RSSEpiscopal Relief & Development Commemorates World Refugee Day
6/20/2008
Today, Episcopal Relief & Development commemorates World Refugee Day. “Protection,” the theme for 2008, is reminder that protecting refugees is a duty and being protected is a human right.
Each year over 12 million people are driven from their homes, sometimes carrying with them as little as the clothes on their back. The reasons for these numerous enforced departures include conflict, natural disasters and a need to escape the paralyzing conditions of poverty.
Episcopal Relief & Development works to alleviate suffering among refugees and internally displaced people around the world. After disasters, Episcopal Relief & Development provides food, clean water, shelter and other necessities to families who are displaced from their homes. Our long-term integrated development programs enable displaced people to rebuild their lives.
Episcopal Relief & Development’s programs to alleviate hunger and promote health and fight disease bring aid to people living in refugee camps. For example, we are partnering with the Organization for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation (OfERR) to provide services to Tamil refugees who have fled the civil war in Sri Lanka and are taking shelter in India.
OfERR supports 77,000 refugee families in 117 refugee camps to ensure they are able to live sustainable lives and are prepared with skills that will assist them when they are eventually resettled to Sri Lanka. These activities include providing basic necessities such as food, shelter, water and sanitation facilities, as well as educational support to school-age children in the form of tuition services, school supplies and study rooms and facilitating vocational training programs and self-help groups, and advocating for peace on behalf of refugees.
“Sadly, conflicts around the world leave millions homeless within their own countries or as refugees in other countries,” says Kirsten Laursen Muth, Senior Program Officer for Asia and New Initiatives at Episcopal Relief & Development. “Our faith calls us to welcome and care for the stranger, and to stand with our brothers and sisters who have lost everything by supporting their dignity as they live in uncertain conditions. Episcopal Relief & Development is also supporting Sri Lankans who are displaced within their country as well as the refugees in Southern India,” added Muth.
To help alleviate suffering among refugees and internally displaced people, please make a contribution to Episcopal Relief & Development, online at www.er-d.org , or call 1.800.334.7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to: Episcopal Relief & Development, P.O. Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058.
Episcopal Relief & Development is the international relief and development agency of the Episcopal Church of the United States. As an independent 501(c) (3) organization, Episcopal Relief & Development takes its mandate from Jesus’ words found in Matthew 25. Its programs work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Together with the worldwide Church and ecumenical partners, Episcopal Relief & Development strengthens communities today to meet tomorrow’s challenges. We rebuild after disasters and empower people by offering lasting solutions that fight poverty, hunger and disease, including HIV/AIDS and malaria.
