CHRISTIAN NONPROFITS PROVIDE MORE HURRICANE RELIEF THAN FEMA
The IPHC Response: Disaster Relief USA (DRUSA)
By: Frank Tunstall
The IPHC Mobile Feeding Kitchen has been in full swing in the Houston area since Sunday morning, September 3rd, and is located at Oasis of Hope, an IPHC church in Webster, Texas. The kitchen is staffed by trained volunteers from the North Carolina and South Carolina conferences. The kitchen served 4,600 meals in just the first two days, according to the IPHC website. The goal of these volunteers is to serve full meals: an entrée, one or two sides, and dessert. DRUSA believes in challenging situations such as these, people greatly appreciate a good, hearty meal.
DRUSA has also deployed to Webster the army field kitchen in Oklahoma City sponsored by the Heartland and New Horizons conferences.
The majority of the meals are being transported to the surrounding areas and delivered to workers and residents in neighborhoods who have already started the clean up and restoration process.
http://constitution.com/data-shows-christian-nonprofits-provided-hurricane-relief-fema/
Christian non-profit organizations have outdone FEMA
By: Constitution.Com September 11, 2017
Christian non-profit organizations have outdone FEMA and provided the vast majority of the relief aid to victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
Faith-based relief groups are responsible for providing nearly 80 percent of the aid delivered thus far to communities with homes devastated by the recent hurricanes, according to USA Today. An alliance of non-profit organizations called National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD), 75 percent of which are faith based, has helped FEMA distribute relief assistance to communities hit by disasters, and assisted families in navigating government aid programs to begin the process of rebuilding.
“About 80 percent of all recovery happens because of non-profits, and the majority of them are faith-based,” Greg Forrester, CEO of NVOAD, told USA Today.
Several individual organizations have aided in the relief operations in major ways as well. Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical disaster relief group led by evangelist Franklin Graham, recently began a relief mission to the Caribbean to help victims of the hurricanes on various islands. Samaritan’s Purse also has ongoing relief operations in Houston and is preparing to aid Florida in the aftermath of Irma….
“FEMA – they have been a big blessing to us, they’re an assistance to us,” Luther Harrison, vice president of North American Ministries for Samaritan’s Purse, told USA Today. “For Hurricane Irma, the majority of our equipment has already been dispatched to Texas … so our office in Canada is bringing their equipment across the border and FEMA was instrumental in helping us clear that with customs and getting all the paperwork done.”
FEMA can not do what it does so well without the cooperation of faith-based non-profit organizations and churches,” Rev. Jamie Johnson, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships, told USA Today. “It’s a beautiful relationship between government and the private sector and it is something to behold.”
