The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a 94-year-old humanitarian aid organization that works in over 60 countries worldwide, today announced that it opened an emergency mailbox to collect funds for relief efforts following the May 12 earthquake in the Wenchuan County of southwest China’s Sichuan Province. Funds are being collected on a non-sectarian basis. The efforts are part of JDC’s International Development Program (IDP) which responds to natural and manmade disasters, providing immediate relief and long-term assistance. JDC currently assists three elderly Jews of the region’s estimated 1,500.
“We are quickly working to assess damage and develop partnerships to deal with the area’s most pressing needs,” said Steve Schwager, Chief Executive Officer, JDC.
JDC’s non-sectarian efforts have most recently mobilized to build partnerships and provide aid to those affected by the devastating cyclone in Myanmar on May 2—3. JDC has also provided assistance following the cyclone in Bangladesh, the earthquake in Peru, 2004’s Tsunami in southeast Asia, floods in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, earthquakes in El Salvador, India, Morocco, and Turkey and has helped victims of terror in Turkey, the displaced people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo following the eruption of the Mt. Nyiragongo volcano, and the population of war-torn communities in Kosovo.
