The storm killed 461 people, injured 46, and left 192 missing, according to the National Disaster Prevention Department. The storm dropped eight feet of rain on the area over three days.
Two hundred people from Taiwan Covenant churches have helped with relief work in several townships, says Caleb Yu, the administrative secretary of the denomination in Taiwan.
That relief work has included:
- Helping victims clean and disinfect their homes
- Providing basic medical services such as simple wound dressing and other services provided by volunteers with medical backgrounds
- Delivering hot food to victims in shelters and along the still-flooded streets
- Leading a children’s camp set up at Jiadong Agricultural School shelter center
- Praying with people in the disaster areas
- Evangelistic meetings that featured karaoke, testimony and prayer
The denomination has posted a video highlighting some of its relief work. To view the video, click here.
The Taiwan Covenant Church has developed a six-month recovery plan, which includes providing 1,000 survivors with two meals per day, as well as after-school tutoring designed to help children in the damaged areas. Instruction will include improving academic performance, offering psychological help, and providing personal hygiene education and family care. More than 100 children will benefit from these services, says Yu. Professional teachers also will provide tutoring to 30 teenagers in the Dongang area.
Survivors can find assistance at a housing recovery workstation. Workers will provide psychological counseling, regular medical services, reading classes, women’s-growth classes, and baking classes. The workstation will include an activity center.
“The work station will become the foundation for a two-year program of evangelization and church transformation,” Yu says.
Yu estimates the recovery work will require $62,000. A special Covenant World Relief (CWR) fund has been established to collect donations. Those interested in making a charitable donation to the Taiwan Relief Fund may do so online by clicking here. Or, checks may be made payable to Covenant World Relief, designated for Taiwan Relief, and mailed to Covenant World Relief, Evangelical Covenant Church, 5101 N. Francisco Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60625. All gifts will be acknowledged for income tax purposes.
