CEDAR aided 14,640 families affected by the flood in Maharashtra, India

(Jagganath, flood survivor in Maharashtra, received our emergency aid)

 

Since this July, India has been impacted by monsoon. This disaster was the most severe flood in recent 25 years. By the end of October, over 2,100 people died, 2.6 million people were inflicted and more than 400,000 houses were destroyed. [1] And Maharashtra, the major cane production area in India, was most severely impacted, where 22 districts were devastated, 430 people died, and over 700,000 residents were forced to seek shelter. [2]

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“Death Sentence” to the Climate-affected Poor – Resisting Disaster in India

 

Editor’s note: When we were children, we learned about “climate change” in our textbooks; but this expression is no longer an accurate description of the threat presented to the world nowadays. The term “climate change” has gradually been replaced by “climate crisis”, which indicates that the planet has entered an emergency state. In this issue of SHARE, “Climate and the Poor” was adopted as the theme to remind the Christian communities about the group of people who are hit the hardest by the climate crisis. In “Back to the Bible”, we pointed out that caring for the created world is crucial in our beliefs. We have an article on our supporter’s experience of choosing a lifestyle that reduces carbon footprints, and another article about life education for Ethiopian youths written by our staff.

 

[“SHARE” OCT – DEC 2019 ] FOCUS 

Written by: Edward Lai (Senior Communications Officer)

 

The world experienced the hottest month ever in July [1]. In fact, 2015 to 2019 may have been the hottest 5 years in human history. [2]

 

In recent years, the United Nations (UN) [3] has issued several warnings on the imminent peril of climate crises induced by human activities. Under the same climate crisis, the threats borne by the rich and the poor are totally different. As pointed out by the experts at the UN [4], the rich can use money to mitigate the impacts of global warming, but the poor are almost powerless. They are left to bear the brunt of rising temperature, such as drought, famine and infectious diseases. CEDAR has been carrying out disaster relief and disaster risk reduction in various developing countries in Asia and Africa. In India, especially, we witnessed the severity of the impact of climate crisis on the poor.

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Environment protection: All about Love and Justice

(Photo taken in Kurigram District of northern Bangladesh)

Written by Tony Chan (Senior Partnership Development Officer)

 

Friends asked me, “Your organisation (CEDAR Fund) is for poverty alleviation. Why does it actively promote environment protection?”

 

This is closely related to CEDAR’s understanding of poverty. We believe that poverty is resulted from an impaired relationship. In the beginning of creation, relationships between man and God, man and man, and man and nature were good. However, man sinned and disobeyed God, and even exploited others and the nature for their own benefits. Those who were exploited became the poor.

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EMERGENCY RELIEF TO FLOOD AFFECTED INDIAN COMMUNITIES COMPLETED, CEDAR SUPPORTED 13,000 FAMILIES IN KERALA

“I hope to resume my work in the fields after the floodwater drains away, so that I can put food on the table.”

 

That was the wish of a flood-affected farmer in the southern Indian state of Kerala. In August 2018, a devastating flood struck Kerala causing over 480 deaths and an economic loss of US$2.8 billion. As the flood victims go through a difficult time of recovery from natural disaster, CEDAR reached out and provided relief aid to them through EFICOR*, our long-term partner in India. Until 27 November 2018, 13,060 families have been benefited from our support. They received relief materials included rice, cooking oil, bath soaps, clothes, and bed-sheets, enough for each household’s use for 1.5 months**.

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Cherishing the Creation and Praying for the Wounded

[4th Week “Micah Sunday” Prayer]

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.” (Psalm 8:3-8)

Dear God, you are our creator and the owner of all things. You tasked us to manage your creation according to your rules and laws, tending to and mending the earth and all living things.

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Hope Maintained in Times of Disaster

[ ‘SHARE’ May-Jun 2015 ] FOCUS ~ MINISTRY

Battered by Cyclone Pam, the South Pacific island of Vanuatu looks as if it has come to the end of the world…

The extremist group Islamic State (ISIS) kills men, rapes and snatches girls as ‘war trophies’, and forces boys to undergo military training…

The harder it gets, the tougher they become

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