wfn.org | NCC Travels to Bosnia

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Wendy S. McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227
Internet:  news@ncccusa.org

50NCC5/19/98                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC EMERGENCY RESPONSE STAFF AND SUPPORTERS 
TRAVEL TO BOSNIA

 NEW YORK, May 19 ---- Seven staff and supporters of 
the National Council of Churches (NCC) Emergency Response 
Program will travel to Bosnia May 20-26 to visit Church 
World Service humanitarian projects and observe the current 
conditions there firsthand.

 Church World Service (CWS) is the refugee assistance, 
humanitarian response and human development ministry of the 
NCC.  CWS responds to human need in more than 70 countries 
around the world, including the U.S.

 "The group will familiarize themselves with the 
situation in Bosnia, particularly the continued needs of 
people and institutions recovering from war, will visit 
with Church World Service staff and programs, and will 
witness the delivery of school and health kits to schools 
in the greater Sarajevo area," said the Rev. Paul Wilson, 
Director of the NCC's Europe Office and a minister in the 
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

 The stops will include refugee camps in Konjic, where 
the visitors will face "probably the most critical issue 
people in the Balkans are facing - that of refugees and 
people who have been internally displaced by war," said 
Rev. Wilson.  "At issue is how to create hospitable 
communities for people who are a minority population but 
want to return home.  As religious people, we will advocate 
for radical hospitality, which goes counter to the 
nationalistic fervor that is prevalent in the region."

Other visits will include an orthopedic clinic where 
prostheses are manufactured and the community of Nahorevo, 
where visitors will lunch with local people who received 
cows through a unique development project begun in 1996.  
The CWS cow project provided cows for families forcibly 
displaced from their homes.  Because a cow can move, it was 
considered an ideal gift to help families toward self 
sufficiency.  The recipients repay their gift in milk and 
cheese through a local charity that will pass it on to some 
of Sarajevo's neediest.

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NCC5/19/98
BOSNIA TRIP/Page 2

 "We will also meet with representatives from our 
partners in the region, which include the Red Crescent 
Society, the Red Cross and La Benevolencija, a Jewish non-
governmental organization and with governmental 
representatives form the UNHCR and USAID," Rev. Wilson 
said.

 Since March 1993, CWS has given $19 million in 
humanitarian aid to war-ravaged Bosnia.  For the first few 
years, CWS concentrated on emergency assistance such as 
blankets, food, health and school kits and clothing, 
including a project providing children's underwear and 
shoes.  Since 1996, CWS has moved from direct service to 
longer term development projects in order to empower people 
back to work including agricultural projects, textiles and 
light manufacturing.  CWS has financed micro-enterprise 
projects including: egg, fish and sheep farms, a beekeeping 
operation, an industrial quicklime production project, a 
home-based sewing project, a computer training project and 
a metal fabrication plant.

 "Almost all of the beneficiaries of our projects are 
victims of war," Rev. Wilson said.  "Through this kind of 
development, carried out with our partners in the region 
and designed to reestablish jobs and facilities, we are 
trying to help make peace more attractive than war."

 In addition to Rev. Wilson, others who will travel to 
Bosnia include: Ms. Linda Hartke (Evangelical Lutheran 
Church in America), Director of Operations for CWS/NCC; Ms. 
Donna Derr, International Disaster Response Consultant for 
the CWS/NCC Emergency Response Office; the Rev. Kermit 
DeGraffenreidt, an AME Zion minister and member of the CWS 
Europe Committee; the Rev. Johnny Wray, Director of the 
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Week of Compassion; 
Mr. Gary Barnard, member of the CC (Disciples) Week of 
Compassion Committee, and Ms. Linda Petrucelli, Executive 
for the Global Sharing of Resources for the United Church 
Board for World Ministries.

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