21.07.2021

African churches donate over 20,000 euros for flooding victims in Germany

Clean-up work in the badly affected Wuppertal district of Beyenburg. The historic half-timbered houses have become partially uninhabitable due to the massive flooding.

At the spillway of the Beyenburg Dam, considerable amounts of water still flow out every day.

In the historic core of Wuppertal-Beyenburg: Apartment furnishings now stand on the roadside as bulky waste. (Photos: M. Pauly/UEM)

Following an appeal for donations on July 19, 2021 in favor of the victims of the recent storm disaster in western Germany, the United Evangelical Mission (UEM) is transferring a total of 45,000 euros as diaconal emergency aid to the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland (EKiR) and Evangelical Church of Westphalia (EKvW). Both regional churches are members of UEM and have been severely affected by the recent flood disaster.

Among the largest donors, with over 20,000 euros, are 15 African UEM member churches from Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania. Shortly after the disaster, numerous African and Asian members of the international communion of churches sent their messages of solidarity to Germany.

In view of the humanitarian support from the churches of the global South for the victims of the flood disaster in Germany, UEM General Secretary Rev. Volker Martin Dally says: "At this painful moment, the saying of a bishop from Tanzania comes true: No church is too poor to give help and no church is too rich to receive help."

Further donations for the victims of the storm disaster are to be transferred to the donations account of the joint diaconal work "Diakonie Rheinland-Westfalen-Lippe".

Martina Pauly (UEM spokesperson)