wfn.org | Shipment of Soap for Baghdad Pediatric Hospitals Due to Arrive Today

["Natl Council of Churches/Church World Service News"]

National Council of Churches/Church World Service
Contact: NCC NEWS 212-870-2252

MEDIA ADVISORY				FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 31, 2003

SHIPMENT OF SOAP FOR PEDIATRIC HOSPITALS DUE TO ARRIVE IN BAGHDAD TODAY
Second Round of All Our Children Supplies to Benefit Nearly 15,000 Iraqi
Children

AMMAN, JORDAN - 3/31/03- A shipment of badly needed personal hygiene soap
and laundry detergent for Iraqi children was expected to arrive in Baghdad
today (March 31) as part of the U.S.-based All Our Children campaign, a
multi-agency effort.

The truckload of hygiene supplies originated in Amman, Jordan, and crossed
the border into Iraq this morning, reported Church World Service (CWS), a
founding member of the campaign.  CWS is the global ecumenical humanitarian
agency of the National Council of Churches US (NCC), also an All Our
Children founding member.

The 5.5 metric tons of soap- enough to support the hygiene needs of 14,688
Iraqi children for six months - and 5.8 metric tons of laundry detergent
will be distributed by CARE Iraq to support UNICEFS child nutrition program
in Iraq. .

Church World Service International Emergency Response Consultant in Amman
Steve Weaver says the supplies will be used in UNICEF nutrition
rehabilitation wards in 68 pediatric and district hospitals throughout
southern and central Iraq, as access allows.

To help break the cycle of malnutrition and diarrhea, its important to
ensure good hygiene practices, he explained. The death rate of children
under age five in Iraq is already two and a half times greater than prior to
the Gulf War.

The $1 million All Our Children Campaign is endorsed by former President
Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter.  Besides CWS and the NCC, the All Our
Children campaign partners - all U.S.-based private voluntary
organizations -- are Jubilee Partners, Lutheran World Relief, Mennonite
Central Committee, Oxfam America, Sojourners and Stop Hunger Now.

Weaver said the soap shipment, the second shipment of the All Our Children
campaign, had been delayed a couple of days awaiting determination of
sufficient safety to make the road trip to Baghdad.

 We also received confirmation this week, said CWS Emergency Response
Program Director Rick Augsburger, that a first All Our Children shipment of
$91,000 in medical supplies, which entered Iraq just prior to the wars
outbreak, has been distributed to the Mansour Pediatric and Iskaan Pediatric
Hospitals in Baghdad.

 Weve gotten word from inside Baghdad that we are meeting simple yet
critical needs with the soap and laundry detergent, said Augsburger.  The
children need hygiene, and the hospitals need cleaning supplies. Reports out
of Baghdad are telling us that hospitals remain open, and so far CARE Iraq
has been able to provide some locally purchased bleach.

Augsburger added, The need is great.  When we visited Iraq in 1999, he
recalled, the lack of medical equipment and supplies in hospitals then was
appalling. Conditions certainly havent improved during this conflict.

Launched last year in response to sanctions-related suffering, especially
shortages of medicine and medical supplies, before U.S. bombing of Iraq
began, the All Our Children Campaign represents CWS decade-long, ongoing
commitment to providing humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people, said CWS
Executive Director, the Rev. John L. McCullough.

Whatever happens in Iraq, we know that there will still be a critical need
for medicine and health related items in Iraqi health service institutions,
McCullough concluded, particularly to help improve curative health services
for Iraqi children.

In addition to the All Our Children Campaign, CWS recently issued an appeal
to raise $1.5 million designated for humanitarian response in Iraq, to be
implemented by CWS on the ground partner in the region, the Middle East
Council of Churches (MECC).

CWS has already airlifted 4,500 blankets, valued at $19,170, to MECC in
Amman, Jordan.

Since 1991 CWS has provided more than $3.8 million in UN-sanctioned health
and medical supplies and humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people.

During the 1990s CWS spearheaded a campaign that Iraqi health administrators
said put blankets on every hospital bed in the country.

CWS is also currently working with on the ground partners to support the
needs of displaced persons in Iraq and refugees who may enter Jordan and
Syria.

CWS opposed the U.S. pre-emptive strike on Iraq and will not accept U.S.
government funding for the initial emergency phase of response to the
current conflict. CWS also continues to be a vocal opponent of the U.S.
embedding of humanitarian aid within the military.

56 year-old Church World Service works in partnership with local
organizations in more than 80 countries to support sustainable self-help and
development, meet emergency needs, aid refugees, and address the root causes
of poverty and powerlessness.

John McCullough spent five days in Iraq at the end of January, as member of
a humanitarian research mission to Baghdad, sponsored by the Center for
Economic and Social Rights (CESR).

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Editor:

 If you are listing agencies accepting donations for Iraq-related
humanitarian aid, please include: Church World Service Iraq Humanitarian
Response, Post Office Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515; phone number: (800)
297-1516; website: www.churchworldservice.org.

 If you are listing humanitarian agencies involved in providing
humanitarian aid to the people of Iraq, please list Church World Service
with the contact information above.

 Full text of Church World Service Statement concerning U.S.-led military
intervention in Iraq and backgrounder press kits are available on request,
or can be downloaded from the News Room, www.churchworldservice.org.

 Interviews with CWS spokespeople in New York and Amman, Jordan, on
request.

 All Our Children Web site: www.allourchildren.org

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