In addition to immediate relief efforts, LWR and CWS both said
they're preparing for long-term relief efforts.

Editors:  When listing organizations receiving funds for aid to
survivors of major disasters outside the United States, Puerto Rico or
the U.S. Virgin Islands, please include:

                   Lutheran World Relief
                       PO Box 17061
                 Baltimore, MD 21298-9832
                      1-800-LWR-LWR2


For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html