wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] PDA earmarks $150,000 for Iran earthquake relief

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Note #8054 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

PDA earmarks $150,000 for Iran earthquake relief 03549
December 30, 2003

PDA earmarks $150,000 for earthquake relief aid to Iran

Initial response will help provide survivors with water and shelter

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has committed an initial
$150,000 in emergency relief aid to help survivors of last week's devastating
earthquake in Iran.

Of the money, $50,000 will come from the One Great Hour of Sharing and
$100,000 in designated funds from PDA's general relief account, according to
Susan Ryan, PDA's coordinator.

The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) will receive $10,000 of the PDA
money immediately. The grant will be used to supplement $80,000 in rapid
response funds the council has already received from Action by Churches
Together (ACT).
Money from ACT, a Geneva-based international alliance of churches and relief
agencies, is being used to help purchase emergency shelter supplies and water
tanks for survivors in the city of Bam.

At least 28,000 people were killed and thousands more left homeless or
injured when the 6.6-magnitude earthquake ripped through the ancient city and
surrounding areas on Dec. 26. About 80 percent of the city's mud-brick and
straw buildings were believed destroyed, including two hospitals.

"PDA will be engaged in this effort for months to come," Ryan said.
PDA officials anticipate applying the remaining $140,000 to rebuilding Bam's
community structure through psychosocial services, improving water and
sanitation systems, and meeting the needs of women and children. Committed
funds will be sent as soon as formal plans and budgets are received from the
field, Ryan said.

She said plans are already underway to send a psychosocial assessment team to
the region in the coming weeks in cooperation with the Church of Sweden Aid
and with Norwegian Church Aid.	All response agencies will work under the
coordination and in cooperation with the Iranian Red Crescent Society and the
United Nations.

Plans by PDA also include sending former PC(USA) national staff member Mehdi
Abhari to participate in ACT's relief effort in Iran.

For six months the Iranian-born Abhari, who is skilled in care-giving and
financial accounting, will act as a cultural broker and translator for
various specialists guiding the relief effort.

PDA, which coordinates the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s disaster-response
operations abroad and in the United States, has also issued an appeal for
contributions to help with ongoing humanitarian assistance to the
earthquake-stricken region.

Ryan said a letter of support from the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, PC(USA)
General Assembly stated clerk, is being sent to the Iranian section of the
Pakistan Embassy in Washington, DC.

With hope all but faded for finding more survivors, efforts are shifting to
focus on assisting those who survived the horrific quake that leveled Bam.
Tens of thousands of people are homeless. Many of them are sleeping in tents
donated by government's and international aid agencies. Already, 1,400
international relief workers from 26 countries had converged in Bam,
according to published reports.

"The next critical steps will be to quickly provide survivors with a sense of
control over their lives by organizing them to provide services within the
tent city including restarting schools for children," said Ryan.

Church World Service (CWS), which pledged $30 000 as part of ACT's rapid
response funding, is considering an emergency material airlift of shelter and
hygiene materials. Norwegian Church Aid, an ACT member, said it would ship
400 large tents to the area along with stoves that it had stored in Jordan.

Dozens of relief planes have landed in Bam and in Kerman, the provincial
capital 120 miles to the northwest, including at least eight U.S. Air Force
C-130 cargo planes. The American help came despite long-severed diplomatic
relations and President Bush's naming of Iran as part of an "axis of evil"
with Iraq and North Korea.

The flights were the first U.S. military flights into Iran since an elite
force unsuccessfully attempted to rescue U.S. hostages there in April 1980.

Bam with its 2,000-year-old historic citadel was a major Iranian tourist
attraction. With much of that heritage now reduced to rubble and dust, Iran's
top political and spiritual leaders have pledged to rebuild the desert city,
which formerly had a population of 80,000 people.

Financial contributions for Iranian earthquake relief may be made through
individual congregations or sent to the Presbyterian Center, Central
Receiving Service, Section 300, Louisville, KY 40289. Refer to designated
account number #9-2000081, Middle East. To make a gift with a credit card,
call PresbyTel at 1-800-872-3283 or visit PDA's secure Web site at:
http://www.pcusa.org/pda/response/middleeast/iran-earthquake1203.htm.

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