The Lutheran World Federation has been working to revamp how it responds to disasters and emergencies within the countries and regions of the world in which it works. One of the first steps in the process has been to set up disaster “hubs” in 2012 in areas of the world that are disaster prone. The trial for this was carried out in Eastern Africa with the hope that through pre-positioned funds and resources the response to disasters could be swifter and more efficient, thus leading to more lives saved. This work was strongly supported by the ELCA. The two new hubs will be in Kathmandu, covering South and South-East Asia,and El Salvador and Haiti, covering Latin America and the Caribbean.
The LWF has also released a newsletter to help keep people up-to-date on this work. The first of these came out at the end of March and gives a quick overview of the program, the work in Eastern Africa, the two new hubs and a training conference that will happen in May in Nairobi, where the ELCA will be a participant.
This is an exciting new direction of work within our international disaster response and should be lifted up as often as possible. I highly recommend taking the time to familarize yourself to this work by reading the LWF Emergency Response Newsletter (March 2012).
