Moving Out

Everyday that we go into our mission office we are confronted with the reality of displaced people living at our doorstep. As we have mentioned to some of you, there is a "Internally Displaced Persons" camp in the cul-de-sac in front of our mission office of about 120 families. Since this camp sprung up a few months after the January 2010 earthquake, we have been scratching our collective heads in order to know what to do about it. For a long time now, aid organizations have been trying to avoid direct assistance in these camps to avoid providing a material incentive for more people to move in. The camps are very miserable places to live--no electricity, no running water, no security, and only fabric or at best cardboard over one's head. Recently, Christian Reformed World Relief Committee has made an effort to empty this camp by providing the inhabitants with $500 USD (this is a government mandated amount) to pay for rental housing in another location. Another $50 USD was given directly to the campers for travel and moving expenses. The vast majority of the families living in the camps have signed contracts with new landlords and are making plans to move out of the cul-de-sac. However, now that the campers have received their grant, they must move out immediately or risk the confiscation of their shelters and possessions by local authorities. Please pray that the campers would follow through with their arrangement and leave the camp as soon as possible. Pray also that they will have the wisdom to make preparations for next year, when their landlord will be demanding another $500 USD in rent and CRWRC will not be able to help them again.