wfn.org | Armenia Awaits New UMCOR Staff

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (21
notes).

Note 21 by UMNS on April 16, 1997 at 15:51 Eastern (3748 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

Contact:  Joretta Purdue                        209(10-21-71B){21}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722          April 16, 1997

NOTE: This story may be used a sidebar to story #208 {20}.

Armenia mission challenges
new UMCOR field manager

     WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- His first day on the job as head of
mission for a country challenged by natural disaster, armed
conflict and economic and political collapse -- all in the last 10
years -- found Terry Wollen fielding questions about his duties in
Armenia.
     "We're trying to work ourselves out of a job," said the
former Kansas City, Kans., veterinarian who had worked in
livestock reproduction for 25 years.
     Turning everything over to the indigenous people is the goal
of all development work, he explained. First though, large tasks
lie ahead.
     Wollen and his wife, Judy, formerly program director at St.
Paul's United Methodist Church in Kansas City, are in transit to
Armenia, where he will be head of mission for the United Methodist
Committee on Relief (UMCOR).
     As a volunteer with Heifer Project International for 20
years, Wollen has given his services to livestock-related projects
in Asia, Latin America, South America and Poland.
     Now, as staff, he will head a team whose purpose it is to
help the Armenian people "monetize" their society. As a result of
all that has happened, ordinary commerce is not taking place, he
explained.
     Armenia was hit by a devastating earthquake Dec. 7, 1988.
More that 55,000 people were killed. Whole towns and villages were
destroyed. Many have not been rebuilt. Some 250,000 people are
still in temporary living situations -- in a country the size of
the state of Maryland.
     Shelly Sutherland, a UMCOR emergency services staff worker
who was in Armenia for six months in 1995, joined in, mentioning
that Armenia is a Christian country surrounded by the Muslim
countries of Turkey, Iran, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The religious-
political differences tended to impede relief to land-locked
Armenia, she added.
     The country had been part of the Soviet Union but declared
independence in 1991 at the same time as other nearby Soviet
republics. With only about 10 percent of its land suitable for
agriculture, Armenia had been largely a manufacturing country. Its
manufacturing economy collapsed with the end of the Soviet Union,
which had provided markets for the goods.
     Intensification of an armed conflict with Azerbaijan 1992-94
caused further dislocation of the populace. The two countries are
historic enemies and do not trade with each other, Sutherland
added. 
     Unfortunately, Azerbaijan was the source of the energy,
mostly petroleum, used in Armenia, she said. Now Armenia has just
put an old-Soviet-style nuclear reactor on line just 30 miles from
the capital.
     The Armenians are accustomed to a hard life and they are
proud of their faith, which they believe is the oldest form of
Christianity, Sutherland said.
     Wollen promised that UMCOR will continue to channel medicines
to the facilities there and work with nutrition especially among
women, children and the elderly.
     The first step toward monetization will entail setting up
distribution systems including brokers and markets for vegetable
oil contributed by a U.S. government agency. Money generated will
be recycled in the local economy, Wollen said.
                              #  #  #

NOTE:  Wollen and his wife are in training and preparatory
meetings in the Washington area until mid May when they will fly
to Armenia. 

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