From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org


Church World Service Representative Reports Following Baghdad


From Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>
Date Fri, 09 May 2003 15:12:08 -0700

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES WITH BAGHDAD
CHILDRENS HEALTH ASSESSMENT TEAM  -
AVAILABLE IN U.S. SELECTED DAYS THROUGH 5/23

War Against Disease, Hunger Continues for Iraqis, Especially Children,
Church World Service Representative Reports Following Baghdad Visit

If health situation doesnt improve soon, more children under five could
die,
say humanitarian agencies

For Photos and More Stories: Visit
www.lwr.org/allourchildren/photos/index.html

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - 5/9/03 - Following a week-long assessment visit to Baghdad,
the global humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) is reporting that
while major combat operations in Iraq have ended, the war against disease
and hunger continues for the Iraqi people - especially Iraqs children.

Amman, Jordan-based CWS Emergency Response Consultant Steve Weaver reported
a high incidence of diarrhea among children, overcrowding in hospitals and
clinics, and a general lack of sources of protein. According to UNICEF,
Weaver said, ninety percent of children coming to Baghdads Central Child
Hospital have diarrhea.   Weaver spent April 23-May 5 in Baghdad.

Baghdad Central Child Hospital is receiving 2,000 patients a day, said
Jonathan Frerichs of Lutheran World Relief, who traveled with Weaver. The
hospital has so far had to bury 100 people in its garden, he said.

One pediatric hospital they visited saw its patient load increase from 40 to
140 in just 10 days, Weaver reported.  Even before the war, UNICEF reported
that the average Iraqi child suffered 14 episodes of diarrhea per year.

The best passport for travel to deprived areas is anti-diarrhea medicines,
or other cures for the age-old plagues that take high tolls on human life,
said Frerichs, also press officer for Action By Churches Together (ACT).

We saw beds shared by two or three children, with their mothers alongside.
Many women had babies. Many patients were on cots or blankets on the ground,
overcrowded and making do, Weaver related. That hospital needs 50 beds
with sheets and blankets immediately.

To help meet those needs, Church World Service and its partner agencies
announce they are providing $75,000 additional in their ongoing $1 million
All Our Children Campaign, funding medicines and medical supplies for
pediatric hospitals in Baghdad.  CWS is a founding member of the
multi-agency All Our Children Campaign, established before the war to
benefit the severe and longstanding health crisis among Iraqs children.

According to UN and other sources, between 500,000 to 1 million children
have died in Iraq since 1991. The death rate of children under 5 is reported
as 2.5 times greater than in 1990.

Since December 2002, the All Our Children Campaign has provided $268,800 in
medicine, medical equipment and supplies to pediatric hospitals and clinics.

New $75,000 Project for Baghdads Institutionalized, Street Children and
Orphans

The latest All Our Children allocation funds a fourth and fifth project in
the campaign, totaling nearly $75,000, with both projects designated to
benefit street children, orphans and other institutionalized children, and
those separated from their families by the war - among the most vulnerable
of the countrys population.

One $60,000 project, being administered in Baghdad by German-based NGO
Architects for People In Need-Iraq (AFP), will supply badly needed medical
examination tables, instrument tables, refrigerators for medicine storage,
supplies such as syringes, eye drops, bandages and surgical gloves, and
numerous types of medicines.

The All Our Children contribution will fund fully one fourth of APNs
medical care project. The funds will assist 9,100 children in the APN
programs first phase, aimed at identifying and treating children with
chronic and untreated medical conditions.

Clinics that are being reactivated include Habibiya 1, Habibiya, Al Safaa 1
and New Baghdad. The APN clinics are seeing hundreds and hundreds of
patients a day, CWS Weaver reported.  They are overflowing with patients
coming for medical care.  They are seeing a tremendous amount of dysentery
and other water-borne illnesses.

Another $15,000 project, to be administered by NGO Enfants du Monde (EMDH)
in Baghdad, will address similar needs and will attempt to identify and
register children separated from their families, aiming to reunite children
with their families as fast as possible.

President Bush says the United States will see the war on terrorism to the
end, commented Church World Service Executive Director the Rev. John L.
McCullough, New York City.  We also have to see our humanitarian
responsibilities to the end.  The war against hunger and disease continues
for the Iraqi people.

U.S. and aid officials agree that currently there is no humanitarian
  crisis in Iraq, which means people are not on the verge of death, said
CWS Emergency Response Director Rick Augsburger, New York City. But there
is severe humanitarian need that, if not met quickly, could result in a
higher mortality rate for children and others who are vulnerable.

CWS Weaver says chronic diseases being reported among children in Baghdad
include diarrhea and vomiting, believed caused by dysentery and amoebic
dysentery, typhoid, epilepsy, iron deficiency, anemia, skin diseases
including scabies, chicken pox, measles, and burns by benzene or gas.

 From the Baghdad assessment team, Frerichs reported that, beyond the
imposing monuments of Baghdads remaining skyline, lie the unauthorized,
hidden showcases of poverty newly accessible on the outskirts of town.
There, Frerichs described, are the millions who live in and around Saddam
City-mostly Shiites who migrated from the south and who were marginalized by
the previous regime.

In one of those communities, the community of Hai El Mahdi, the assessment
team reports that they saw mothers whose infants did not hold up their heads
and other signs of severe malnutrition. One of the first people you meet,
Frerichs recalled, is a child standing with a bandaged foot on a large
piece of dung.

CWS Weaver and his colleagues have visited a number of health care
facilities in Baghdad, and report that, while health care workers are doing
what they can to provide services and return to work, chaos remains in the
city.

One psychiatric hospital the team visited was looted down to the light
switches, wires, and windows, with the patients still there, Weaver
reported.

Weaver also noted that, across all populations, while there appeared to be
plenty of flour, noodles, and rice, There is a lack of protein.

Weaver and Frerichs were accompanied during the Baghdad assessment by Menno
Weibe, Mennonite Central Committee, Amman, Jordan and Edward Miller,
Mennonite Central Committee.  Weaver subsequently flew to the United States
May 6 for a brief home leave.

NGO partners in the All Our Children Campaign include CWS, Jubilee Partners,
the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), the National Council of Churches
[USA] (NCC), Oxfam America, Sojourners, and Stop Hunger Now.

Church World Services participation in the All Our Children Campaign
continues the international agencys decade-plus commitment to assisting the
ongoing needs of the Iraqi people. CWS has provided more than $3.8 million
since 1991 for UN-sanctioned humanitarian assistance in Iraq.

As part of its own $1.5 million appeal for the Iraqi people, launched prior
to the wars outbreak, CWS has already sent a $110,000 grant to its on the
ground partner the Middle East Council of churches (MECC).  4,000 CWS
blankets are scheduled for shipment into Iraq this week.

During Iraqs reconstruction and rehabilitation, CWS will continue to focus
on health needs, especially those of children, women, the elderly and
low-income people with inadequate access to health care.

CWS Executive Director John L.	McCullough says that because of CWS local
partners and church relationships, we are able to continue providing
assistance within Iraq regardless of conditions in the country.

McCullough adds that the agency can also serve in an independent and
impartial manner, because CWS chose not to be part of humanitarian
assistance that was part of an effort organized or coordinated by the U.S.
military. Fortunately, he adds, the local partners we work with are also
able to administer to the community independently from the U.S. military.

Church World Service is a global humanitarian agency of 36 member
denominations, working 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.
###

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

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 


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