The local AME church yesterday launched a cash campaign to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

A church spokesman said that $17,000 has already been collected for the cause from local church members but the campaign will continue until the end of September.

The church announced that the Bishop for the region had asked the Bermuda branch to form a committee to raise funds. Presiding Elder Rev. Malcolm Eve, Rev Wilbur Lowe Jr, Rev. Ruth Van Lowe Smith, lay organisation president John Smith, missionary society president Linda Smith and Lovette Brangman are the members of the committee.

Monies raised in Bermuda will be sent to the AME main office in Philadelphia where items will be purchased for the victims.

?We are asking for finances only as the victims are scattered,? the spokesman said. ?Already the AME church has donated $35,000 and a million bottles of water.?

The AME church is strong in the Delta region and according to the spokesman almost all of them were destroyed in the Hurricane.