Update on Humanitarian Relief

LEBANON

	Besieged by the ongoing Israeli bombardment, residents of Beirut and other parts of Lebanon are taking refuge in their hundreds in public gardens and parks where tents have been put up to offer people shelter.
	The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), a member of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, reports that it has been assisting some 260 displaced families in the Mount Lebanon and Beirut areas through its Inter-church Network for Development and Relief in Lebanon (ICNDR) and with the support from local partner organizations. However, MECC expressed concern about its ability to offer assistance to people in the south, due to the ongoing shelling of the area, air raids and the completion destruction of roads.
	Some 100,000 people have sought refuge in churches, in monasteries, as well as in church-owned property, such as schools, and Mr. Saleh writes that the Patriarchate of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch has opened its monasteries of St. Mary of Saydnaya, St. Takla in Maalula and St. Paul in Tal-Kokab in Syria to offer shelter to people from Lebanon who are fleeing the conflict.
	In Beirut , ICNDR staff are working with the municipality to secure water to one of the referral centres, a public garden, with no facilities to access water, where hundred families have south shelter.
	In a letter sent July 20 to members of the world Council of Churches (WCC), a founding member of ACT, WCC General Secretary Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia wrote, “The killing of civilians, the destruction of housing and infrastructure and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese and other nationals is an affront to humanity.” Kobia urged WCC members to generously support the ACT appeal for humanitarian needs in Lebanon as well as to engage in advocacy with their governments to pressure the fighting parties to implement an immediate cease-fire.

INDONESIA

	Pidie, Aceh , Indonesia , July 25, 2006 --- A year and a half after a massive tsunami hit Indonesia ’s coast, residents of a small village in the country’s Aceh province, which received the brunt of the devastation, have come home.
	Before his speech, Nurdin, along with his tow neighbors, Bukhari and Wahyudi, signed and received a letter from CWS program coordinator Michael Koeniger as a symbol of CWS-ACT’s handover of the houses to villagers.

“Before ACT built our houses, we regularly received aid, especially food, blankets and medicine, from CWS-ACT after the disaster. Our wooden houses were destroyed by the tsunami, but now, they are rebuilt and we can live in them. Thanks again, CWS-ACT. You know we are Muslim, but you helped us very sincerely,” said Nurdin.

“The difference of religion does not make human beings separate from each other and unwilling to help each other. We are very proud that ACT helps us truly. Its work is evidence that humanity does not always see the difference,” said Ismail, a leader in the village, at the ceremony.

JERUSALEM

Jerusalem Holy Land Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan says the only way to stop all the military operations in the region and to ensure that no more human life is taken, is to negotiate around the unsolved and urgent core issue --- the Israel-Palestinian conflict. “It is time to negotiate around the unsolved and urgent core issue,” said Bishop Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land in a pastoral letter.