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News & Stories

Global Health

Explore impact stories and learn how your support helps partners strengthen health systems and provide essential care for individuals and communities around the world.

As Global Ministries celebrates World Breastfeeding Week in partnership with UMC health boards, hear from Catherine Norman, health board coordinator in the Sierra Leone Conference.

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For five years, the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta has been working to win the release of Black men and women serving decades-long prison sentences for minor offences. This year, an UMCOR grant provided the means for SCHR to establish a reentry program to help released clients navigate the barriers they need to cross in order to thrive.
UMCOR has awarded $1.56 million to help vulnerable communities cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. These grants enable churches to respond to issues of food insecurity, sanitation and hygiene, and other financial needs.
With guidance from UMCOR’s Disaster Management Coordinator (DMC) program, communities in the Davao, Manila and Baguio Episcopal Areas are better prepared and equipped to weather prolonged disasters.
Seven UMCOR COVID-19 grants from the Sheltering in Love campaign are making a difference through caring Methodist congregations in Brazil. Support in the form of food, rent assistance, masks and protective equipment, and education about the best preventive hygiene are ministries Brazilian Methodists undertake to serve their neighbors.
The United Methodist Committee on Relief and other global United Methodists are intervening in the church’s COVID-19 fight in Liberia.
Bishop John Yambasu of the Sierra Leone Episcopal Area and Megan Klingler, a registered nurse who serves as the Primary Health Care Specialist of the Global Health Unit of United Methodist Global Ministries ...
An interview with Hannah S. Mafunda, Health Coordinator, Zimbabwe Episcopal Area Health Board
Churches use UMCOR Sheltering in Love grants to supply food to immigrant communities across the United States.
As grant requests continue to pour in from the U.S. and around the world, UMCOR has awarded $966,069 in grants in four weeks. Global Ministries has supplemented those funds, bringing the total amount of COVID-19 assistance to $1.3 million.
In response to the current pandemic, UMCOR has launched virtual self-care trainings for U.S. disaster case managers.

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Have questions? Send us an inquiry and we’ll get back to you promptly. Please direct all media inquiries to Susan Clark, chief communications officer for Global Ministries and UMCOR.

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Susan Clark, Chief Communications Officer
media@umcmission.org
800-862-4246

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Six Years, No Solution: A 500-Gallon Tank Carries Hope to West Virginia’s Forgotten

McDowell County is one of the poorest in the U.S., and the communities of Anawalt, Leckie and Gary are some of the hardest hit by the current six-year water crisis. All have Methodist churches that are part of the Welch Charge.

To ease the burden of residents who have to purchase many gallons of drinking water weekly, the Welch Charge contacted the West Virginia Conference Disaster Response Coordinator, Jim McCune, for help. McCune’s United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) connection put him in touch with Global Ministries’ Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program. 

A WASH grant allowed them to obtain a 500-gallon “water buffalo.” The conference disaster response team arranged to fill the portable water buffalo from the Welch water system, the county seat of McDowell, and transport it to Gary, where residents have been supplied with refillable containers. Residents of all three towns can come to get water, and volunteers will also continue deliveries for those who need it. Meanwhile, residents, including church members, continue to advocate state and local officials for a permanent solution to their aging, compromised water infrastructure. Full Story