wfn.org | Profile: "All Our Children" Aid Coordinator, Amman, Jordan

["Carol Fouke" <carolf@ncccusa.org>]

U.S. Church Support Critical in All Our Children Effort, Coordinator Says

By Chris Herlinger
Church World Service

Photo Available: See Below
Related Story: Third Shipment for Iraqi Pediatrics Hospitals Ready in Jordan

April 8, AMMAN, JORDAN - With two shipments of health supplies already
shipped to Iraq from neighboring Jordan and one more pending, the
multi-agency All Our Children (AOC) campaign can point to real
accomplishments, which include delivering $96,387 in medical and health
supplies to help Iraqi children.

But equally satisfying to the campaigns field coordinator is AOCs base of
support, which includes U.S. churches and denominations, ecumenical
agencies, religious groups, private agencies and individual donors.

At a time when funding for humanitarian efforts within Iraq has often been
difficult to come by, support by concerned Americans and churches has made a
crucial difference, said Steve Weaver, who is also a Church World Service
(CWS) International Emergency Response Consultant.

Its been satisfying to be working on a project attempting to do something
positive amidst all of this destruction, said Weaver, who has been based in
Amman, Jordan, since October and has coordinated the field work for AOC
since January.

The AOC campaign is a $1 million, multi-agency effort to provide for medical
and health supplies to Iraqi children. The campaign continues the long-term
commitment of CWS to assist with ongoing humanitarian needs in Iraq,
regardless of the current wars outcome. Church World Service has provided
more than $3.8 million since 1991 for humanitarian assistance in Iraq.

The first AOC shipment supported a $91,000 project -- $86,136 in actual
medical supplies -- to two pediatric hospitals in Baghdad in cooperation
with Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA). The second shipment, in cooperation with
UNICEF, centered on a $47,801 hygiene project for malnourished children --
$35,551 in actual supplies, $10,251 of which was shipped by truck from
Amman, the rest procured in Baghdad.

A third shipment to support a hospital project is pending once crossings
between the border of Jordan and Iraq, now prohibited because of the war,
can resume.

Weaver said he expects the AOC program will expand its work once
unrestricted access to Iraq is permitted and expects he will be spending
much of his time in Iraq once that happens.

For Weaver, 33, a graduate of Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), the
current assignment is the latest of a series of humanitarian assignments for
various church-related agencies, including nearly a years work with the
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Burundi in 1995.

His international experience, which also includes work in Kosovo and Turkey,
continues something of a family tradition: his late father, Dr. R. Clair
Weaver, went on numerous Mennonite-sponsored medical missions to Latin
America when Weaver was growing up, and Weavers first taste of
international work came when he accompanied his father on a trip to Honduras
at ages 15. There was a service ethos in our family, Weaver said.

Weaver, who lives in Lancaster, Pa., has worked for CWS since September
2001, when he helped develop the CWS Emergency Response Programs spiritual
and emotional care program in the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy.

Whether domestically or internationally, Weaver sees the support of U.S.
churches and others in such work as crucial.

 All Our Children is a great project to be working with because its a
way churches, private agencies and individuals wanting to respond to the
problems in this region can help, he said. Its been a part of the world
that those of us from the United States need to respond to in helpful,
thoughtful ways.
(All Our Children partners are: Church World Service, Jubilee Partners,
Mennonite Central Committee, the National Council of Churches, Sojourners,
Lutheran World Relief, Stop Hunger Now and Oxfam America.)
-end-

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

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

Photo of Steve Weaver available on request from Carol Fouke
(news@ncccusa.org)

MEDIA CONTACTS: Carol Fouke/New York; Phone: (212) 870-2252/2227; e-mail:
news@ncccusa.org; Jan Dragin/New York & Boston; Phone: (781) 925-1526;
e-mail: jdragin@gis.net; Chris Herlinger, Amman and New York,
cdherlin@aol.com