Dear friends,
The recent tragedies in China and Burma and their heartbreakingly high number of casualties have many of us wondering how we can do our part to help alleviate some of the suffering. The Middlebury College Chaplain’s Office Web site has a list of disaster relief and development agencies that are working to provide food, water, shelter, medicine and equipment to these most recently devastated areas and to other places in the world where people are suffering and in need. Please go to the disaster relief page to see a list of links you can click on to learn more about each organization.
In addition, Middlebury College's Alliance For Civic Engagement is working with Ecologia to provide aid to China. With headquarters here in Middlebury, Ecologia has as its mission to bring international perspectives and resources to local sustainable development projects and to bring locally based “on the ground” experience back to the world of international decision making. Randy Kritkausky, founding president and CEO of Ecologia, is a Midd parent; advisor to a group of Midd students who originally evolved through an ACE-sponsored winter term workshop, called the China Working Group; and a scholar in residence in Middlebury's environmental studies program.
From the Ecologia Web site: May 14, 2008: "Ecologia’s base of operations in China is Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Our project site is in the mountains west of Chengdu, where the earthquake damage is greatest. We currently have a micro-finance project in this mountainous region and will use this on-the-ground capacity to deliver post emergency relief aid to earthquake survivors. They need support for rebuilding and repairing damaged homes and village infrastructure.
"Our goal is to encourage villagers to engage in reconstruction that will be more earthquake resistant and also more environmentally friendly. We will try to avoid some of the problems of post-Katrina and post-tsunami construction where people rebuilt the same kinds of inappropriate dwellings. In addition, we will use this opportunity to seed the creation of community funds. Reconstruction and repair loans will be repaid to the community trust fund that will then be used to promote environmentally and socially sustainable development."
Thank you for the care that you demonstrate for your global neighbors in their hour of need. Sincerely,
Laurel M. Jordan
Chaplain of the College