GLOBAL PROGRAM UPDATE: EMERGENCY RELIEF
NAZARENE COMPASSIONATE MINISTRIES
Your Impact Through Emergency Relief When disasters and crises strike, those who are the most vulnerable are often impacted the most. Nazarene Compassionate Ministries enables holistic, long-term response that extends far beyond the initial crisis. Together with local Nazarene churches, NCM is able to immediately to care for those who are displaced and hurting. Emergency response programs are holistic and address physical needs—including safe shelter, food, necessities, and access to clean water—as well as educational, spiritual, and economic burdens. Emergency response through the Church of the Nazarene is truly global. In Sri Lanka and Nepal, self-help groups are helping families not only recover but also plan for the future. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nazarene ministries in every world region have fed those who are hungry. All over the world, long-term projects empower Nazarene churches to respond before, during, and after emergencies.
Nazarenes in Albania are responding to both the earthquake and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stories from Albania
More than 60,000 people were served through nine new major disaster response projects in eight countries in 2019.
Nearly 400 people in 30 countries received training to build skills and capacity to respond during a crisis in 2019.
In November 2019, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit Albania. Neighborhoods were reduced to rubble, and many of those buildings still standing were later declared unsafe and condemned. Despite damage to church buildings, the Church of the Nazarene responded by providing food, shelter, clothing, personal care products, and more for those who were now living in tents. The earthquake came at the beginning of winter, when living without adequate shelter could be life-threatening. In one village, 25 percent of the homes were condemned by December. There, the Nazarene church provided hot meals every day at noon until families could get into permanent shelters. One couple came to the church for the first time, explaining that no one else had come to help them yet. “I felt hope and peace while I was with you,” the husband told the church staff. When the COVID-19 pandemic began just a few months after the earthquake, Albania was once again plunged into crisis. Through it all, Nazarene churches have continued to care for their communities through distributions of food, hygiene products, and other essentials.
1,440 volunteers were directly involved in emergency response during 2019.
176 new projects (and counting) are currently addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learn more at ncm.org/emergencyrelief