ELCA supports flood recovery in Europe's Balkan Peninsula

 CHICAGO (ELCA) – The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has participated in flood-recovery efforts for more than a year in Europe's Balkan Peninsula, providing humanitarian assistance to families, farmers and others.

In May 2014, torrential rain produced floods killing dozens of people and affecting 22 percent of Serbia's population. The storm also killed 23 people and affected 39 percent of the population in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In response, the ELCA provided funds donated to Lutheran Disaster Response to support a winterization program of Church World Service (CWS). The program is designed to sustain families and communities through the winter and beyond. Although governments and worldwide relief agencies responded promptly, many families and communities remain in need.
Through the "ELCA's generous financial support of $140,000, we reached out to those left behind and those unable to access any kind of service and assistance," said Dr. Vitaly Vorona, ELCA program director for Lutheran Disaster Response – International.
In 2015, Vorona met with CWS staff in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to witness the work accomplished through the winterization program.
"We are, once again, extremely grateful for the ELCA's support," wrote Donna Derr, director of CWS' Development and Humanitarian Assistance, in an Aug. 24, 2015, email to Vorona.
"We reached 227 households with 251 items of assistance: 46 households received food and hygiene assistance, 104 received emergency heating assistance; 60 farmers whose crops were lost received seeds to ensure this year's harvest; 11 households received assistance for early agricultural recovery; and 30 households received reconstruction materials and help in hiring a qualified workforce to help them rebuild," Derr wrote.
According to Jovana Savic, communications and program manager for CWS Europe, "More than a year after the floods, many families still remain in an acute state of emergency."
"Many of the towns and communities devastated by floods suffered from chronic poverty and economic uncertainty even before the disaster and many families were left to rebuild their entire livelihoods anew. Recovering from the last year's floods will be a long-term process taking many months to return the affected areas to their previous condition and probably years before we see real economic development," said Savic.
About "half of the total population affected by the flood reside in rural areas, and over two thirds of rural households identify agricultural activity as a source of income," said Savic. "Agriculture is considered to be the biggest employer in the rural areas and the main contributor to the rural population's food security. All across the region, the impact on the land, especially crops have been destructive, leading to great production losses and substantial losses to farmers. In many of the affected areas, almost the entire production of crops has been lost just before the harvest. Although CWS and ELCA worked to revive some of the livelihoods, the needs are still great."
Derr said that there are households "faced with food insecurity. In all of the areas, many businesses closed for good after the floods, leaving many (people) jobless in an increasingly shrinking job market. This led to the increase of urban poverty rates and many people who are now stranded, with diminishing resources and with impeded access to food. Unfortunately, we do expect many of the households to be in dire need of food and heating assistance this year as well. All of the communities we worked in now see the revival of agriculture as their absolute priority." Derr added that CWS would seek further collaboration with the ELCA to meet the continued needs of people affected by floods in the Balkan Peninsula.
Information about Lutheran Disaster Response is available at http://www.elca.org/en/Our-Work/Relief-and-Development/Lutheran-Disaster-Response.