wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] PDA sends $100,000 to Iran to aid quake survivors

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Note #8060 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

PDA sends $100,000 to Iran to aid quake survivors
04008
January 9, 2004

PDA sends $100,000 to Iran to aid quake survivors

Church appeals for financial support of continuing relief efforts

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA), responding to last
month's devastating earthquake in Iran, has distributed $100,000 in
humanitarian assistance.

PDA also has issued a churchwide appeal for money in support of its
continuing relief efforts.

The money is part of $150,000 earmarked for the quake-torn region. A tremor
that measured 6.6 on the Richter scale of ground motion struck the ancient
city of Bam on Dec. 26, leveling most of the town, killing an estimated
30,000 people and destroying a historic 2,000 year-old fortress near the city
in southeastern Iran.

PDA is sending $50,000 to the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), and
$50,000 to Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). Most of the money will be used to buy
food, tents and other shelter and relief supplies, said Susan Ryan, the PDA
coordinator.

PDA and both those groups are partners in Action by Churches Together (ACT),
an alliance of churches and relief agencies whose headquarters is in Geneva,
Switzerland. Ryan said PDA is working closely with its partners in the area
as they continue assessing the needs of the people in the affected area,
where 80 percent of the mud-brick and straw buildings are believed to have
been destroyed.

Thousands of Iranians have been sleeping outdoors or in tents because of
aftershocks that raised fear of further disasters. Temperatures have dropped
to near freezing most nights since the earthquake.

PDA coordinates the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s disaster-response operations
in the United States and around the world.

"There has been extensive sharing of information and trip reports among all
of the ACT alliance members, allowing us to be effective and strategic in our
response," Ryan said. "PDA has been asked to take the lead in doing the
psychosocial assessment. This will be done jointly with Norwegian Church Aid
and the Middle East Council of Churches."

Ryan said money going to the MECC will be channeled through Church World
Service (CWS). Some will be used to pay for an earlier CWS shipment of
medical supplies.

CWS is the relief, development, and refugee-assistance ministry of 36
Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations in the United States.

Of the PDA money, $50,000 will come from the One Great Hour of Sharing
offering and $100,000 from designated funds in PDA's general relief account,
Ryan said. The MECC was originally to receive $10,000, she said, but the
amount was increased on the basis of revised needs assessments.

On Jan. 6, MECC delivered 15,120 cans of jam and other canned food to the
area, according to its Web site. It also sent 13,664 cans of cooking oil and
3,812 tins of canned fish, and expects to have 500 tents ready for delivery
on Jan. 10.

Norwegian Church Aid recently dispatched a shipment of stoves and 400 large
tents from Jordan to the Bam area.

Iranian-born Mehdi Abhari, Presbyterian liaison to church partners in Iran,
is expected to leave for the region on Jan. 15 to join the international
relief effort.

Presbyterian Ann Huntwork, a retired missionary who served in Iran, may visit
the affected region to assess survivors' psychosocial needs. PDA is trying to
secure a visa for Huntwork, 72.

Ryan said Huntwork, whose background is in social work, would work in
partnership with the MECC. She and her husband, Bruce, worked as missionaries
in Iran for 10 years between 1957 and 1972.

 "I'm really grateful for that opportunity," said Huntwork, a member of
Westminster Presbyterian Church in Portland, OR. "Anything that I could ever
do to make life easier for people in Iran, I would do. I love the country
very much."

Financial contributions for Iranian earthquake relief can be made through
congregations or mailed to the Presbyterian Center, Central Receiving
Service, Section 300, Louisville, KY 40289. Specify designated account number
#9-2000077. To make a gift with a credit card, call PresbyTel toll-free at
(800) 872-3283, or visit PDA's secure Web site at:
http://www.pcusa.org/pda/response/middleeast/iran-appeal2004.htm.

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