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GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA
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March 27, 2003

IOCC COORDINATES AID WITH CHURCH PARTNERS IN IRAQ & JORDAN

Amman,	Jordan	(IOCC) -- With a humanitarian crisis looming in Baghdad and
elsewhere  in  Iraq,  International  Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is
working with its church partners to arrange distributions of emergency food
and medicines in Iraq in the coming days and weeks.

IOCC   Chief  Operating  Officer  David  Holdridge  is	in  Amman,  Jordan,
coordinating  IOCC's  response	with  the  Middle  East Council of Churches
(MECC)	and  its member jurisdictions. The MECC has 44 distribution centers
set up in churches and mosques in and around Baghdad.

Holdridge  said  humanitarian  needs already are emerging in northern Iraq,
where  300,000 to 400,000 people have been displaced, and in Baghdad, where
people are suffering from a lack of basic medical care.

"You  have  an impending crisis," he said. "You have a population-children,
the elderly, the frail-that is becoming traumatized. There's no doubt about
that. You can imagine what that bombing does night after night to people."

Especially  vulnerable	are people with respiratory ailments because of the
smoke  from  oil fires and fires caused by the bombardment, Holdridge said.
"You're going to see a dramatic increase in healthcare problems," he said.

Holdridge  said IOCC, consistent with its practice in other countries, will
work to build the capacity of local Orthodox churches in and around Baghdad
to provide assistance to their surrounding communities.

"Any  sort  of	distribution program with the (Orthodox) Church will need a
strong	capacity-building  component built into it," he said. "You find the
Orthodox community all over Iraq, but it's a small community."

Among	the   estimated   125,000  Orthodox  Christians  in  Iraq  are	the
parishioners  of an Antiochian Orthodox congregation in Baghdad. The Syriac
Orthodox  Church  has  36  congregations  in  Iraq with an estimated 45,000
members,  and  the  Armenian  Apostolic Church has 12 congregations with an
estimated   20,000   parishioners,   according	 to   the  World  Christian
Encyclopedia.

Christians  in	Iraq  make  up	about  3  percent of the population in this
predominantly  Muslim  country.  Most  Christians  in  Iraq  belong  to the
Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church.

IOCC will seek to train and deploy workers from Iraqi parish communities to
assist vulnerable Iraqis of all religious and ethnic backgrounds, Holdridge
said.

In  response to the Iraq crisis, IOCC, the official humanitarian aid agency
of  Orthodox  Christians,  is appealing for $1 million to provide emergency
relief,  live-saving  medicines and medical supplies to suffering people in
the Middle East.

IOCC has worked in the Middle East since 1997 and currently has programs in
the  Holy Land and Lebanon. Since 1992, IOCC has distributed more than $160
million in relief and development assistance in 21 countries.

To help in providing relief, call IOCC's donation hotline toll-free
at 1-877-803-4622, make a gift on-line at www.iocc.org/iraq, or
mail a check or money order to IOCC, "Middle East Crisis,"
P.O. Box 630225, Baltimore, Md. 21263-0225.

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