NEWS FROM
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF

October 4, 2004

For more information contact Mike Maus at (303) 422-4280 .

In this news release:

1. Peru Receives LWR Material Resources
2. LWR Has Voice in Stuttgart, Germany

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PERU RECEIVES LWR MATERIAL RESOURCES

Material resources make their way to children in Peru - A country with bitter cold, high winds, heavy snow, and torrential rain at lower altitudes.

Baltimore, October 4, 2004 — Lutheran World Relief (LWR) has shipped two 40-foot-long containers of relief supplies to Peru in response to a crisis caused by unusually severe winter weather in one-third of Peru’s 24 departments (regions similar to states in the United States).

The containers include nearly 6,000 quilts made by U.S. Lutherans and more than three tons of children’s clothing. The LWR shipment to Peru also includes 3,000 sewing kits, 6,000 health kits, 8,200 school kits, and 4,000 layettes.

Assistance became necessary when extreme storms starting in June hit Peru’s high country with bitter cold, high winds, heavy snow, and torrential rain at lower altitudes. Local residents got sick, their houses and crops were damaged, and many of their livestock died.

The most serious problems appear to have been in the Huancavelica Department, where the lives of nearly 37,000 families were affected.

LWR’s Andean Regional Office is helping to organize the response to the serious winter conditions and will work with Action by Churches Together (ACT) to distribute this shipment of material resources.

LWR’s Andean Regional Office, located in Peru, has been supporting relief and development activities in the country since 1979. Its efforts to increase rural development are based on community participation. They focus on impoverished, remote areas, including those affected by this year’s winter storms.

LWR HAS VOICE IN STUTTGART, GERMANY

Baltimore, October 4, 2004 — Lutheran World Relief (LWR) President Kathryn Wolford told listeners at the 50th anniversary observance of Diakonie Emergency Aid (DEA) in Stuttgart, Germany, last month that churches involved in humanitarian aid must focus beyond particular emergencies with “a spirit of charity and a commitment to just relationships.”

Wolford, who is also Moderator of Action by Churches Together (ACT), a global church consortium, told the German group, “For far too many, emergencies are not an isolated event but rather a feature of life intimately linked to their condition of chronic poverty and marginalization.” (This has been evident most recently in Haiti, one of the world’s poorest countries, where Tropical Storm Jeanne’s rains unleashed floods whose impact was worsened by the effects of deforestation. More than 1,100 people died in Haiti’s floods and mudslides.)

Wherever humanitarian organizations act to help, said Wolford, employing local capacity is the right way to act. She also said that church agencies, including LWR and others, “need to provide a consistent and clear alternative to sectarianism and fundamentalism.”

Wolford also told the DEA Symposium in Stuttgart that being faithful is essential but not enough. Humanitarian organizations, she said, must be “effective,” which means they must translate their values into real-world situations in which the organizations are held accountable.

Finally, said Wolford, “…we have an opportunity and an obligation to not just raise as much money as we can for the crisis of the day, but rather to inform, educate, and equip our constituencies to engage in policy advocacy that supports the ethical principles we espouse and the rights of the people we seek to serve and accompany.”