wfn.org | CHURCH WORLD SERVICE AMONG GROUPS HONORED AT WHITE HOUSE

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

14NCC1/29/96                 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

 WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 29 ---- Church World
Service was among non-governmental organizations
honored today at the White House for their on-going
efforts to provide humanitarian relief in the former
Yugoslavia.

 Since that conflict's inception four years ago,
CWS has distributed more than $16 million in
humanitarian aid to victims on all sides.  Its
current program includes relief along with support
of local partners' efforts to reconstruct
communities, foster reconciliation and build lasting
peace.

 Church World Service is the relief, development
and refugee assistance ministry of the National
Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
(NCC), whose 33 member denominations (communions)
have a combined constituency of 51 million.

 Church World Service also is among non-
governmental planning partners in the new initiative
announced today by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
focusing on the most vulnerable victims of the
conflict, including women, children and the elderly.
The program will expand the Trauma Recovery Project,
which has been providing assistance to families in
coping with post-traumatic stress.  The initiative
also will include programs to promote reconciliation
and support socio-economic reconstruction in the
former Yugoslavia.

 Representing CWS at today's White House event
were the NCC's President, United Methodist Bishop
Melvin G. Talbert of Sacramento, Calif.; NCC General
Secretary Joan Brown Campbell of New York, and Mary
Ida Gardner, Operations Director, NCC Church World
Service and Witness Unit, New York.

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