News Briefs for September 2, 2021
News reports from Humboldt County, California; the Western Balkans; New Zealand; Southern Adventist University and Solomon Islands:
According to Redwood News on August 31, a fire shelter in Willow Creek, Humboldt County, California, had to be evacuated as the Knob Fire in the area had burned through 1,000 acres with 0% containment. Evacuees were brought to the Adventist church in McKinleyville, another community in Humboldt county.
The decision to evacuate was made by The American Red Cross Disaster program when the fire began to burn just two miles outside Willow Creek.
From an ADRA press release:
Up to 15,000 people in the Western Balkans will receive health checkups, hygiene services and COVID-19 information through the “Leave No One Behind” project coordinated by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Serbia.
Designed to combat the spread of COVID-19 among society’s most vulnerable groups, the effort will benefit people without permanent homes, members of the impoverished Roma minority, and people living in remote areas. The “Leave No One Behind” project will be implemented in Serbia, Albania and Bulgaria.
Adventist Record reports that South Pacific Division secretary Pastor Mike Sikuri is part of a COVID-19 vaccination campaign in New Zealand.
“Pastor Sikuri is among a number of Pasifika leaders featured in posters and billboards in the “Covid Champions” campaign that’s being run by the Tangata Atumotu Trust, a non-government organisation supporting Pasifika communities. The campaign is aimed at encouraging Pacific peoples to consider vaccination as a way of protecting their communities,” reports Adventist Record.
From NAD News:
Southern Adventist University has launched a partnership with Equal Chance for Education (ECE), a Tennessee-based scholarship program that helps provide Hispanic individuals with an equal opportunity to achieve the American dream by completing college. Incoming college students may qualify for an ECE scholarship of up to $6,000 per year if they have a GPA of at least 3.0, are ineligible for federal funding, and have a defined career goal.
This partnership came about thanks to scholarship recipient and incoming first year student Julena Camarena. When Camarena applied for an ECE scholarship and was accepted, she was disappointed to find that her dream school, Southern Adventist University, was not partnered with ECE. She asked if ECE would consider working with Southern, and to her surprise, they agreed. Since then, Southern and ECE have formed a partnership that will help financially insecure students find the funding they need to pay for college expenses.
Earlier today, Adventist Record reported that a fire that started around 4 am at Tenakoga Adventist High School in Solomon Islands had destroyed two classrooms, two science labs and some offices. The cause of the fire is unknown and no lives were lost.
“The fire spread so quickly we couldn’t save any resources, or desks and chairs that have been donated,” said teacher Chareen Simbe, according to Adventist Record.
“Our teachers couldn’t save their students’ work. Most of the community came to help us put out the fire. Thankfully they were able to save the other classroom wing which is only metres away.”