Young people survey flood damage in Gonaves, Haiti. Raging floodwaters brought by Tropical Storm Jeanne killed at least 1,500 people in Haiti. The Primatea’s Fund recently provided $10,000 for relief in the country.
The Partnerships department of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) continue to appeal for donations for Caribbean countries severely affected by hurricanes in September.
The church, responding to calls for relief efforts made by the diocese of the Windward Islands, has set up the Hurricane Ivan Relief Fund to aid Grenada and Jamaica. PWRDF, the church’s relief and development arm, is carrying out its relief efforts with the Caribbean Conference of Churches through Action by Churches Together (ACT). It has released an emergency grant of $5,000 towards relief efforts in Grenada and plans to send $15,000 more to ACT for other affected countries in the Caribbean. It has also provided $10,000 to relief in Haiti after a second hurricane hit that country.
The Canadian Friends to West Indian Christians, a charity which provides financial support to the Anglican church in the province of the West Indies, has also sent a donation of $7,000 towards hurricane relief in the West Indies and the Caribbean. Of this amount, $4,000 will go to Grenada, which was severely affected by Hurricane Ivan. The parish of St. George in the capital of Grenada (also called St. George) took the worst blow, said Canon Christian E. Glasgow, rector of St. Patrick, Grenada.
St. George’s roof collapsed and its rectory walls caved in, said Mr. Glasgow in an interview. He was in Toronto in mid-September to attend a meeting of the Canadian church’s Partners in Mission committee. “All six parishes in Grenada suffered varying degrees of damage,” he said, adding that the diocese would need about $10 to $15 million to rebuild and to recover the loss.
More than 30 people were reported killed in Grenada. Grenada’s prime minister, Keith Mitchell, told BBC that the island was “90 per cent devastated.”
Meanwhile, PWRDF has also responded to the crisis in Haiti, which was plagued by civil unrest earlier this year, followed by devastation from Hurricane Jeanne in September. This brings the fund’s contribution to a total of $32,000 for relief work in Haiti. Earlier this year, the Primate’s Fund responded through ACT with a relief grant of $ 10,000 towards the victims of civil unrest, and a relief grant of $ 12,000 towards the victims of floods and landslides in Haiti.
Donations may be sent to: Anglican Church of Canada/Hurricane Ivan Relief Fund, c/o Claudia Alvarez, 80 Hayden St., Toronto, ON, M4Y 3G2. For more information, contact Ms. Alvarez at (416) 924-9199 ext. 270. For PWRDF, visit www.pwrdf.org or contact Annie Au-Yeung, auyeung@pwrdf.org, to make a donation by credit card.